There's Going to Be a Baby
There's Going to Be a Baby by John Burningham takes about 3.5 minutes to read aloud (406 words, about 1 sentence a page), and it lands best with children aged 3-5.
Measured read-aloud timeabout 3.5 minutes
- Words
- 406
- Sentences a page
- 1
- Re-read tolerance
- 3/5holds up
- Vocabulary
- 2/5everyday words
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The useful verdict
Why There's Going to Be a Baby works
The boy keeps asking what the baby will be - a cook, a gardener, a sailor - and each answer opens into a full-page daydream, so the long wait gets filled with something to do rather than something to dread. His grandad's line at the end, that he will be glad the baby came, is delivered without pushing.
Before you buy it
Forty-eight pages structured across a whole pregnancy; it works read in instalments over weeks, not in one sitting.
Themes: pregnancy, waiting, imagination, family.
Same shape, new story
Books like There's Going to Be a Baby
Matched by length, refrain, sentence density, and listener—not just subject.
Straight answers
Questions parents ask about There's Going to Be a Baby
- How long does it take to read There's Going to Be a Baby aloud?
- About 3.5 minutes at an unhurried pace, from a word count of 406. Reading it fast shaves perhaps a third off; stopping for questions on every page can double it.
- What age is There's Going to Be a Baby actually for?
- Ages 3-5 in our testing, which is narrower than the publisher's range. With 1 sentence a page and vocabulary at 2 out of 5, it asks for that much attention span and no more.
- Does There's Going to Be a Baby survive being read on repeat?
- Yes, reasonably. It stays bearable through the repeat-request phase without becoming a favourite forever.
- Is There's Going to Be a Baby a good book for a child who will not sit still?
- It helps that it has a refrain a child can join in with, and it asks the child questions to answer out loud. Those three features are what keep a wriggling toddler listening, far more than the subject matter does.