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Mustache Baby | March 12, 2014

by Bridget Heos, illustrated by Joy Ang (Clarion Books/ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers, May 2013)

Mustache Baby had me at the cover; from the adorable baby, made all the cuter by his titular facial hair, to the title, which I found myself singing to the tune of the B-52s’ ‘Love Shack Baby’. When Billy is born with a mustache, the nurse naturally explains to his family that they will have to wait and see if it is a good guy mustache or a bad guy mustache. This is the introduction to the kind of silliness Mustache Baby flaunts with a kind of well-isn’t-it-obvious grace that only children and childish minds can fully appreciate.

The story is greatly serviced by Joy Ang’s art. Comic-strip style illustrations and sight gags litter the pages, blatantly contradicting the text in moments. And for some reason, an adorable baby with an adult mustache never gets old. There’s a simple genius to it. The mustache is as much a main character, transforming from a cowboy mustache, to a cop mustache, a painter mustache and more, all to comedic effect. Mustache Baby is guaranteed to put a smile on your face. You could say, it’ll really grow on you. I may be onto something hair. I’d go on, but I really mustache.

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