Welcome to Your World

Smriti Halls

Jaime Kim

Walker, 2022

30pp., board book, RRP $A17.99

9781536224115

As a new baby is welcomed to the world, the mother cradles it and invites it to take notice of this wonderful place it has entered, journeying across the day and the world to introduce lots of mothers and babies of the animal kingdom.  

Very much viewed through the rose-coloured glasses of a new mother who extols the beauty and harmonious nature of the world, this is the board book version of a story that has been published for some time.  It celebrates the joy of being a new mother regardless of the species, with both lyrical language and stunning illustrations, with a lullaby-like rhythm and repetition that offers a special moment between mother and child as it is shared. 

It is personal, sentimental, painting a perfect, if unrealistic, picture that those wrapped in the bubble of a first baby will treasure.