Book Title: Your Baby’s First Word Will Be Dada
Author: Jimmy Fallon
Published: 2015
Publisher: Macmillan
Number of Pages: 34
Recommended Age Group: Infant/Toddler
From Your Baby’s First Word Will Be Dada
“Jimmy Fallon did everything in his power to ensure that his daughter’s first word would be ‘Dada!’…He worked very hard on this.”
Subjects and Themes
The premise of Your Baby’s First Word Will Be Dada is pretty simple. Author Jimmy Fallon set out to help all the fathers out there win the race of their child’s first word.
In this comedic, board book, the reader sees a number of different animal fathers and their infants as they practice speaking. But to the dismay of all the dads in the book, the infants just can’t quite get “dada” down.
Besides offering up a relatable struggle for new dads, Dada’s main purpose is simply to get a laugh during story time with a newborn or infant. The book is short with very little text per page which makes it an excellent selection for young audiences. We recommend this selection for children under the age of three.
If you like Fallon’s Your Baby’s First Word Will Be Dada, we also recommend you check out his sequel, Everything is Mama!
Characters
Similar to most books geared towards infants, this one is not full of rich character depth. That said, the choice of popular animals to play the main characters is all the author really needs here to help keep engagement high. Like many nursery rhymes or other popular books for infants, animals often are a common selection as lead characters.
The story, along with the characters, are simple, but perfect for its target audience.
Illustrations
The illustrations in Dada are pretty basic but well-aligned with the book’s main theme. The expressions on the dad’s faces when their little ones can’t say “dada” do a great job of promoting the frustration that every father has felt going through this same exercise. The backdrop of each page is minimal and also allows infants to focus on the animal characters that keep them engaged.
Parents won’t be able to hold back the laughter as they move from page to page.
Awards and Accomplishments
Jimmy Fallon’s Your Baby’s First Word Will Be Dada ranked as high as number four on Amazon’s Children’s Word Book list.
This is a great book for children because…
Dada is a great book for infants and parents because it is simple and funny. Parents will find it very relatable and children under age three will love the characters and fun illustrations.
For those looking for a great gift option for new parents, this book, along with Fallon’s other two in the series make great choices!