Eva and Baby Mo

Rebecca Elliott's Eva and Baby Mo is a cosy owl diary story for 5 year olds where a big sister finds out that babies are a LOT of work.

What happens

Eva Wingdale is an owl, so she goes to school at night and sleeps through the day. This is the tenth Owl Diaries book, but the first few pages introduce everyone again. There's Mom, Dad, big brother Humphrey, Baby Mo (who can't talk yet) and her pet bat Baxter.

It starts with a little mystery. Eva's class is sharing hobbies and she realises her parents don't seem to have any. Then Granny gets out an old photo album. Eva's mum and dad were sky-dancing champions!

They tell her that looking after their three children is their hobby now. Eva isn't so sure. So when her teacher mentions a big dance competition on Friday night, Eva and her friends Lucy and Hailey offer to look after Mo so her parents can enter. How hard can it be?

They plan everything. Homemade toys from pinecones and acorns, sweets shaped like bugs, a lullaby and a bedtime puppet show. Their friend George has five younger brothers and sisters. He just laughs and wishes them luck.

Then Friday comes. Mo throws his dinner everywhere, refuses to burp, crawls off halfway through a nappy change and gobbles nearly all the sweets. Bath time leaves the babysitters wetter than he is (one of them sensibly brings an umbrella). And the lullaby sends Hailey to sleep instead of Mo!

Little ones will love how naughty Mo is. Who doesn't enjoy a baby causing chaos when someone else is in charge? There's a sweet side too. Eva worries she's let everybody down, and her mum has a story about her own first go at babysitting that really helps.

Reading it is a bit like flicking through Eva's real diary. Nearly every page is lined paper with handwriting-style text, and most pages carry a few short sentences, some speech bubbles and a bright picture. Eva writes in BIG capitals when she's excited (which is often) and uses lots of owl words like owlsome and flap-tastic. A newly confident reader can probably finish it in one or two sittings and feel very proud.

It's an American edition, so expect candy and diapers along the way. Those are worth a quick chat if your reader hasn't met them before.

What to read next

If your reader takes to Eva, go back to Eva's Treetop Festival. It's the first Owl Diaries book, where you meet Eva, Lucy and Baxter, and Eva decides to run a whole spring festival at school.