Welcome to the Big Kids Club

July 1, 2022
Answers many questions kids may have when a new baby is on the way. Told from the perspective of a wise group of older siblings--who have already gone through the experience of welcoming a new member (the reader) to the Big Kids Club--this book is presented as the guide the big kids wish they had had at the time. A single question is posed on the verso of each spread and answered on the recto. The first musing is "Can my baby see me?" Careful to be mindful of all abilities, the Big Kids Club answers: "All babies are different, and not all of them are born being able to see." They go on to explain how vision develops slowly with focus and colors, but "if your baby can't see, you can make them laugh using different senses." Other wonderings include "What does it mean when my baby cries?" "When can my baby talk to me?" and the ever important "Why does my baby poop so much?" The bigger kids and younger tots reflect a wide diversity of ethnicities and wear fantastically patterned attire throughout. The congratulatory tone and initiation into a secret club just may be the hook some new siblings need to feel special. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A club that everyone will want to join. (Picture book. 3-6)

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October 24, 2022
What do experienced big siblings “wish we had known before our babies arrived”? The answers, as offered by Clinton and de Regil, are relayed in a series of spreads: each verso features a developmentally related question posed by a dubious-looking new sibling; the recto offers an encouraging answer as another child confidently navigates the situation. The answer to “Why does my baby need to burp?” explains how infants swallow air, and shows a child (wearing a spit-up cloth and supervised by an adult) helping the burp along. Other topics include pooping and those two soft spots on top of a newborn’s head; many of the informative answers are also subtly inclusive (“Some babies talk much later than that, and some others don’t talk at all, or they talk with their hands or the help of a computer”). Crisp mixed-media illustrations portray characters in a range of skin tones navigating totally-under-control domestic scenarios. Sidestepping the sturm und drang of displacement, the creators treat their audiences as curious students of the new arrival, ready to establish a new relationship of their own. Ages 4–8.