Before You Were Born

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Illustrated with full-color whimsy by Laura Cornell, whose delightful work is familiar to readers of Jamie Lee Curtis's Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born and When I Was Little, BEFORE YOU WERE BORN is a month-by-month countdown written in rhyming verse.

Each page shows what's happening to the mother on the outside and then, under the flap, in the mother's belly to the baby on the inside. Children learn how Mommy is feeling and how the baby is developing, about hiccups, kicks, and umbilical cords, a first heartbeat, and the contractions that mark the beginning of labor.

For expectant mothers and curious little kids, and especially for kids with siblings on the way, it is an interactive storybook that delivers delight and information and reassurance, too.

There is also a full-page illustration of father dusting off a crib.

I also had a hard time identifying with the mother in the illustrations, who is very white upper-middle class in her dresses, make-up and workout clothing.

Parenting, lifestyle, and birth choices aside, this is definitely a book written by a mother, not a writer, and sometimes the rhymes are a bit forced. The illustrations make up for it in their jolly attitude, but are not caldecott contenders- they are quick and dirty cartoon style pen and ink, colorwash type things, with little art.

However, if you see an OB regularly, have a seperate nursery for baby, and like Martha Stewart, this book might be right on target for you!