LIFE USA TODAY z WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2019 z 3D

Jimmy Fallon is that proud dad who
recorded every little thing his daughters
did when they were babies.
“I was videotaping and showing it to
any human that would ever watch,” the
host of “The Tonight Show” said.
“I’m one of those guys that’s like,
‘Look at this video, this is my daughter
staring at her first wall.’”
The things that may have seemed in-
significant to anyone else didn’t to Fal-
lon. Teaching his daughters where their
eyes were and seeing the girls point to
them for the first time was big.
Fallon is giving other parents the op-
portunity to craft their own educational
moments with their children with his
new book, “This Is Baby.”
It follows two other children’s books
written by Fallon, “Everything Is Mama”
and “Your First Word Will Be Dada.”
“This Is Baby” completes the family.
Fallon and his illustrator, Miguel Or-
dóñez, decided that for their third book,
they would use illustrations of humans
instead of baby animals, which they’d
used in the previous books.
That decision ignited an idea.
Fallon said he likes things that
rhyme, such as “eyes, nose, fingers,
toes.”
So he thought it would be good to do a
book that showed babies their body
parts.
After reading with your kids con-
stantly, you start to see a lot of the same
kinds of books, Fallon explained.
He’s always looking to do something
different: “This Is Baby” is interactive.
The book is formatted so parents can
read it and interact with their child in
whatever manner they choose.
“You can read it as fast as you want
and as long as you want,” he said.
“Sometimes as a tired parent, you just
want to get through a book in 20 sec-
onds.”
And as a parent, the exhaustion fac-
tor is very real, Fallon said. “The bags

under your eyes start taking up your

whole face,” he chuckled.

On the other hand, he said, you can

spend an hour on one page, if you want,

asking your child such questions as

“How many arms do you have? Can you

count them?” Fallon explained.

“It’s colorful and fun,” Fallon said.

“You can add as many separate stories

as you want to to each page to pass the

time.”

The payoff that comes with writing

children’s books, Fallon said, is huge.

“I did the first one as a joke, kind of a

goof,” he said. Then parents started

sending in videos of their children read-

ing the book back to them.

“People come up to me and they’re

like, ‘My kid has been chewing on your

book for the last four months.’ They’re

not reading it but they’re eating it,” he

chuckled again.

“I really love it, and I think you can

get as creative as you want.”

The process to create the books is

quite long. Fallon said this book took

about a year.

This time, he had some assistance in

his creative process.

Fallon left a copy of the book on his

coffee table to see how his daughters,

ages 4 and 6, would react to the book. If

they didn’t like it, he would make

changes.

“I left it out on the table and was like,

‘Oh, look at this book,’ and they kind of

read it to me,” he said.

They loved it.

BOOKS

Fallon adds ‘This Is Baby’ to his book family

Late-night celeb says it’s

flexible for tired parents

Morgan Hines
USA TODAY

Jimmy Fallon has published a third children’s book.JAMES WHITE/NBC

“You can read it as fast

as you want and as long

as you want. Sometimes

as a tired parent, you just

want to get through a book

in 20 seconds.”

Jimmy Fallon

author and ‘Tonight Show’ host

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