Happy Birth Day!

I love this book. My baby is still a bit too young to understand books so this one is for me. It reminds me of all the joy of her first day here, when they put her into my arms and I never knew something could feel that good. This book captures that day's experiences and feelings perfectly and serves to remind me, when I am tired and grumpy, the magic and joy that should be the overwhelming experience of having a child.

This is a charming, tender and very true-to-life book about what the first few minutes after giving birth are like -- really lovely. I would caution conservative families, though -- the illustrations are very realistic, this is not a "prettied-up" view of newborn babies. So if you'd rather that your children imagine newborns as looking like the Gerber baby, this may not be the book for you.

I purchase this book for everyone close to me who has a baby. It is a wonderful rendition of childbirth and the first day of a baby's life. The book is written from a parent's perspective to the child. The text is written with easy-to-understand language and has beautiful illustrations. A special note: This book would not be good for parents who experienced a particularly troubling delivery because the book describes the perfect situation.

I was lucky enough to stumble upon this book when I was about 7 months pregnant with our second child. Our oldest was then almost 2 1/2. Harris's wonderful book was instrumental in preparing our daughter for the impending arrival of her baby brother. The illustrations are beautiful and life-like; excellent pastel artwork. The text did a fantastic job conveying the wonder of birth and the first day of life for a newborn. We renewed it twice, keeping it a total of 9 weeks and my daughter had it memorized by the 2nd renewal. She loved the "howling at the moon" part along with the "sneezing, hiccuping, peeing and pooping." The pictures of the naked newborn complete with umbilical cord and the baby nursing at her mother's breast were wonderful in preparing my daughter. She was totally at ease with her brother's newborn "looks" at the hospital and was not at all shocked by the sight of him nursing. I HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone wanting to prepare their older child/children for a new arrival. It would also be great for any child just for learning more about their own arrival in the world.

I am a Reading Specialist and have taught Special Education students for 14 years. I found this book wonderfully stimulating and the language easy to read and follow. I recently had my 2nd baby and my husband and I have enjoyed reading this to my 2 1/2 year old daughter. I especially like that there is a realistic picture of a mother nursing her baby. Pictures like that are very hard to find. It is wonderful to see realistic pictures depicting a nursing mother and child. It is hard to find children's books that DO NOT show a baby is bottle fed only! Wish I had found this book before I had my baby so I could show my daughter what was about to happen!!