Sibling books

[Reiltin]

DD (21mo) is getting a little brother or sister - yay! What books would you recommend to introduce the concept? What books did your kid like / respond to? Any to stay away from? Thanks

Do NOT buy Za Zas Baby Brother.

It is awful. We got it bought for dd and read it once then binned it. Poor Za Za is totally ignored by visitors, by mum and dad, has to play alone or with her brother. She only gets a hug when Baby has gone to bed. Depressing.

For the pregnancy bit, mine liked There's A House Inside My Mummy. The other one we liked is called There's An Ouch in My Pouch.

We had There's a House Inside My Mummy too. Lovely book, although very hard to read the bit about the baby's' 'door' being rather tight without sniggering

We also had My New Baby, which was dull for us but DD1 loved. In fact she took her cue from it and DD2 was her baby for quite some time.

We got given Za Za and it was fairly accurate for reflecting the change in routine when the new baby arrives - a bit depressing yes (I always feel a bit sad when we read it) but DD seems to like it. I like The New Small Person by Lauren Child.

We also have a Topsy and Tim book about Thee New Baby which is pretty good on the educational front - shows the baby being washed and nappy changed, also shows the mum breastfeeding! So it is useful as a way of showing an older child all the things which have to be done for the new baby when it arrives.

We have "I'm a big brother" by Joanna Cole (there is a "I'm a big sister" too)

DD is due to arrive very soon, but DS loves the book (given to us by friends). It is a bit American (we swap nappy for diaper, etc), but he has already memorised it and loves "reading" it, and it has really helped get his head around the idea of a new baby sister. We shall see how much it really helps when she arrives!

We had the Pirate Pete is a new Big Brother book.I think there's a big sister version too.

There's an Ouch in my Pouch is good too.

Pirate Pete has gone down well with my son.