Inspiring Young Readers

posted on 24 Feb 2026

Seven Babies by Forest Xiao

This delightfully simple new picture book has echoes of one of my all time favourites, ’So Much’ by Tricia Cooke, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. This is mostly due to the exuberance of the seven sturdy looking babies who arrive at a front door and become central to everything ever after. A review in The Observer, quoted on the cover, suggests that it portrays new parenthood with all its many joys and challenges. Indeed the arrival of a baby in the family can sometimes feel overwhelming – as if coping with seven or more! But I wanted to see how the intended audience of young children might respond.

When I showed it to a three year old friend, she enjoyed counting each of the very different babies shown sharing a bath together on the front cover and wanted to track her favourite one on each subsequent page. She chose the one with a distinctive top knot who she named ‘Elsie’ ( her own name) because she was staring directly at us and I decided to follow one with a trace of ginger hair who was attempting to eat the bath sponge, who she named ‘Max’ ( after her friend). I wondered how much of their personalities might emerge as we enjoyed the story. Looking at the antics of the other five babies, we wondered if our chosen two might be the quiet ones.

On the next two pages, Elsie continued to look at us solemnly whilst Max first tucks into the corner of the big box left on the doorstep and then a nearby flower. My knowledgeable little friend suggested that he might be teething. Once the box of babies is safely received by a startled looking couple, some proceed to create some havoc pulling books off shelves and trying to grab the goldfish bowl. Even Elsie absently pulls at the leaves of a large plant as she continues to stare out steadily from every page. Meanwhile, Max attempts to eat the corner of the rug, someone’s hair, part of a slide, a clothes peg, a book and much more. Once they have all enjoyed a bedtime story, they set off on another expedition. The story finished with the question:

‘What will they do next?’

We had a chat about this, agreeing that they seemed confident and happy but that they probably needed to find some more adults to take care of them. My friend immediately asked if she could start reading the book again so that she could follow a different character through the story.

So what about the underlying message about being a new parent? As a strong believer in child centred and ‘ laissez faire’ parenting, I loved that they were shown as being so self sufficient and also they contradict the still too often heard comment that ‘all babies look the same’ plus the controversial view that all babies need strict routines and super surveillance. So, apart from being a compelling picture book for young children, I can see how it could be used with parent groups to inspire some interesting discussion

I strongly recommend this picture book published by Walker Books. It should be available from your local independent bookshop, who will happily order it for you if not already on their shelves.

 

Karen Argent

February 2026