Baby's Got the Blues

Have you ever wondered what a day in the life of an infant is really like? In this bluesy story, sometimes being a baby is enough to make you cry.

Oh, baby, wouldn’t it be grand to be a baby? No worries, no woes, the whole world doing everything for you. Like floating down easy street. . . . But wait one guitar-pickin’ minute. That’s a lie! Babies can’t talk, can’t walk, can’t even really chew. It’s enough to make the baby in this story blue, blue, blue. So get ready for a sad tale of soggy diapers, mushy meals, and sleepin’ behind bars that may make you cry, too — but more likely will make you giggle! Jamming with illustrator Lauren Tobia, Carol Diggory Shields gives a tip of the fedora to B.B. King in an ode to babyhood that’ll have readers feeling anything but blue.

Carol Diggory Shields is the author of more than twenty books for children, including Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp and The Bugliest Bug, both illustrated by Scott Nash. It was time spent with her three grandbabies that inspired her to write about the challenges of being small and entirely dependent on others. As the sister of a musician, she couldn’t help but imagine a baby’s woes expressed in bluesy lyrics! Carol Diggory Shields lives in California.

Lauren Tobia says that illustrating Baby’s Got the Blues transported her back to the time when her own children were quite young, and even made her reminisce about her own childhood, when she was the big sister. Lauren Tobia is the illustrator of the Anna Hibiscus books, written by Atinuke. She lives in England.