I don't have any brothers so I can't say for sure what the experience is like but watching my nephew with his new baby brother was certainly a pleasure and a treasure I will remember as they get older. I can just hear myself now, telling stories to the two of them about how loving and affectionate big brother J was towards his baby brother (at least that was the case last week).
I wish I could capture how much love was expressed in the countless number of times my three-year-old nephew brushed his lips on his brother's hair or toes, or fingers, or... you get the point. The fact that he did this all on his own, at random times throughout the day, made it even more poignant.
My sister is a few years older than me and among my dozens of cousins, there are mostly females (on both sides of our family), and we all, for the most part, have sons of our own. Watching babies and children grow up has been a life-changing experience and my little guy is not even five yet.
Check out the following Kane/Miller books that touch on the subject of new babies, siblings and family. They make great gifts when welcoming a loved one into the world.
As of 2007, the average birth rate for the whole world is 20.3 per year per 1000 total population, which for a world population of 6.6 billion comes to 134 million babies per year.
This has never been more apparent than this weekend where we attended Baby Celebration L.A. Held annually at the Los Angeles Convention Center, this event included maternity & baby/toddler fashion shows as well as a play area and diaper changing station for the hundreds of families that were in attendance.
Our books were a hit and we were especially pleased to present our Toddler Tales series and our books for babies (and new siblings):
Technically, our Spring 2008 titles will not be released until March 1st, and yet, I'm asking you all to fast forward a little bit to talk about fall. Yes, that's right. I will now share the September 1st, Fall 2008, forthcoming books from Kane/Miller.
Included among the twelve books are two Toddler Tales that are being translated into Spanish (Las hermanintas son... - Little Sisters Are...- and Los hermanitos son... - Little Brothers Are...), Book #8 in the Jack Russsell Series - The Kitnapped Creature, four picture books (The Big Little Book of Happy Sadness, The Story of Growl, Something for School, There's No Such Thing as Ghosts), a modern-day fairy tale (Singing to the Sun), and four early readers (The Wicket Chronicles #1 and #2: Ely Plot and Fen Gold, Snake and LIzard, and Wombat & Fox.
From England
978-1-933605-84-5 $5.95 (U.S.)
978-1-933605-87-6 $5.95 (U.S.)
From New Zealand 978-1-933605-83-8 $14.95 (U.S.)
From Australia
978-1-933605-81-4 $13.95 (U.S.)
978-1-933605-90-6 $15.95 (U.S.)
From Belgium 978-1-933605-91-3 $13.95 (U.S.)
From South Korea 978-1-933605-85-2 15.95 (U.S.)
From Australia 978-1-933605-80-7 $15.95 (U.S.)
From England 978-1-933605-94-4 $16.95 (U.S.)
Authors for this forthcoming season are Jucy Horacek, Vivian French, Colin Thompson, Terry Denton, Joy Cowley, Hyun Young Lee, Joan Lennon, Sally & Darrel Odgers, Emanuelle Eekhout, and Beth Norling. Gavin Bishop and Jackie Morris join us as new illustrators we're publishing and countries represented include our first book from New Zealand, along with Australia, England, South Korea, and Belgium.
I'm meeting Tina Burke today for the first time. She's just moved to Toronto and since I'm here on business, it's the perfect opportunity to sit down with her and learn more about her future projects and what types of promotions she and I can work on together. She's created several beautiful titles with us over the past few years and we're anxious to learn about how we can have her appear in the schools, bookstores and libraries in Canada and the U.S. to promote her work.
Tina grew up in Warriewood on Sydney's northern beaches, with her parents, Ron and Janet, and two older brothers, Paul and Sean. Her mother was always interested in art, and got Tina interested too by asking for her opinion when she was working on a painting, and then eventually buying her a box of pastels and a sketch pad. Tina always seemed to enjoy drawing and painting animals most of all.
Eventually, Tina moved to Sydney's eastern beaches - first Bondi Beach, then Coogee Beach (which looks a lot like La Jolla, California) before moving to Toronto, Canada last month.
Fly, Little Bird was Tina Burke's first book for children, but not her first work for children. For six years, she worked for Walt Disney animation.
Little Brothers Are... Little Sisters Are... What's Going On?
New siblings will have something to talk about next spring when these three beautiful books are welcomed into the world, along with the new baby.
Beth Norling honors little brothers and sisters everywhere with these two new additions to our Toddler Tales series from Australia. Little Sisters Are...tiny, cuddly, smelly and sad. Little Brothers Are...wriggly, bubbly, naughty and scared. But we love them all the same.
Our narrator from Elena O'Callaghan's What's Going On? might not get his question answered right away, but he does know that the only one not acting strange around his house is his new baby sister.
These hilariously realistic picture books about life with more-than-one, will leave both parents and siblings laughing out loud at the odd things (and smells) that new babies bring into the home.
Little Brothers Are... by Beth Norling 978-1-933605-70-8 Paperback, 8 x 8 $4.99 March 1, 2008
Little Sisters Are... by Beth Norling 978-1-933605-69-2 Paperback, 8x8 $4.99 March 1, 2008
What's Going On? Written by Elena O'Callaghan Illustrated byÀfrica Fanlo 978-1-933605-65-4 Hardcover with Dust jacket $15.95 March 1, 2008
