You can feel the love that the author and illustrator of Baby Goes to Market have for West Africa, both of whom grew up there. The vibrant market place leaps out of the page, you can almost smell the fruit for sale and hear the shouts from the market traders. Baby is snuggly wrapped in a papoose on Mama's back and is enjoying the trip to the market, especially when the market traders start giving Baby presents. First bananas, then juicy oranges, then biscuits. Baby eats a little of each and adds the remainder to the shopping basket that Mama carries on her head. Mama must be very strong! After all those treats Baby has a nap and Mama gets a well-deserved taxi ride home. Each page is gloriously filled with tantalising pictures of delicious things to eat and colourful things to buy, and there’s a gentle introduction to simple counting too.
Rhythmic language, visual humour and a bounty of delectable food make this a tale that is sure to whet little appetites for story time. When Baby and Mama go to market, baby is so adorable that the banana seller gives him six bananas. Baby eats one and puts five in the basket, but Mama doesn't notice. As Mama and Baby wend their way through the market stalls, cheeky Baby collects five juicy oranges, four sugary chin-chin biscuits, three roasted sweetcorn, two pieces of coconut ...until Mama notices that her basket is getting very heavy. Poor Baby, she thinks - he must be very hungry by now!
Atinuke is a Nigerian-born author who started her career as an oral storyteller of tales from the African continent. She draws on her recent Yoruba ancestry and her life in West Wales to write stories of contemporary life in Nigeria and in Wales. She is the author of the bestselling Anna Hibiscus series. This is her first venture into non-fiction.
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