Baby Lemur

Baby Lemur, by Susan Hellard is a very fun children's book. It is about a baby lemur and his relationship with his mother. Baby lemur is growing up and has to get used to life without his mother. While he does see the jungle as a very scary place especially when he is not literally clinging to his mother, he also wants to be independent and enjoy all the activities that the other young lemurs participate in. This is a very good book dealing with separation issues. Though it does deal with difficult issues it is aimed sucessfully at a younger age group. It does this through good use of illustration. All of the pages are very picture orientated, with the pictures taking up the entire page and the text for each page only using a very small corner of the availabel space. This style allows for discussion to accompany the pictures, such as the darkness and complexity of the jungle that is scaring baby lemur,or the social interaction of different groups of friends(or lemurs. The storyline helps facilitate discussion reagrding growing up and the new freedoms and responsibilites of such occurances. Over all I enjoyed this story and so did my nieces and nephews. They all enjoyed the pictures of the jungles and the lemurs and I enjoyed the ensuing conversation.