Good Babies: A Tale of Trolls, Humans, a Witch and a Switch

by Tim J. Myers and Kelly Murphy

Book Overview

Any parent who has ever been sleep-deprived will smile at this richly illustrated, lively original folktale that reassures us that all babies are good babies - and that patient love can foil even the worst-laid plans. A troll-baby living with humans? A human baby with trolls? What chaos and heartache that would lead to! Long ago, a dark-eyed witch, passing through a valley deep in the mountains of Norway, discovered two families - one human and one...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0763622273
• ISBN13: 9780763622275
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Candlewick
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.4" x 0.4" x 10.2"

Customer Reviews

Good Babies

This book, Good Babies, by Tim Myers takes place in Norway. There are a family of trolls and a family of humans. The humans live in a deep valley in the mountains. The trolls live in rocky heights in the mountains. The two families each have a new baby. The human baby cries all night and drives everyone crazy. The troll baby does not wish to eat anything and also drives everyone crazy. When a witch is walking in Norway, she hears crying and yelling of the two babies. The witch has a plan to switch the babies At midnight she secretly switches the babies. When the human family wakes up their baby is green and weird looking. When the troll family wakes up the baby tries to catch the sun and the trolls thought he was getting ugly. The witch soon switches the babies back; she was not satisfied with her plan. When the human family wakes up their baby is sleeping peacefully through the night. When the troll baby wakes up he gulps three frogs for breakfast and everything goes great with the babies. Both babies are really annoying. For example, the human baby dumped his food. Also, he cried all night! The troll baby, however, took a bath in mud and tried to pull a cat's tail. He would not eat anything, not even kremkake with strawberries. Both babies made noise and started making their families hate each other. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes books about families and how they solve their problems. I would also recommend this book to whoever likes fairytales. By Baljot

My son's favorite!!!

There is something fascinating about the witch in this story. The illustrations by Kelly Murphy are exquisite. My son cried when we took it back to the library after renewing it 5 times. I must buy our own copy...

From the author of "Good Babies"

Like everyone else, I heard about trolls when I was kid, but I started to really appreciate them when my wife and I lived in Norway. Trolls fascinate me, not least because they're creatures of earth, almost literally-in many depictions their bodies appear to be made out of rock and clumps of sod, and they often have moss or wild grasses growing on them. (Besides, we all know what happens when they're struck by the rays of the sun!). I also love trolls because they seem to be descendants of the great Frost Giants and other enemies of the Norse gods like Odin and Thor. And I like to think that, though dim-witted, trolls aren't necessarily as evil as they've been portrayed. In a similar way, I knew even as a kid that new babies often cry at night-but I couldn't "appreciate" this fact till my own children arrived and, coyote-like, seemed to live to howl at the moon! This can be a very, very hard time to get through, and just thinking that trolls have to face it too made me feel more compassionate toward them. And yet the truth is that new babies-like all profound gifts from God-come with complications and challenges, which it's our loving duty to face up to. So you kids with screaming siblings, and you oh-so-dreary-eyed sleep-deprived mothers and fathers-take heart! It won't last forever! And remember: Don't worry about witches out in the wood-for the truth is that EVERY baby is good!

From the author, Tim Myers

Like everyone else, I heard about trolls when I was kid, but I started to really appreciate them when my wife and I lived in Norway. Trolls fascinate me, not least because they're creatures of earth, almost literally-in many depictions their bodies appear to be made out of rock and clumps of sod, and they often have moss or wild grasses growing on them. (Besides, we all know what happens when they're struck by the rays of the sun!). I also love trolls because they seem to be descendants of the great Frost Giants and other enemies of the Norse gods like Odin and Thor. And I like to think that, though dim-witted, trolls aren't necessarily as evil as they've been portrayed. In a similar way, I knew even as a kid that new babies often cry at night-but I couldn't "appreciate" this fact till my own children arrived and, coyote-like, seemed to live to howl at the moon! This can be a very, very hard time to get through, and just thinking that trolls have to face it too made me feel more compassionate toward them. And yet the truth is that new babies-like all profound gifts from God-come with complications and challenges, which it's our loving duty to face up to. So you kids with screaming siblings, and you oh-so-dreary-eyed, sleep-deprived mothers and fathers-take heart! It won't last forever! And remember: Don't worry about witches out in the wood-for the truth is that EVERY baby is good!