Before You Were Born ANNOTATION
A lift-the-flap book showing milestones in a baby's development during pregnancy and the mother's experiences as it grows.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Illustrated in full color, "Before You Were Born" is a month-by-month count-down written in rhyming verse. Beginning with conception and continuing through development, up through birth, this interactive storybook delivers delight and information.
FROM THE CRITICS
Children's Literature - Jeanne K. Pettenati
This lift-the-flap book describes the monthly progress of a mother's pregnancy with simple rhymes and amusing illustrations. The author explains what happens to a mother as a baby develops in her womb. The child-friendly text and pictures reveal biology on a very basic level. A child will learn when her skeleton began forming, when she started to smile and frown, and when she could suck her thumb in utero. Morning sickness, weight gain, and contractions are also discussed. This a great way to teach children about the way they were before birth and to teach older siblings about the changes that pregnancy brings.
School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 2-A whimsical yet accurate look at many different aspects of prenatal development. Told from a pregnant woman's point of view, the lighthearted rhyming text begins, "Before you were born and with 9 months to go..." and counts down to delivery day. In the bottom left corner of each double-page spread is a thumbnail drawing of a baby along with an informational tidbit on a developmental milestone that each month brings. For example, readers learn that at seven months to go, "You were now starting to smile and frown." The facing page then focuses on one identifying event for that month such as hearing the baby's heartbeat, feeling the effects of the hiccups, or experiencing rapid weight gain. After focusing on the mother's perspective, a postcard-sized flap can be lifted to reveal the fetus, happily painting its growing nails or gleefully dancing, boom box in hand. Loose, jaunty, black-ink lines and splashy watercolors support the humorous tone of these anecdotal vignettes that are sure to garner laughs as the woman's belly grows out of proportion to her tall skinny face. Readers will enjoy the interactive nature of this energetic title.-Martha Topol, Traverse Area District Library, Traverse City, MI
Kirkus Reviews
Another look for the very young at what's going on (in loose terms) inside a mother's belly during the nine months of pregnancy. Every spread is devoted to one of the months. The left page is given over to a simple one-line countdown—e.g., "Before you were born and with 9 months to go " There is also a tiny illustration tucked into a corner of this page, accompanied by a kernel of hard information, such as when the baby grows hair and nails. The opposite page has an illustration of the mother, getting bigger and clumsier and experiencing the preborn's movements. A flap lifts to reveal the baby in its home, going through its changing paces; it's a neat gimmick, and the payoff is Cornell's artwork, lighthearted and comical, pretty much as far from a biology lesson as one can get (the baby is a congenial cartoon, often clothed or accessorized, who, but for its umbilical cord, could live inside or outside the womb). There is a gap between the clever design and premise, and the information given: Davis's mild rhyming text plays pregnancy mostly for laughs and reassurance; more intriguing are the factual snippets on the lefthand pages, which will have more than one listener merrily imagining the time he or she was the size of a flea, or, even better, curled up and the size of a toaster. (Picture book. 3-6)
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