Today

Steering carefully between heart-warming and schmaltzy, this is a genuinely lovely and eminently relatable picturebook, which will remind the very ‘grown-up’ reception children of all the milestones they have successfully negotiated. The gently repetitive text ‘Today, you’re a little bit ….’ with a different descriptive adjective for each double page spread and an explanatory, loving comment on the facing page, starts with the newborn being a little bit bigger: ‘There’s more of you to love!’ We then get louder, sillier, smarter, curiouser, faster etc., as we move through the stages of verbalising, playing, exploring and moving. The delicate pastel illustrations are full of familiar detail and textures and capture expression, body language and emotions particularly well. I especially like the ‘curiouser’ double spread, where a long-suffering cat is portrayed beneath: ‘so keen to make friends!’ This would be the perfect book to accompany the ‘All about me’ topics that invariably form part of the Foundation curriculum in most schools. Children might be encouraged to bring in photographs of their own milestone moments, and it will provoke lots of valuable discussion and sharing. It might also comfort those children who are missing home by reminding them of how much they are loved. It would also, of course make the perfect gift for any parents with a newborn and will also remind families of all the steps they have taken together with their offspring.