Why Do We Need Another Baby?: Helping Your Child Welcome a New Arrival - With Love and Illustrations - Hardcover

MacGregor, Cynthia; Clark, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0818405783 ISBN 13: 9780818405785

Publisher: Lyle Stuart, 1996

Synopsis

Written for parents of anxious soon-to-be-older siblings, a lighthearted and reassuring guide features a read-aloud format that addresses common fears and questions regarding new babies and their impact on family structure.

About this title

Reviews

Hefty doses of reassurance and gentle humor fill MacGregor's read-aloud, which is aimed at children of pregnant mothers. Paring down facts for a preschool audience, the author skips over the issue of conception, explaining that a baby grows in a womb, "a snug, cozy, comfy little place inside a woman's tummy." As she emphasizes that a newborn's arrival won't mean that the parents will love the older sibling any less, she strengthens her discussion with kid-appropriate analogies. For example, she likens parents' capacity to love more than one child with a youngster's yearning to have more than one pet ("You won't love your first dog any less if you get a new dog"). Adding a realistic twist, the author observes that children will have to share parents' time with a baby. Yet even here there is a comforting note: it's not just Mommy and Daddy's new baby, "It's your baby, too"--parents will have to share the infant. Cartoon illustrations are cheerful but not always geared to the audience (e.g., a picture captioned "I'd like to have a baby brother, please," shows a jaded-looking child at a table, consulting a menu labeled "Genre du Jour"). The book design, too, is unfortunate, with large blocks of text set in enormous type overwhelming most spreads. Ages 4-7.

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Lyle Stuart
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0818405783
• ISBN 13: 9780818405785
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 44