The Best Books for a New Sibling: 14 Teacher Picks
For the older child, the new baby, and the odd weeks in between
A new baby changes an older child's day before it changes anything else. These books cover both halves of that: books to read to the newborn, often with the older child doing the reading, and books about what it is like to be the one who was here first.
We keep the honest ones. A new sibling can be delightful and also an interruption, and children read straight through a book that pretends otherwise. The best of these leave room for a child to be pleased and put out at the same time.
Chosen from books we have watched work in the weeks around a birth, when the older child needs a job and the family needs something calm to do together. 9 of them come from The Best Children’s Books by Age, our 120-book teacher list, and carry a full review you can open; the remaining 5 are titles our teachers also reach for on this theme but have not written up individually yet. No author or publisher paid to be on this list, and we earn no commission if you buy a single book; every pick is a classroom pick.
Welcome, Precious
Nikki Grimes writes straight to the newborn, welcoming them to soap bubbles and the taste of a peach. An older sibling can read the pictures while you read the words.
Hello Baby!
A guessing-game rhyme that ends with the baby on your lap named as the treasure. A good first book for an older child to perform for a newborn.
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
Babies born everywhere sharing one refrain. The counting invites touching each finger and toe, which gives a big brother or sister something gentle and specific to do.
“More More More,” Said the Baby
Three grown-ups chase, catch, and kiss three babies. It gives a young child the physical vocabulary of how babies get handled, and a refrain to shout along with.
Whose Toes Are Those?
A teasing toe-wiggling rhyme, joyfully illustrated. It scripts the game an older sibling will play with the baby anyway, and hands them better lines for it.
Baby Faces
Close-up photographs of babies laughing, crying, and making trouble. Useful for the older child working out what the new one's face means from minute to minute.
Owl Babies
Three owl siblings wait together in the dark and talk each other through it until their mother returns. Siblings as company while the adult is occupied elsewhere.
Charlie & Mouse
Two brothers turn an ordinary day into four small chapters of negotiations and invented ceremonies. It reads like eavesdropping, and shows what a sibling eventually becomes.
Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same!
Twin sisters insist they are not the same person, across six mini-stories. The truth underneath, that looking alike is not being alike, is the whole sibling question.
Peter's Chair
Peter's furniture is being painted pink for the new baby, so he takes his chair and runs away. He decides to come back on his own, which is why children trust it.
Julius, the Baby of the World
Lilly loathes her baby brother out loud until a cousin insults him. The jealousy is unedited, which is exactly what makes the change of heart believable to a four-year-old.
There's Going to Be a Baby
A boy spends the whole pregnancy asking what the baby will be, and admits he is not sure he wants one. Best read months before the birth rather than after.
The New Baby
Photographs of real families and Rogers' plain sentences about feeling left out and about helping. It reads like a calm adult sitting down beside the child to explain.
Za-Za's Baby Brother
Za-Za's mother is busy, the baby cries, and nobody has time for her. Bright, simple, and honest about the boring difficult stretch, which suits a two-year-old.
More teacher-picked book lists
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