What Every Older Sibling Needs to Know!
October 24, 2022
What do experienced big siblings “wish we had known before our babies arrived”? The answers, as offered by Clinton and de Regil, are relayed in a series of spreads: each verso features a developmentally related question posed by a dubious-looking new sibling; the recto offers an encouraging answer as another child confidently navigates the situation. The answer to “Why does my baby need to burp?” explains how infants swallow air, and shows a child (wearing a spit-up cloth and supervised by an adult) helping the burp along. Other topics include pooping and those two soft spots on top of a newborn’s head; many of the informative answers are also subtly inclusive (“Some babies talk much later than that, and some others don’t talk at all, or they talk with their hands or the help of a computer”). Crisp mixed-media illustrations portray characters in a range of skin tones navigating totally-under-control domestic scenarios. Sidestepping the sturm und drang of displacement, the creators treat their audiences as curious students of the new arrival, ready to establish a new relationship of their own. Ages 4–8.