Poetry Friday: Everybody Was A Baby Once

Everybody Was A Baby Once: And Other Poems. By Allan Ahlberg. 2010. [March 2010] Illustrated by Bruce Ingman. Candlewick. 64 pages.

I'm not always a fan of Allan Ahlberg's work. His picture books are quite simply very odd, definitely quirky and unique. (His books include The Runaway Dinner and The Pencil.) Everybody Was A Baby Once is a collection of his poems. And I must say that I liked it. A lot. Some poems are funny or are meant to be. One poem is quite bittersweet. ("The Good Old Dolls"). And a few are genuinely true. For example, "When I Was Just A Little Child" and "Everybody Was A Baby Once."

I do have favorites. I really thought "Everybody Was A Baby Once" was charming. Here it is in part...

The baby comes first in life's great plan
Everyone started out small
The child is father to the man
The race begins at a crawl.

Oh, your daddy was a baby once
And your mommy was a baby once
They would scream and bawl and shout
And they'd spit their dinners out
Everybody was a baby once.

Life begins with a baby's cry
Life begins in a cot
A little tear in a little eye
A little bum on a pot.

I definitely liked this book. (Some poems more than others). And I would recommend it.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews