Up! How Families Around the World Carry Their Little Ones

Written by Susan Hughes

Illustrated by Ashley Barron

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-176-3

24 pp.

Ages 2-5

April 2017

Susan Hughes is a prolific and award-winning writer of all genres of children’s books, having written picture books (e.g., Earth to Audrey and Maggie McGillicuddy’s Eye for Trouble), early chapter books (e.g., Four Seasons of Patrick, and numerous books in The Puppy Collection), young adult fiction (Virginia) and non-fiction (e.g., Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools Around the World and Case Closed: Nine Mysteries Unlocked by Modern Science).  But where Susan Hughes excels is in those books which focus on global perspectives and social justice issues, bringing the world a little closer to Canadian children, as she does in Up! How Families Around the World Carry Their Little Ones.  It’s a warm-hearted but candid look at the common practice of carrying babies in urban and rural settings around the world with cuddly images rendered by paper-collage artist Ashley Barron.

From the onset, Susan Hughes lists which countries will be visited in our global tour of baby transport:

From West Africa to Peru, from
Egypt to Canada’s Far North, from
Korea to India, from Poland to China
and Afghanistan and the place you call
home, all around the world, families
carry their babies in many different
ways.  Come join us and see…

And, with an “Upsy-daisy, baby” our tour begins, taking young readers to familiar and exotic locales, to see a diversity of babies–all adorable!–being bundled in arms, shawls, parkas, carriers, packs, slings, baskets, and carried on hips and shoulders, cradled as the precious cargo they are.  Their caregivers are as diverse as the children including parents, siblings, grandparents, and other relatives of all shapes, ages and colours.  It’s a wonderful collection of familial vignettes from around the world.

From Up! How Families Around the World Carry Their Little Ones

by Susan Hughes 

illus. by Ashley Barron

The affection for the babies by the caregivers is obvious and Ashley Barron’s cut-paper collages give texture and shape to those expressions of care and adoration.  As in Kyle Goes Alone, the first book I reviewed illustrated by Ashley Barron, the artist is astoundingly adept at cutting the shape of a chubby leg or beard-clasping fingers and depicting angelic and joyous faces of babies who know they are safe and much-loved.  Her details, from the playground in Poland to the twisted turban of the Afghan grandfather and the Indian fruit and textile market, bring the settings of Susan Hughes' text to life, creating a travelogue and personalized context for each baby’s home.

From Up! How Families Around the World Carry Their Little Ones 

by Susan Hughes 

illus. by Ashley Barron

Susan Hughes and Ashley Barron have created a global story of life and love in Up! and they’ll have you shamelessly oohing and ahhing over these little ones and the care they are given as they are raised Up! into loving arms and hearts.

From Up! How Families Around the World Carry Their Little Ones 

by Susan Hughes 

illus. by Ashley Barron