Book Review: Small Elephant’s Bathtime, by Tatyana Feeney

The character of Small Elephant is an every-child: Overall pretty darn adorable, with looks as sweet as apple pie, but pushing the boundaries of how much of a hard time they can give their Mommies!  In this lovely picture book, Small Elephant does not want to take a bath for his Mommy!   “No! No! No!” he shouts before he disappears on her. And no matter how she may try to trick him into it, poor Mommy Elephant has no luck! But of course, Mommies are the cleverest people in all the land (elephant mommies included).  If toys and bubbles won’t lure Small Elephant into the tub,  Mommy Elephant puts her back-up plan into place: Daddy is the man for the job! As a Mommy myself, I enjoyed that Daddy was assigned/took over bath time duties, particularly because we don’t quite know if he is on task because a) Mommy is exhausted and giving up and thinks it’s Daddy’s turn to deal with it (hehe!) or b) Mommy knows Daddy is her best soldier- He would be silly and successful in getting the job done. Although I get more pleasure from the first scenario because that is how Daddy gets assigned a lot of jobs in our house at the moment (I throw my hands up in the air and wish him “best of luck!”), my husband is sure after reading this book that Mommy Elephant gives Daddy Elephant the gig because Daddies are the Kings of Bath Time Fun. (Hard to argue with that because it is a fact.)  Either way, for as few words as there are in this book (and the text is used sparingly to say the least) my husband and I actually laughed out loud more than a few times.  Our daughter, who absolutely loves her bath time, smiled at the very simple yet charming illustrations, delighting in the baby elephant’s disobedience (fingers crossed she doesn’t get any ideas), and of course, we all loved the image of Daddy squeezing into a teeny tiny tub. This book is honest, gentle, funny and sweet… The perfect addition to any nighttime repertoire!

Dolly loves her bathtime! She is very concerned that Small Elephant doesn’t enjoy it!

*Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book from The Guardian (UK) Book Review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. 

Title: Small Elephant’s Bathtime
Author: Tatyana Feeney
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Release Date: March 10, 2015
Pages: 32 pages