Understanding Your Baby/ One Year-Old/Two-Year-Old/Three Year-Old Series
Editor Jonathan Bradley
Published by Jessica Kingsley
£8.95 each, ISBNs: 1843102420, 1843102412, 1843102889, 1843102439
Star Rating: 4/5
Don't be put off by the lack of pictures and the close typed text in these four slim volumes; once you have tuned into the format they are a rich resource of balanced, sensitive and non-judgemental advice to help parents and professionals looking after children, writes Annie O'Brian.
The central subject is the mental and emotional development of children and their parents. And the style is intelligent and friendly - although a degree of brain power is required to get through some of the sentences and concepts.
That said, each book is divided into very easily digestible sections, with excellent (and often very funny) case studies scattered liberally throughout and a really detailed contents page for those "where did I see that bit about..." moments.
Understanding Your Baby is further divided into weeks and months.
The books form a cohesive and continuous guide to almost everything I have ever wondered about bringing up my children. I learnt a lot. And a friend, mother of her first two-year-old, could not wait to get her hands on these when I described them.
They are now going into our bathroom "reference library" for family and visitors to peruse and digest.
Annie O'Brian works for family support charity Home Start and is a mother of three boys aged between one and seven.
