WANTED: The Cutest Baby in the World

By  Davina Bell &  Sarah Zweck

Reviewed by Zewlan Moor

You might be surprised to hear that this picture book was quite controversial at our Last Tuesday Book Club (for adult readers of children’s books)..

How so? Written by much-loved children’s book author and editor/publisher, Davina Bell, and illustrated by Sarah Zweck, whose Here Come the Cousins (with Maggie Hutchings) is a CBCA Notable and Shortlisted for ABIA Children’s Book of the Year, how could it be controversial?

Well, half the group thought it was not for a child audience. They argued that the sophisticated, tongue-in-cheek humour and knowing nods to harried parents are aimed more at parents and caregivers than young children.

I can see the point they were making. It is one that is regularly raised within writing critique groups, and by editors at manuscript assessment sessions. But I have to disagree with it (and I have put my money where my mouth is by writing many such “non-child-centred” texts). In our house, some of our favourite books and reading experiences have centred around such wry and subtle humour in our books. Surely that’s why my children have such a great sense of humour today! It cannot start too young. One of our favourite books was from my childhood, and it is surely the forerunner of WANTED: The Cutest Baby in the World: Janet and Allan Ahlberg’s Burglar Bill, wherein the main character is definitely not a child, but is metaphorically child-like in his sweet mischief-making and loyal devotion.

Similarly, the overarching concept of a baby being a “devious supervillain” and “agent of chaos” is a sophisticated metaphor, but so was Marla Frazee’s Boss Baby. Readers will smile at vignettes describing all of the dastardly deeds the Cutest Baby in the World will make you do, such as dancing the chicken dance and being wrapped up in toilet paper. They will laugh in recognition at descriptions of the baby villain making you buy expensive blueberries, only to throw them in the air. And the cleverest bit, like in all excellent picture books, is that many of these episodes are narrated in the illustrations only, contributing to enhanced enjoyment on close and repeated reads.

This is just the sort of picture book I loved as a mother of small children. There are obviously all sorts of picture books that work at different levels, conveying different themes and meanings to their adult and child audiences. But sometimes it is a welcome change to have a book that the adult reader can thoroughly relate to and laugh over, but which ends in a positive place, of the parents realising that, despite all the shenanigans of their resident rogue, they would not change anything.

Bring on the sophisticated, funny books for children and their carers! There are many readers, like me, who consider honing a finely developed sense of irony a most important social skill.

Thames & Hudson 2026

Davina Bell

Sarah Zweck