As a mom of an almost two year old who still puts inedible items in her mouth with a mischievous grin before proceeding to laugh, I was excited to see a board book on the market that feeds off of an infant's/toddler's natural desire to touch and taste. With bright, modernesque illustrations that remind me of Bastien Contraire's work, parents will love the rhythm of Yum Yummy Yuck as each page repeats that pattern with a little additional text to go with "yuck" so that children know exactly what's yucky about the idea of putting the illustrated item in their mouth.
For example, the first illustration of something yucky is...(think toddler humor) a booger, which I have to say caught me off guard because my four year old doesn't even use that word and the idea of introducing the word booger to my toddler is even less appealing, but there's no doubt that Amanda and Cree Jones got their message across. Boogers are yuck yuck yucky!
With various fruits, vegetables, sweets, and a beverage coming in on the yum or yummy scale, other yucks include band-aids, sand, coins, crayons, dirty hands, and toothpaste.
My only internal debate about the book is that some of the illustrations of yuck might be hard for a child to understand depending on the age of the child. For instance, our daughter loves sand, the beach, shovels, and buckets. If I turn to the page with the picture of a bucket full of sand and say the word yuck will she think I'm telling her that sand buckets, the beach, and shovels are yucky? The book isn't saying that buckets and shovels and sand are yucky of course, it's just saying that eating sand is yucky. But will children be able to understand the difference? To the Jones's credit however the text clearly says, "If you try to eat sand...you'll immediately regret it" to highlight that putting sand in your mouth is yucky but that sand and buckets and shovels in and of themselves are not yucky.
With a lovely matte finish and thin, yet flexible and sturdy pages, Yum Yummy Yuck is already immensely popular with bookgrammers and reviewers and I'd like to contribute by saying that the possibilities for a family's own version of yum yummy yuck are infinite---the book is simply a jumping-off point for parents as they discover their own child's yum yummy yucks. (Let's hope deodorant doesn't make the list though as it did with our daughter. YUCK!)
And lastly, if you're looking for adorable Yum Yummy Yuck inspired baby wear, check out Winter Water Factory's collaboration with the Jones's. I really like the orange tote.
Enjoy!
