Nonfiction Monday: Your Baby Is Speaking To You

Your Baby Is Speaking To You: A Visual Guide to the Amazing Behaviors of Your Newborn and Growing Baby. Dr. Kevin Nugent. Photographs by Abelardo Morell. 2011. January 2011. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 106 pages.

I loved the premise of this one. It is a reader-friendly book that can be used as a "tool" to help parents understand and appreciate their baby's body language.The book focuses specifically on newborns. It covers just the first few months of life. (I would have loved to see it cover even more.)

It is divided into seven sections: Sleeping, Crying, Eating (The Sleeping Baby, Deep Sleep, Light Sleep, The Full Cry, Fussing, The Search Response, Feeding), The Amazing Newborn (The Fencer Response, Hand to Mouth, The Sleep Smile, First Steps, Hands, Pre-Reaching, The Smile of Discovery, Crawling, Feet, Yawning), Your Baby's Senses (Responding to Sounds, Visual Exploration, Touch, Cuddliness, The Not Very Cuddly Baby), Settling In (Startles, Drowsiness, Overstimulation, Signs of Distress, Soothability, The Not Easily Settled Baby), The Social Newborn (Looking Into Your Eyes, Feeding and Communication, The Power of Your Voice, Imitation, Learning, Temperament, The Social Smile), The Growing Baby (Reaching Out, Exploring, Empathy, Learning to Love), Parent and Baby and the Lifelong Bond. Six of the sections are divided into chapters.

This one has great layout. Each "chapter" is two pages. Each features at least one black-and-white photograph and a few paragraphs of text. (Some chapters have more photographs than others.) The narrative is written in a conversational style that I found very pleasant. While you could read this one cover-to-cover, I believe it could also be a book that is great for browsing--reading a little here and there. Letting the photos lead the way. 

The photos are amazing. I loved, loved, loved looking at the photographs in this one. The text helps "interpret" the photo. (Do you know the difference between a simple smile, a sleep smile, and a social smile?)

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews