Books on babies

Our selection covers a whole range of childcare issues and offers information and advice for both staff and parents Small Talk by Dr Richard C Woolfson (Hamlyn, 14.99) is written as a guide to understanding the speech and body language of babies and children up to the age of three. The book is divided into ten 'age sections', so each section covers three months, starting at birth to three months and ending at 31 to 36 months. Within each age section there are five further divisions: language development; body language; top tips; questions and answers and a development chart with the appropriate page references for each on the contents page at the front. This is a good way of providing a really quick reference guide if you want to look up, for example, language development at 25 to 30 months, because you can see what page it's on straight away, but it also means you risk missing important sections on bilingualism and special needs, which are not mentioned on the contents page, unless you read through the whole book. However, at just 138 pages long the book is an easy and interesting read throughout and you could also pass it to anxious parents because there are extensive question and answer sections in each part, dealing with common worries that face parent and carer alike.