The New Baby at Your House: A Supportive Picture Book About Family and Feelings for Kids (Ages 4-8)

We're expecting our second baby, due right when our oldest son turns two and a half. Without really knowing how best to talk with him about the HUGE changes coming up, we bought a bunch of new baby/big brother books to read with him, hoping to benefit from the authors' informed choices about helpful things for older siblings to know.This book is one of the best we've purchased. At first glance, it seemed a little "texty" for my two-year-old. We started out by just talking about all the pictures with him because we thought that would be the best way for him to understand. But really, he doesn't need any help from us to understand this excellent book, even when we just read it word for word. He wants to hear it again and again. I think it's amazing that this author could write a book that is relevant to so many age levels -- as great as it's been for my two-year-old, I know it would be a winner for a preschool-aged kid, too.And the pictures! The pictures are amazing. The clothes look a little dated at this point, but that doesn't matter a bit to us. There are so many big, colorful, detailed pictures of real babies, siblings, and parents. My son has stared at these pictures so many times, talking about them, imitating them, asking us questions about what's happening. Another excellent and important aspect of this book: the people photographed are truly a diverse group.All in all, I am so thankful for this book. I've felt apprehensive -- and even a little guilty -- about the fact that we're going to be springing a huge set of changes on a little boy who can't possibly understand in advance the full extent of what's about to happen. This book eased my anxieties in so many ways. While of course there's so way to fully communicate to my son all that will be happening and no way to predict exactly what will be most helpful for him, this book speaks to him in language he can understand about what it's really like to have a new baby around. His intense interest in and reading of this book means I no longer feel like we'll be "springing" a baby sister on him without doing what we could to help him understand what to expect. And I think the book will continue to be extremely helpful once our new little one arrives! I would highly recommend this to any family expecting a new sibling.

I purchased several books to help prepare my than 3 year old daughter for the arrival of her baby brother. This is my favorite primarily due to the beautiful photos. Specific positives:- Racially diverse families are shown (white, black, hispanic, asian)- The older siblings are a variety of ages(young toddler through early elementary)- Multiple stages are highlighted (pre-arrival, arrival including a visit to the hospital, and post arrival up to the baby being about 18 months old)- The conflicting emotions of having a sibling are shown- Both breast and bottle-feeding are shownMy daughter enjoys seeing the pictures of other kids with their babies. It helps that the names of 2 of the children match her and her brother's names. There is a lot of text in this book, so it may be too long for a child with a short attention span. However, the pictures are good conversation starters. The text provided me language to use with my daughter to discuss our new baby.

My 4 year old loved it so much that I have bought it many times as gifts for other older siblings-to-be. The real images of different types of families are important, I think children connect to it more than to the illustrated images in other books. Some of the pictures appear a little dated (70's, early 80's), but the concepts shown are timeless. I love that they have all baby and all parent types shown (I would welcome an update for more modern looking couples and wouldn't be opposed to adding some same sex couple families).

Nicely surprised by this book. A well thought out story and good information for an older sibling to help them accept having a new baby in their house.

Like other reviewers, I bought this book along with several others. My son, who was 2 at the time, did not seem interested in this book despite the color photos and kid-friendly dialogue. I think it is because the photos/story continuity. When I read to my son, especially when he was younger, I point out the characters as I read their names to engage him more in the story. The photos are taken at different times in the families' lives and so it can be hard to tell which children go with which family. This is difficult because the story alternates between telling about the families and just random facts about babies.Pluses are: there is good information in the front of the book for parents with a list of other books to reference, ethnic diversity is nice- (photos depict Asian, Hispanic, African-American, and Caucasian families), picture of breastfeeding mom is a good touch too.Also- There is the standard Mom-packs-bag-for-hospital scene, but since homebirth in America is about 1-2% of the population, I am not bothered even though I had a homebirth.

It's a bit wordy for a toddler to sit though, so we mainly look at the pictures. I just ad-lib what I want her to know about the photos and what is to come. My daughter likes to see what the big siblings do when the new baby comes. I'm glad we have the book despite the fact that I don't read the story (just too long and wordy for a toddler).

Real photos of lots of different families with new babies, different ages of older siblings are included. New babies growing into older babies are shown, too. Some references to the birth process (parents go away to the hospital) are included, nothing specific. Depicts breast and bottle feeding. Almost good as Roslyn Banish's "Let Me Tell You About My Baby." Both of these books (LMTYAMB and this one) include the downsides of a new sibling, like having a baby cry all the time, need tons of attention, mess with your toys, etc. Like LMTYAMB, this one keeps even very young toddlers' interest, despite its length and number of words, because of how much kids this age love photos of babies and kids. These two are better than any of the cartoony board books that are more recent additions in the category of "toddler and preschooler literature re: the impending destruction of your current lifestyle."

Our daughter is 3 and has Cerebral Palsy. We were desperate for her to understand that she will be getting a baby brother or sister soon. This book worked better than any other because it contains photos of families. My daughter was able to point to the mummy in the picture and then pointed to me showing that she knew who was who. She did the same with the Daddy and the older sibling. She pointed to all the babies and made the sign for baby and pointed to my tummy. I am convinced this book has made the whole situation clearer in her head and she has also chosen to carry it around with her for over a week since we got it. She loves to show it to people and gets very excited. The one thing I could say would improve this book would be for it to be hard backed (because ours has been looked at so so much its in a poor state already. I don't mind though because It has definitely done its job. It is an american book so has american phrases in it I change them to words my daughter will understand when I read it though. I guess the photos cold do with being updated again as the last update was the 90's but it still does the trick. Brilliant book which I would recommend to anyone, I think photos are easier for children to relate to.

My 3 year old daughter started to act up when her new baby brother was 2-3 months old. Previous to that she was as good as gold. This book really helped the situation as she was beginning to throw tantrums and act as if she were a baby herself. This book covers great big brother/sister examples with lovely images she could relate to. I only had to read this book a couple of times at bedtime before the tantrums stopped and I got my daughter back. A lovely book to have and the fact that the photographs are a little out dated adds a nice touch.

Was great for my 3.5 yr old. She was fascinated by the pictures of brothers and sisters and it gave way to setting expectations of the good and not so good things that happen when a baby comes home. She has a great attitude now and I'm hoping it'll last after baby comes.

good for even my six year old, other books on this subject just for toddlers

I did not enjoy this book. It is very American and too much writing. I bought it for my daughter aged 6 when we were expecting but it was too much for her to keep interested it.