Welcome to the World, Baby Boy (or Girl)

17 Jun

You might say that life and death are the two questions I am asked for the most when it comes to finding books to help young children understand their changing world.  In this book list, we’ll cover the happier event , the arrival of a new sibling.

These days, there is less surprise when a new child is expected.  Unless mom and dad choose to be surprised, the whole family knows whether to expect a boy or a girl, frequently a name has already been selected, and the older child has been told repeatedly that the baby in mommy’s tummy will need special love and care.  Many families represent it to the older child as a promotion, of sorts: younger child or only child to the child who sets the pace for the new sibling.

It’s still hard for the older child to understand what is going on (leading one of my sisters to threaten to throw me in the sewer when I was brought home from the hospital).  The following books may help your child understand the transition and what to expect when their family is expecting a new arrival:

babies-dont-eat-pizza

 Babies Don’t Eat Pizza, by Deanne Danzig.

This is a fairly straightforward “care and feeding” of the newcomer that explains how the new baby will fit into the family structure.  It also includes notes for parents on how to prepare siblings for the new arrival.

big-sister-now

Big Sister Now, by Annette Sheldon.

AND

big-brother-now

Big Brother Now, by Annette Sheldon.

This is actually two separate books which help children to learn about sharing their parents with a new baby.

waiting-for-baby

 Waiting for Baby, by Rachel Fuller.

This is a toddler board book (heavier pages designed for nibbling as well as reading) that explain to the youngest reader that they will have a new sibling and how to prepare for his/her arrival.  Because of the age of the sister or brother, it’s likely that this book will be more of a comfort to mommy than to the child.

baby-on-the-way

Baby on the Way, by William Sears, MD.

This is an interesting perspective for the older child, since Dr. Sears includes things like how mommy is feeling while waiting for the baby, how the family gets ready to welcome the child, and how things will change when the new baby arrives.  A bit more detailed than the fiction books on the same subject.

theres-going-to-be-a-baby

 There’s Going to be a Baby, by John Birmingham.

A young boy imagines what life will be like when his new sibling arrives.

little-rabbits-new-baby

Little Rabbit’s New Baby, by Harry Horse.

Little Rabbit has looked forward to being a new brother, but when his mother brings home triplets, it’s a bit harder than he expected.

nobody-asked-me-if-i-wanted-a-baby-sister

 Nobody Asked Me If I Wanted a Baby Sister, by Martha Alexander.

Resenting the attention that his new sister is getting, Oliver tries to give her away to someone else in the neighborhood.

big-brothers-dont-take-naps

 Big Brothers Don’t Take Naps, by Louise Borden.

Little brother Nick lists all the things that his big brother does with him and takes pride in the fact that he will now be able to do the same things for his new sibling.

tell-me-a-story-mama

Tell Me a Story, Mama, by Deb Lund.

A mother tells her daughter about waiting for her to be born as they both look forward to the arrival of a new child in the family.

samuels-baby

Samuel’s Baby, by Mark Elkins.

Samuel announces during kindergarten show and tell that he is expecting a new baby at his house, leaving his classmates to guess at what the new baby will be (everything from twins to kittens).   Samuel is able to demonstrate how he will help his mom care for the new baby.

where-did-that-baby-come-from

Where Did That Baby Come From, by Debi Giori.

A small animal wonders where his strange, squeaky, leaky sibling came from and whether it’s possible to set it free, again.

lola-reads-to-leo

 Lola Reads to Leo, by Anna McQuinn.

Lola reads stories with her new baby brother, Leo, just as her parents read to her.  She is pleased to learn that, even with the new baby in the house, her parents still have time to share bedtime stories with their older daughter.

The possibilities in this category are nearly endless, but this sampling should give you at least enough books to get your older child ready for the awesome responsibility of becoming a bog brother or sister.

