Father Knows Best? Your Baby's First Word Will Be Dada! by Jimmy Fallon

COMPETITIVE PARENTING: ROUND 1!

Why NOT? Why CAN'T a baby's first word be DADA instead of MAMA?

A belligerent-looking bull demands a DADA out of his little calf.

MOO

A righteous ram offers DADA.

The little lamb listens.

BAA

A dog demands a dada from his offspring.

The pup woofs back. A persistent rabbit and tomcat try their luck. A rooster crows out his da-da-doodle-do! A daddy pig grunts out his preferred alternative title.

But nature has the last word, and none of the newbies come up with the magic word.

Well, logically, human history and speech development experts agree that MMMM! is easier to say that DDDD!

But expecting his first baby, Jimmy Fallon refused to accept the popular wisdom. To overcome the mommy milk advantage, he offered his new baby a bottle and called it a dada. "Want your dada?" he cooed.

Did it work? Well, no.

But you can't blame a dad for trying, in Fallon's best-selling new salute to fathers, Your Baby's First Word Will Be DADA (Feiwel and Friends, 2015). Miguel Ordonez's deadpan animal babies, done up in simple Playskool-shapes deadpan their usual "ribbets, peeps, oinks," and "meows." But if it's any consolation to loving dads like Jimmy Fallon, his baby animals don't exactly say "Mama," either! And artist Ordonez offers a triumph to doting daddies in his comic closing endpapers, where all the little ones do manage to yell out DADA, all except a determined little duckling, that is! There's always one in every crowd!

This is a wonderful Fathers Day book for expectant daddies, and a natural for babies, toddlers and even almost-emergent readers who learn to decipher a few animals sounds along the way.