All of the children head to the beach with the baby in a pram and sandwiches, lemonade, a kite, friends and a dog or two. It is a joyous sunny day. The children play with each other and with the baby and everyone enjoys their lunch but when the kite string breaks, all of the children run to catch it, and the baby is left behind in his pram with only his toys for company. The pram has been left close to the shore. The tide rolls in.
" ... then quite soon, the waves and wind got larger and louder and turned into a storm. The baby frowned and clutched his special bit of flannel and sucked his thumb."
The pram is swept out to sea but luckily his toy friends are there to help with a banana, some juice in his special cup and a game of peepo! Then a puffin spots the pram and this delights the baby but panda is swept overboard all the toys have to perform an heroic rescue. The drama continues when a huge fish grabs hold of a rope tied to the pram but fortunately the rope breaks. Meanwhile I kept wondering about the children and parents back at home who surely are searching frantically for their lost brother.
With all the toys back on the pram, and danger a thing of the past, the pram drifts on.
"Night, and a scatter of silver stars and a sliver of moon and a dazzling, swinging beam of light from the lighthouse. Up onto the silent beach came the pram. Only then half out of the water it ground to a halt and would not budge."
Now the toys spring into action rushing home to gather all their toy friends to help pull the pram to safety on the beach and eventually all the humans arrive to claim their son and brother.
I love the final scene in this book (a little like something out of the Toy Story movie) where you can see panda, rabbit and doll sharing the story of their ocean adventure with all the other toys in the playroom.
I talked about Allan Ahlberg yesterday because he has just had a birthday. I love the way so many of his books are illustrated by famous people such as this one by Emma Chichester Clark. I am a huge fan of her work especially the Blue Kangaroo series and The Minstrel and the Dragon Pup. Baby on Board is a newish book published in 2019 and it is a gem.
It would be fun to read this alongside a much older book by Allan Ahlberg illustrated by his late wife Janet - Bye Bye baby.
This book also reminded me of these:
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