– by Lois Rubin Gross, Children’s Librarian

Two Ever Afters: Charlaine Harris’s Dead Ever After and Kim Harrison’s Ever After

8 Jun

dead ever afterI began reading the Sookie Stackhouse novels a few years before the HBO series started.  Since I enjoy urban fantasy and had fallen in love with Louisiana on a visit to New Orleans I found a lot to like about the series with its Cajun setting populated with vampires, fairies, and werewolves.  I quickly read through the first few novels and the continued along as the years passed.  I was pleased with the HBO adaptation, True Blood, which blends in many of the details and the mood of the original work with enough changes that it adds some novelty; keeping one particular beloved character alive especially endeared it to me.  Unfortunately over the last few novels I have felt slightly less interested in the story.  The characters have seemed less likeable and as the level of gloom over the storylines increased, my enjoyment decreased.  I wasn’t ready to bail on them yet the way I had with Anne Rice’s Vampire series around the time that Pandora came out, but I was pleased when I learned that Dead Ever After would be the last book in the series.  I had hopes that this novel as a planned conclusion might bring back some of the magic from the earlier books in the series.

The book itself playfully pokes at the readers’ expectations with the cover and end pages decorated with images of Sookie’s romantic interests a werewolf, weretigger, shapeshifter, and a vampire.  This of course leads to the problem that any series with a love triangle or in this case a love hexagon has that it will never satisfy all the readers with its ending.  I didn’t find the end result surprising or unexpected, although I had been rooting for the redemption of her first love, the vampire Bill, who barely was featured in the book.  The book does feature appearances of many of the friends and foe that have surrounded Sookie throughout the series, but I would have liked more satisfying conclusions and growth for many of the characters.  Although in life people often do not get a happy ending, it is a shame in a series populated with fairies that so many characters instead seem to be settling in the end.

For those disappointed in the ending there is always True Blood, which could choose an entirely different love for Sookie in the finale.  Also coming out around Halloween will be After Dead: What Came Next in the World of Sookie Stackhouse, an encyclopedic epilogue where Harris discusses the lives of the Bontemps residents following the last novel, which may deliver some surprises.  I would say for readers who have not yet sampled the series to check out the first few novels, which are a well written pleasure for a nice summer beach read, but if you too begin at some point to feel disenfranchised just borrow After Dead from the library when it comes out and skip ahead to the end.

Kim Harrison’s Ever After & The Hollow Series

EVER-AFTER-by-Kim-Harrison

Fans of the Sookie Stackhouse novels should enjoy Kim Harrison’s Hollow series.  The Sookie novels are set in present day America (though it was not meant to take place at a set time until post Katrina when Harris incorporated the hurricane into the work and gave it a more fixed timeline).  The Hollow novels also take place in modern America, but several decades after vampires and other supernatural creatures came out of the coffin to borrow a True Blood phrase.  In their case it was not due to a blood substitute becoming available, but instead due to human society being thrown into turmoil due to a mass pandemic brought on by genetically modified tomato plants, which caused the unaffected witches, vampires, and pixies to step forward to save civilization (throughout the series there are jokes about humans now being terrified of ketchup and pizza sauce).  Rachel Morgan is a young witch who uses her magic in trying to solve and prevent crimes.  Her partners are a pixie and a living vampire.  One of my favorite characters in the novels is Al, a wisecracking demon who becomes a foil for Rachel throughout the series.  The setting in Cincinnati gives the books more of a gritty urban feel.

Ever After is the most recent in Kim Harrison’s Hollow series.  Although the title may lead you to believe that this is the last in the series, there are actually two more books planned for 2014 and 2015 before Harrison gives her characters their final “ever after”.  Although at first the novel started off a bit slowly and could have been edited down about a hundred pages, on the whole it was filled with action, which propelled it on to what could have been a satisfying ending to the series, but left enough room for further character exploration that I’m looking forward to the next two novels.  In this series the dark places that the characters are taken to emotionally works well.  I like that several characters that had been painted as villains early on have gradually been redeemed.  I was reminded of how much the characters have grown and developed when reading recently a graphic novel prequel Blood Work that Harrison wrote about the early partnership between Ivy, a vampire, and Rachel. The novels are best read in order so though Ever After is definitely among my favorites in the series; I would recommend starting at the beginning.  If the early Sookie novels are a great beach read, this series is best read with a flashlight on a stormy summer night when the power has gone out.  So think about stopping in to the library for one on the next rainy day.

– Written by Aimee Harris, Head of Reference

Tags: , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →