Books About a New Sibling for Toddlers?

July 22, 2010 9:42 AM

Are there any good story books for toddlers that might help explain the arrival of a sibling?

My son is three and my wife is due in October. He loves books and they're a great way to open conversations about new things with him. So I'm looking for some books that might be a good introduction to having a sister, living with a baby, and all of the changes involved. If it matters, he especially loves older picture books by folks like Dr. Seuss, Lois Lenski, and Virginia Lee Burton. Berenstain Bears and Curious George are also favorites.

posted by pb to media & arts (18 answers total)

Well, the Berenstain Bears one is Baby Makes Five. Although I can't speak for the quality, since introducing Honey Bear was kind of a hack move to begin with.
posted by true at 9:47 AM on July 22, 2010

There are tons, and what I did was head to my children's librarian, who even had a little list all preprinted with titles for different age groups. We must have checked out every age appropriate book about new babies at least once, and some of them ended up being favorites that we would check out for months after the new baby arrived.

I'm sure your local library will have a similar list (and, FYI, libraries usually have similar booklists for other major life events--deaths of family members or pets, divorce, moving to a new place, starting school, etc. that can be incredibly handy resources).

Congrats!
posted by padraigin at 9:52 AM on July 22, 2010

Marc Brown, "Arthur's Baby."
posted by MonkeyToes at 9:54 AM on July 22, 2010

The older Berenstain Bears book is The Berenstain Bears' New baby which is about the birth of Sister.

My son enjoyed reading that before/after his little sister arrived.
posted by cjets at 9:55 AM on July 22, 2010

I did a search on Powell's for new baby sister and new baby brother with lots of suggestions. The first one on that list for both looks pretty good especially if you're not sure what you're having. I wish I could find the book that I gave to a friend who was having her second. It's part of a series with kind of like hamster characters? It's going to bug me. But if you have a favorite series maybe looking to see if there's a "big brother" book would be nice.
posted by amanda at 9:58 AM on July 22, 2010

The New Baby, by Mr. Rogers himself, was one my son liked. He also repeatedly requested the Drs. Sears' book, What Baby Needs.
posted by cocoagirl at 10:25 AM on July 22, 2010

I still remember looking at A Child Is Born (Lennart Nilsson) with my parents before my younger siblings were born. Great book to show "what's going on in mommy's tummy??"

+1 on the original Berenstain Bears' New Baby
posted by nuffsaid at 10:36 AM on July 22, 2010

I came in to recommend "My New Baby" by Annie Kubler, but a quick amazon search shows it is currently unavailable :( I'll recommend it anyway because its so awesome, and maybe a local bookstore can find it for you. The great thing about this book is that there are no words. Assuming you are a white-ish hetero family that would match the pictures (the toddler could be male or female), then you can totally personalise the story and describe each page in a personalised way "daddy is making dinner while mom feeds the baby and [child's name] is helping daddy". We really loved it.
posted by Joh at 10:56 AM on July 22, 2010

My son was pretty much the same age as your child and we always liked reading Little Critter - The New Baby.
Definitely check that one out.
posted by doorsfan at 11:05 AM on July 22, 2010

My niece was a Sesame Street fan, so I got her A Baby Sister for Herry when her mom was expecting.
posted by Knappster at 11:40 AM on July 22, 2010

Years ago we bought WE HAVE A BABY by Cathryn Falwell and I'M A BIG SISTER (there's also I'M A BIG BROTHER) by Joanna Cole.
posted by wisekaren at 12:00 PM on July 22, 2010

I have reservations about the rabies status of the Berenstain Bears. On repeated reading, which you are going to definitely be involved in, their dedication to moralistic narratives looks a lot like mouthfoam. Their baby book isn't so bad.

Little Critter is great, and fun to read aloud. I also recommend Russell Hoban's A Baby Sister for Frances. Frances does things that an adult reader will recognize as attention-seeking behaviour, but her mother and father both lovingly reassure her and engage her assistance with the new baby. Frances is funny and sweet, holds up to rereading, and nobody ever draws a skateboard near her in hopes that it will make her more current.

Oh, I also found a thread at that Goodreads link with some other suggestions you might want to look at.
posted by Sallyfur at 12:54 PM on July 22, 2010

Peter's Chair, by Ezra Jack Keats
posted by emhutchinson at 12:58 PM on July 22, 2010

Julius, Baby of the World is GREAT. (as is everything Kevin Henkes does).

But And After That was my FAVORITE book to recommend when I was a kid's bookseller. The language is simple, the book is interactive, and it makes it clear what the point of the book is. I love it a lot.
posted by bibliogrrl at 1:00 PM on July 22, 2010

Also - What's Inside by the same author is wonderful, too.
posted by bibliogrrl at 1:01 PM on July 22, 2010

I am due in October, and we have a toddler, and his favorite book is "I'm a Big Brother" by Joanna Cole. He calls it the "baby book" and asks for it to be read to him daily.
posted by ambrosia at 1:18 PM on July 22, 2010

We also loved the "I'm a Big Sister" book by Joanna Cole. Wore that sucker out.
posted by mdiskin at 8:47 PM on July 23, 2010

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I picked up quite a few of these and my son seems to like the Dr. Sears book best, but they're all very good. We also picked up Baby on the Way from Dr. Sears. Thanks again!
posted by pb at 12:15 PM on August 11, 2010