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This
Is
the
Day!
illustrated by Marjorie
Priceman
Houghton
Mifflin, 2007
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| From
the book jacket: |
Do
you want a baby?
Step
right up!
Pick
one out!
They’re
waiting
for you to
kiss their
toes,
sing
lullabies,
and rock
them to sleep.
All you
have to do is make room
on your
bike, or your ship, or your
hot air balloon!
Sing
along, because this is the day
we give babies away—
tra la
and fiddle de dee.
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| A
little about the book: |
I first heard “This is
the day we give babies away” in the
1960’s, and given its catchy tune
and unusual lyrics, the song stuck
with me for all these years. After
expanding it into a tale of happy
adoptions, I learned more about the
song’s origins, thanks to Mark D.
Moss of Sing Out! and Joe
“The Songfinder” Hickerson.
Since the
beginning of the 1900’s, and
possibly before, “This is the day”
was sung in various parts of the
U.S. The
original verse goes like this:
This
is the day we give babies away
with
a half a pound of tea.
If
you know any ladies who want any
babies
just
send them around to me.
It may have
originally come to these shores from
England. Sung by folks in the
Ozarks, westerners, and soldiers
during World War II, it was recorded
first by singer Rosalie Sorrels in
“Rosalie’s Songbag” and then in a
1990 release “Be Careful There’s A
Baby in the House.” In “Be Careful”
Rosalie Sorrels sings her own
humorous version written with Olive
Wooly Burt titled “The Baby Tree.”
When I saw
Marjorie Priceman’s artwork for This Is the
Day! I was estatic. She’s
brilliant (artistically, of course,
and now we know she’s brilliant
mathematically, too!). And, oh my,
those babies are so cute, I wish I
could be the lady in the jacket
illustration.
You can
hear Yonah sing This Is the
day! --and sing along with
her on this song, and many other
songs, too, on our CD, "This
Is the Day! Storysongs and
Singalongs."
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| From
the reviews: |
"Counting, adding, and the days of the
week are introduced in this quirky
traditional song about babies and
adoption.... The mildly nonsensical
rhyming text curls around the swirling
illustrations as ladies of various
races (some seemingly single and some
not) visit a Bemelmans-inspired home
for infants and adopt consecutively
growing numbers of babies. When the
final prospective mother declares,
“Seven is heaven,” the ladies relax in
a circle, lovingly playing with all of
their tots. Priceman’s dreamlike
watercolors are a joy to behold, and
Gershator’s adaptation of the song
retains a buoyant musical quality.
While adoption itself receives a
relatively light treatment here—each
set of babies is accompanied by a
whimsical gift such as milk and
cookies or a bear and a honeybee—young
listeners will come away with the idea
that each child is very much wanted
and all of the new families are filled
with warmth and love." Kirkus
"Gershator’s cheery adaptation
of a traditional song from the 1900s
is perfectly complemented by
Priceman’s breezy watercolor
illustrations. A multitude of babies
clad in hooded pink or blue pj’s and
tended by loving caretakers is waiting
to be taken home.... Two splashy
spreads illustrate each verse, first
by introducing the day of the week and
then concluding with the mother
departing with her adopted young. The
text swoops through the idyllic indoor
and outdoor scenes to create a
lyrical, joyous, and somewhat silly
mood. The characters represent a
variety of races and nationalities,
and blended families are the norm.
Sharp-eyed readers will observe that
the picture for each day includes an
animal that has the same number of
offspring as those taken by the human
mother. This pleasant romp is a
natural for baby sing-along programs
(sheet music is included), one-on-one
sharing, and lullaby time." School
Library Journal
"Adapted from a folk song
called “This Is the Day We Give Babies
Away,” Gershator’s latest picture book
describes how 28 babies at an
orphanage find homes with adoring
mommies. The fanciful verses roll
along, moving through days of the week
and numbers, with the first eager
parent choosing a single baby on
Monday and the final, Sunday visitor
whisking away no fewer than seven. The
poem’s glib first line (“Monday’s the
day we give babies away with a half a
pound of tea”) is a bit jarring, but
even very young children will quickly
grasp its fanciful, nursery-rhyme
spirit, especially in light of
Caldecott Honor Book artist Priceman’s
effervescent paintings--which show
mixed-race families throughout and
house the infants in a Madeline-style
mansion teeming with starched
servants. Babies small enough to be
dandled to the verses’ lilting rhythms
will particularly enjoy this
reassuring confection, although it’s
odd that the text almost exclusively
focuses on moms. Gershator includes a
brief note but, infortunately, doesn’t
include the song’s original lyrics."
Booklist
And a note from Phillis:
I've included the entire Booklist
review here. Thanks to internet magic,
I have the luxury of responding!
The reviewer is right. I'd use as my
excuse the idea that familiarity
breeds forgetfulness, and it does seem
I forgot to include the original four
lines of the song in my note at the
back of the book. So here they are:
This
is the day we give babies away
with a
half a pound of tea.
If you
know any ladies who want any
babies
just
send them around to me.
Art by Marjorie
Priceman
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