Here come the babies

Explanations and understanding

Young children can become very confused used and anxious about what is actually going to happen to their mother when she is pregnant and what their role in it all is meant to be. Books which trigger discussion and thought on the subject can be a very useful tool.

The World is Full of Babies is an award-winning book by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom (Franklin Watts, softback Pounds4.99) and rightly so. Each double-page spread takes a look at how babies develop: in the womb, immediately after birth, when they cry, when they feed, when they sleep and so on. The left-hand side of each spread focuses on human babies while the right-hand side provides information on all kinds of different young animals from whales to cats. The juxtaposition of animals and accompanying interesting snippets like, If you were a kingfisher baby you'd sit happily in a stinking mess of rotten fishbones and droppings, with human babies is reassuring in that it conveys the idea that acquiring a new sibling is all part of a great big process that happens to everyone all the time, without labouring the useful words at the end of the point. There is a section of useful words at the end of the book and it is particularly easy to hold up and show to small groups, thanks to its narrow format.