Bathing

I'm gonna come clean and give a fresh new review of this board book. 

THREE PROS

*Does a pristine job of walking your child through the process and making it all sound so fun 

*The washcloth page is an ingenious way to get your child to proactively enjoy the grooming process (says the guy who has never attempted getting his son to unsoil himself in the tub)
*Liesbet Slegers immaculately makes a rather mundane topic work by combining genuinely happy pictures with the voice of a child 

THREE CONS 

*While it might be the right strategy for making kids unafraid of the shampoo stage, I think it glosses over the primary obstacle in any bathtime ritual 
*Most of the objects shown on the left-facing pages maintain their proportions on the opposite side, yet the bathtub goes from the size of a sink to something more realistic 

*Has the boy sporting a tank top undershirt, a garment which I have always thought is creepy on anyone under 16 unless they have early gang affiliations

ONE DAD'S OPINION
Don't get me wrong -- I really like this story and would not mind receiving Bathing as a gift.  But if you scrub it down to the bare essentials, you see a book that is pigeon-holed into a very particular category.  The type of niche that serves a very useful purpose for a limited time.  Consequently, Slegers' spic-and-span effort is marginalized by its link to an activity that kids will find more exciting doing than they will reading about once they get the hang of things.    

Buy / BORROW / Donate / Destroy