Why Do We Need Another Baby?: Helping Your Child Welcome a New Arrival - With Love and Illustrations

Hefty doses of reassurance and gentle humor fill MacGregor's read-aloud, which is aimed at children of pregnant mothers. Paring down facts for a preschool audience, the author skips over the issue of conception, explaining that a baby grows in a womb, ""a snug, cozy, comfy little place inside a woman's tummy."" As she emphasizes that a newborn's arrival won't mean that the parents will love the older sibling any less, she strengthens her discussion with kid-appropriate analogies. For example, she likens parents' capacity to love more than one child with a youngster's yearning to have more than one pet (""You won't love your first dog any less if you get a new dog""). Adding a realistic twist, the author observes that children will have to share parents' time with a baby. Yet even here there is a comforting note: it's not just Mommy and Daddy's new baby, ""It's your baby, too""--parents will have to share the infant. Cartoon illustrations are cheerful but not always geared to the audience (e.g., a picture captioned ""I'd like to have a baby brother, please,"" shows a jaded-looking child at a table, consulting a menu labeled ""Genre du Jour""). The book design, too, is unfortunate, with large blocks of text set in enormous type overwhelming most spreads. Ages 4-7. (July)