Great Expectations

June 4, 2007
The mother-daughter team who coauthored two other Great Expectations books open this outsized parenting manual with a chronology of what to expect—day-by-day, week-by-week, month-by-month—during baby's first year. They follow with a how-to section (feeding, diapering and other baby care issues), a shopping guide (analyzing features of strollers, cribs and car seats), a review of parental issues (mostly mom's physical and mental needs) and an A–Z of baby medical problems. This layout breeds a lot of overlap; some issues—car seats, breast-feeding, crib hazards—are covered repeatedly. While the authors mention that 35% of children in America are born to single mothers, the target audience is the traditional nuclear family, preferably one with ample financial and social resources. They're very modern in their trust-your-instincts advice, stressing that parents are wise enough to choose their own parenting style—comforting crying babies vs. ignoring them, etc. Likewise, they don't fret about boosting baby's I.Q. with fancy toys. Philosophical issues aside, the eye-catching charts and diagrams are bound to catch the eyes of bookstore browsers.