When Baby Billy is born with a mustache, his family takes it in stride. They are reassured when he nobly saves the day in imaginary-play sessions as a cowboy or cop and his mustache looks good-guy great. But as time passes, their worst fears are confirmed when little Billy’s mustache starts to curl up at the ends in a suspiciously villainous fashion.
Mustache Baby is a weird little book—but it's cute as shit. The main premise is that Billy, the titular baby with the excess facial hair, has a surprisingly expressive mustache that coincides perfectly with his personality and mood. So when the babystache starts to curl up at the ends, little Billy's clearly becoming a supervillain in the making. Like I said, it's weird--a quirky little visual metaphor for the shifting moods of children with an overall message along the lines of, "Every little kid's a bit of a villain now and then."
The greatest thing about Mustache Baby, of course, is not the silliness of the story itself but the sheer adorability of the illustrations. The style is perfect for the story, and the details qualify the text to ultimately bring just as much to the story as the words do. It's spectacularly endearing, and I was quite surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
Highly recommended to picture book fans—assuming you're into cute—and I'll definitely look into checking out some more of Bridget Heos' and Joy Ang's (the illustrator) work in the future.
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