As a general matter, I tend to blog about S’s reaction to picture books rather than board books, because I find a toddler’s reaction to books aimed at an older audience fascinating. I’m making an exception for Dawn Babb Prochovnic and Adele Dafflon‘s adorable board book Mama’s Home (And Baby Too!), because we’ve been reading a lot of new sibling books recently and this one is pitch perfect.

Let’s start with what’s unique about this book, which S picked up on immediately: the book doesn’t focus on the new baby, or on visiting mom in the hospital. It focuses on what the older siblings are doing and how they are feeling while mama is away. The hospital is never overtly mentioned, and the baby doesn’t show up until midway through the book, after mama comes home.

By placing the focus squarely on the older siblings, the book opens up the ability to have lots of important conversations with an older-sibling-to-be — centering them and their feelings rather than centering the baby. The older kids miss mama but are not at the hospital — they are playing, grocery shopping, making welcome home crafts… In other words, the book models what it might be like for older sibling(s) while they are waiting at home for mom to return with baby. It also made it easy to have a more specific conversation about what it might be like for S.

By the midway point in the story, S is very interested in seeing mama — when is she coming back?

And as if by magic, as soon as S gets insistent about seeing the mommy, mama enters the scene:

I think it is a great choice that the first time mama appears on the page, she’s wholly focused on the older kids, because she missed them too (and because the existence of a new baby does not negate this in any way). That offers another avenue into helpful conversations to have with the older sibling(s).

And with the mystery of mama solved, S wants see the baby. Which Prochovnic and Dafflon oblige on the very next page:

I love the way that the illustrations depict the newly grown family. Baby is just a member of the family — deserving of (and receiving) attention, but not taking anywhere close to all of it. Mama may be holding baby, but the whole family is together eating breakfast. (And the older siblings are getting to eat extremely delicious-looking pancakes and berries, while the baby is stuck with milk. This was important to S. The big kids are still special.)

That’s equally true when the family goes on other fun family outings in the rest of the book. Both parents are there, and they are playing with the older kids; there just also happens to be a stroller around too.

I am not expecting this book to be a miracle worker for jealousy down the road, but I think it (and all the conversations it has enabled) will remain a touch point as we navigate S’s new sibling journey. Which, on top of the book being super cute and gorgeously illustrated, makes me very grateful to have a copy.

Mama’s Home (And Baby Too!) By the Numbers

Pages: 20 pages

Word Count: 94

Words Per Illustration: 5.875

Words Per Sentence: 2.13 (though this is largely a function of the great, spare rhyme — each word carries a lot of weight, and the rhyme breaks concepts into individual sentences)