Before You Were Born

This touching and evocative story about welcoming a baby to the world is a love letter to young children, tenderly expressing the joy and promise a new life brings

“Before…You were a song in our hearts, a star in our eyes.”

Told from the perspective of new parents welcoming their baby to the world, this touching love letter to young children by Governor General’s Literary Award–nominated author Deborah Kerbel describes with lyrical grace all of the promise held by new life. As the seasons change from fall through winter and into spring, the expectant parents’ anticipation over the baby’s arrival is mirrored in the animals around the family’s seaside home, marrying the natural world to the family’s experience.

Suzanne Del Rizzo, author-illustrator of My Beautiful Birds ― a New York Times Notable Children’s Books selection and winner of the 2018 SCBWI Crystal Kite Award ― adds an intricately tactile element with her lush illustrations rendered in polymer clay and acrylic wash, depicting the animals in scenes at times playful and other times serene.

Deborah Kerbel is the author of the picture book Sun Dog (Pajama Press 2018) and several novels for middle grade and young adult readers. Born in London, England, she moved to Canada at the age of two and went on to attend the University of Western Ontario. Her novels have been shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Canadian Library Association YA Book of the Year, and the Manitoba Young Reader’s Choice Award. Deborah lives in Thornhill, Ontario, with her husband, two book-loving children, and a schnoodle named Alfredo.

Suzanne Del Rizzo has always loved getting her hands messy. She traded her job in scientific research for a career in children’s books, creating dimensional illustrations with polymer clay, acrylic paint, and other media. Suzanne’s 2017 picture book My Beautiful Birds was a New York Times Notable Children’s Books selection, a Junior Library Guild selection, and the 2017 One Book, One San Diego for Kids selection. It also won the Malka Penn Award for Human Rights in Children’s Literature and was an honorable mention for the Middle-East Book Award. Suzanne lives in Oakville, Ontario, with her family.