I thought this book was very simple and easy for my 2 year old to understand. It addresses things big brother/sister can and can't do with the new baby. It lets the older child know that the baby will cry alot, sleep alot and do little else. I was pleased with the level on which the book was written.

After looking at many different books to prepare my 2 year old daughter for a new brother, this was the best one! It didn't get into where babies come from, but more about what a sibling can do with a new baby and what to expect.

While reading this book, it struck me that the way everything was worded, it would be a good book for a family who was adopting a new baby - there is no mention of coming home from the hospital, just that our new baby is coming home today. And the new baby certainly doesn't act like a newborn.

My one complaint is that the baby is shown bottlefeeding herself, and while most adopted babies do tend to be bottlefed (you can breastfeed an adopted baby), feeding time should be one where the parent and baby are involved together, not with the baby feeding herself. Certainly not at the age she is shown to be.

Pretty simple message is communicated easily with this large picture display book: baby doesn't do much but sleep, gurgle and smell bad occasionally ---so not much of a play companion...but you can cuddle it, sing to it, show it off to your friends.
Seems to be a good simple concept to convey about our first pending new sibling arrival to my 3 year old.

We got this book for our 15 month old when we found out we were having another baby. He absolutely loves this book! He carries it around and even sleeps with it in his crib. Even though he's really young, he is very careful with the thin pages. This book is great!

When I was pregnant with my second child, I looked long and hard for good books to introduce to our 2 yr. old son the idea of a new baby arriving. I was surprised that, of all the ones I saw, this is far and away the best -- at least for the 2-4 yr. old crowd. This book helps them understand what to expect from a baby (for instance, not an instant playmate, and lots of crying) and what they can do with a baby (snuggle, give her a finger to grab, take her for a walk in the stroller). For an excellent book on reassuring your child that he or she won't be losing out on Mommy's love, try "On Mother's Lap," by Ann Herbert Scott (wonderful illustrations, too). My son still enjoys these books, a year-and-a-half later.

I bought this book and two others in an attempt to prepare my son for the birth of his sister. He was 22 months when she was born. The other books ordered were too sophisticated for him. This book was a hit - he requested it every night before and after she was born. I liked that it used short simple language to explain what it would be like with the baby around and gave ideas to the older sibling for ways to play with the new baby. The "What to Expect" book and Calliou's book were both not as good.

My son is 16 months old and he loves this book! It has been so helpful in trying to prepare him for becoming a big brother. Even though he is young, we are able to tell him about what babies can and cannot do so he will be ready when his brother arrives. I think out of all the books we bought, we will be able to reinforce more about babies with this book than any of the others. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who needs to prepare a child for a new siblings arrival!

This is such a cute book...I found it when looking for some book to get for my son to help him get ready for the arrival of his little sister...what I really liked was how it explained how the baby wouldn't be able to really do anything right away...that was very helpful because of course my son who is 2 thought that his sister would be able to play with him and everything right away...but after reading his books he realized she was going to be a little baby and wouldn't be able to do everything he wanted...he is now very excited for his sister to get here and he loves reading it...he now likes to read it to us...definatly a perfect book for either the Big Brother or the Bid Sister.

Do you have a new addition to the family coming, or already here? For young children this might be just the thing to help them know they are not alone in joining the ranks of big brother or big sister. My young daughter still reads this book several times a week, and her baby brother is now a year old! This book does not give any hints of sibling rivalry or jealousy, which I appreciated very much. It only introduces little critters new baby and begins answering the question, what can you do with a new baby?

My toddler loves Little Critter so I ordered this thinking it would help prepare him for his new sibling. I wish I had checked it out at the library first. The parents tell LC about the baby the day before she comes home (was Mrs Critter never pregnant?) and when she arrives she looks and acts like a 4+ month old baby, not a newborn infant. She also only gets a bottle, which may confuse your child if you breastfeed/fed. My son thought they were giving the baby a bottle of glue. I would look this over at the library or bookstore before purchasing it.

My name is Natalie. I am a 2nd grader. My favorite Mercer Book is THE NEW BABY. My favorite part was when Little Critter and his family got a new baby. It was funny!

This book is a nice inexpensive choice for when there is a new baby on the way. It's cute, and it goes nicely with the other books in the series. I love it because we had these books when I was a young child and now I get to share them with my niece!

Been a huge Little Critter fan for about 15 years, since my nieces were little. They knew to always bring me the critter books to read. Now that I'm a Mom, I love reading them to my toddler. We have a second son coming and this is a sweet and useful book if you're trying to break the news to a young one. But even if you're not expecting again, it's still a cute and sweet book.

My son liked reading this book. It gave him an idea of what to expect, and what not to expect, with a baby sister. Very basic book.