Picture Book 20

A.    Author: Dori Hillestad Butler

B.     Title: My Mom’s Having a Baby

C.     Illustrator: Carol Thompson

D.    Readability: Unknown

E.     Genre: Diversity

F.      Subgenre: Non-fiction

G.    Theme: Pregnancy and Childbirth

H.    Primary and secondary characters: Mom, dad, baby, Elizabeth

I.       Award(s) date of publication: N/A

J.       Publishing company: Albert Whitman and Company

K.    ISBN number:0-8075-5344-1

L.     Brief summary: My Mom’s Having a Baby, follows the mothers 9 months of pregnancy. It starts by telling us that the baby is floating in a uterus, it is the size of the tooth. The next month describes the mothers uterus as a balloon, keeping the baby at the right temperature is the amniotic fluids. She also tells us that all of the food consumed goes directly to the baby. The mother also goes to the doctor to check to see how the baby is, they place a Doppler on her stomach to hear the heartbeat. By 12 weeks the baby has all of the body parts, fingers, teeth, toes and eyes. The next few pages explain how to make a baby. The month the baby is the size of Elizabeth’s foot. At the 5^th month, Elizabeth and her parents find out that we can know the sex of the baby but Elizabeth’s mom wants to be surprised. At 6 months the baby can open its eyes, Elizabeth can now put her hands on her mom’s stomach and feel her baby move. 7^th and 8^th month the baby turns itself upside down. In may Elizabeth’s grandma comes to visit to help before the baby comes. Two days later, her mom yells that the water has broken and she is having contractions. Dad and Mom go to the hospital while Elizabeth stays at home. In order for the child to come, the cervix has to open wide enough. The baby arrives and to Elizabeth’s hopes it is a boy. When he arrives home, they give him a bath, there is a stump on his belly button, that is what is left of the umbilical cord. It falls off on its own. Now there is 4 in the family, Elizabeth, dad, mom and Michael.  

M.   Description of how you would use the book with students: Being in special education, we will encounter students who will be unfamiliar with topics of having babies. If a mother comes in and informs us that he child is having a hard time coping, or if we see it, we can have a resource to tell our parents to read to the student. I believe it is not my place to read this book so I will have the parent read it and then the child can come and ask if they have question and we can write them down, OR we can have them write the questions before and then read the book, therefore the parents will have something to go off of.