How Big is Our Baby?: A 9-month guide for soon-to-be siblings

My little one is becoming a big sister at 7 years old. All the other books were quite babyish for her but this one is more fact based and explains what to expect in a child friendly way. I like the little activities and suggestions that help her bond with baby during the pregnancy too.

How big is our baby?Smriti Prasadam-Halls writes the most beautiful and gentle picture books about kindness and having gentle hearts so it’s wonderful that she has turned her talents to non-fiction and soothing the worries and questions of children about to be become siblings.Coupled with Britta Teckentrup’s soft curves and natural colour palette this book is happy yet calm and positive about becoming a big sister or brother.How Big is Our Baby? is a wonderful way to introduce a young child to the changes that will happen over a pregnancy.The creators have a wonderful way in which the changes and developments of pregnancy are explained and introduced from the heartbeat to kicking and the exhaustion a mother will feel after baby comes home.This book is most suitable for children where one parent is pregnant and the changes of pregnancy and birth will be obviously happening to a mum. It could be useful in cases of surrogacy if the whole family has continuous contact throughout but there is constant reference to ‘your mum’ in relation to the pregnancy changes which may be confusing in these cases.There is a nice mix of diversity with the ethnicities of the children and parents and it is certainly a very positive choice for BAME families who are present on every double spread. Whilst there could be some gender neutrality in clothing, it isn’t as diverse in family make up nor is there any visible disability representation nor any wearing glasses for example. However the inclusion factor of increased ethnicity visibility is an important one alone and we can’t have everything!!Overall a calm and soothing choice that could be read deeper by older siblings say 5+ and simply by younger.

This is a beautiful hard back book with lots of colour and interesting information for a toddler. It is aimed at the child who is soon to become a big brother or sister.It describes how the baby develops in the nine months of pregnancy. This is achieved by using simplistic terms and pictures for the very young child and more advanced explanatory vocabulary such as ’pregnancy’ and ‘womb’ for the older soon-to-be sibling. It poses interactive questions such as ‘what colour are your eyes?’ The overriding message is that whilst life may change once the baby arrives, the feelings and love that your parents have for you will still be there.This book is stimulating and educational but above all else, it is aimed to reassure and give security to a young child. I love the concept behind this book and feel that it conveys a great message without sentimentality.

Lovely illustrations, and a really good educational aspect to this book which makes it very easy for children to gain a solid understanding of the developmental stages of an unborn sibling.However, I think our two-year-old is a little too young to appreciate it to the full - probably better for ages 4 and upwards.

Trying to get young children to understand what’s happening to a soon-to-be-sibling before birth is very difficult in our experience, but this book manages it very well. It’s colourful and has great illustrations that show what happens, and also has more advanced wordings for older children. Our three-year-old seems just about the right age for this. Very useful.