When I read the description for #BabyLove: My Toddler Life, I was very intrigued with the overall moral of the story: to put down our phones (and/or other devices) and focus on our loved ones. In this new technology savvy era full of mobile devices and social media, it has now become the norm for parents to share important milestones in their children’s lives via social media. But at what point does it cross the line from occasionally updating family & friends to oversharing? While you are busy taking multiple pictures, uploading to social media, and monitoring how many “likes” the picture of you and little Johnny at the zoo gets, are you in fact missing out on the memory itself? What an interesting concept for a children’s book!
Author: Corine Dehghanpisheh
Genre: Children’s Picture Book
Version: Paperback
Publisher: My Art to Inspire (September 20th 2016)
In #BabyLove: My Toddler Life, a new children’s picture book by Corine Dehghanpisheh, a curious toddler loves to play… especially with his mommy’s smartphone!
When Mommy finds him using her phone without permission, it’s the perfect teaching moment. Mommy reminds her little one that what matters most in life is time together filled with love and attention.
Her simple reminder: Put down our phones.
#BabyLove: My Toddler Life is the second book in Corine’s #BabyLove Book Series. The first book in the series, #BabyLove: My Social Life, won the Next Generation Indie Book Award for Picture Books 0-5.
Being a mother of two children, 10 & 3, I can completely relate to this book. Am I guilty of spending too much time taking pictures and sharing on social media, instead of being present in the moment? Of course. I actually used to be worse about this, but have gotten better about it over the years. It is definitely a balance. Sure you want to capture & share all those special moments, but not at the expense of cherishing those moments with your children.
#BabyLove: My Toddler Life is a rhyming style narration throughout the book told through a little boy’s perspective. This book starts off with a fun day of mother-son time filled with painting, reading books, playing music, ect. ect. All the while Mommy is capturing every moment on her phone. When Mommy leaves her phone unattended, the little boy picks it up and begins to take a few pictures of his own. Needless to say, Mommy was not thrilled to find him playing with her phone. They sit down together and start looking back through all the memories Mommy has captured & shared on social media. At this point, Mommy realizes that maybe she should lead by example & spend a little less time on the phone.
The illustrations in #BabyLove: My Toddler Life are visually stimulating enough to easily hold a child’s attention throughout the book. I am more partial to illustrations that have a little more complexity (depth and dimension), but this is personal taste. Actually, I thought it was very clever how the author/illustrator does many of the illustrations of the Mother’s viewpoint behind the phone. Kudos to Dehghanpisheh for a unique concept behind the illustrations, at least one I hadn’t seen before.
My only concern about this book is that it seems that this message is more for the parents reading the book than it is for the children it is being read to… I worry if the target audience (toddlers & young children) will pick up on the underlying message… I know my 3-year-old did not, BUT she did pick up the message about how phones are not toys, so I will still call this a success. Overall I enjoyed reading this book & the reminder to not take my time with my children for granted & not to live behind the phone screen.
Technically #BabyLove: My Toddler Life is the second book in Dehghanpisheh’s #BabyLove series, but they can definitely be read as standalones.
*Big thanks to Corine Dehghanpisheh for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
![Corine Dehghanpisheh[4045]](https://cover2covermom.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/corine-dehghanpisheh4045.jpg?w=300&h=300)
Corine’s inspirations for writing and illustrating come from everyday life. When she is not busy being creative, she is most likely having fun taking pictures of her family.
Corine is a Mom’s Choice Awards® Silver Recipient and a Next Generation Indie Author Finalist for her debut children’s book Can We Play Again?. Her inspiration for this book came from her work as a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist in NYC. She is also the author of Buddy’s Dream.
Corine recently moved to Dallas, TX from NYC with her family. Readers can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. To learn more, go to BooksByCorineD.com
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Great review! It actually does sound like the message is more for the parents instead of for this kids… But it’s without doubt an interesting topic. And very cute pics by the way! 🙂
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That’s a great message, one I can definitely relate to! I love that you highlight picture books. Reading them regularly for my library story times, I always appreciate a look at new ones! 🙂
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What a lovely little model 😉
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When my husband and I go out and do fun things, we never take pictures because there’s something artificial about feeling like we are together and having fun just so we can show people that we are together and having fun. If I want to remember the moment, I take one picture of us and keep it to myself. Now, does this drive our families on Facebook insane? Of course. But think about it this way: you and I are old enough that we created our own presence on the internet. Children will have a presence on the internet of which they completely lack control from the time they are an ultrasound picture until they are old enough to actually open an email account. We worry what employers will see of US on the web after a simple search; children today will have employers who can easily find pictures of them, prospective employees, in diapers messily cramming cookies in their faces and throwing tantrums with signs around their necks meant to shame them.
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These photos of your daughter are so precious! How did she feel about being part of this photoshoot? I know young Jackie would have been terrible at it, but super exciting.
I love how you point out that the message of this book is more for the parents/guardians than the children. I was thinking about that as I was reading your review. I wonder if that might harm the interaction between parent/child/phone? David and I won’t even be trying for kids for another year or so, but we’re already talking about this. It’s important these days to have the whole phone/TV/media thing figured out when your raise kids. It’s just so complicated!
Great review, Amanda! Keep up the awesome work. I love these Kids Corner posts.
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