Siblings Day is celebrated on April 10. This year, staff member Ethan shares his family’s book recommendations that help parents and children prepare for a new family member.
Is your family growing and you want to prepare the little one(s) in your life for the new addition? Do you want to help them navigate these new feelings and situations? This Siblings Day, I wanted to share a list of books my wife and I read to our kids that helped them navigate their sibling dynamic in these early, formative years. These books worked wonders for my family as we welcomed two new additions into our household. They helped my children learn to share, how to accept changes to our growing family, and how the love we have for each other is unconditional.
The Noise Inside Boys: A Story About Big Feelings by Pete Oswald
As the father of three boys, this story was very helpful in showing my sons that we all have big feelings, and how we can handle them. Author Pete Oswald teaches this lesson primarily through illustrations rather than words. We see the youngest of three children learning to handle his emotions as he goes through different situations. We are shown that these feelings are normal, and it is okay to have them. There is a wide spectrum of feelings we all have, and we all handle them in different ways. Its best lesson for my children was normalizing feeling frustrated with those we love the most, and it is normal to take a moment to calm ourselves away from the situation. While this story is written for young boys, its lesson is for everyone.
Bunny in the Middle by Anika A. Denise
As my wife and I were preparing for our third child, we were worried about how the new baby would affect our (soon to be) middle child. While there are many books that discuss this topic, we found that Bunny in the Middle worked the best for us. Told mainly through beautiful illustrations by Christopher Denise, Bunny does not shy away from the complex dynamic that comes with being a middle child, it celebrates it. The lesson can be summed up in its final passage, “…the best part of the middle is you are loved all around.”
Pete the Kitty and the Groovy Playdate by James and Kimberly Dean
While this book is not about siblings directly, it teaches a lesson all siblings must learn: Sharing. Through its trademark illustrations and familiar characters, this book did wonders with teaching my children to share. What I appreciate most about Groovy Playdate is that it does not just teach that sharing is important, it shows us why it is important. Pete is more than willing to accept that Grumpy Toad does not want to share, and eventually we see how Grumpy Toad not sharing leads to a play date that is not fun. Grumpy Toad ultimately chooses to share, and we see that it makes for a much more fun day.
It’s Big Brother Time by Nandini Ahuja
Going from one child to two children is an enormous leap for everyone in the household, and I found that this book does a great job of focusing on the special relationship between the siblings themselves. It’s Big Brother Time tells one story in words and another in its illustrations. As we pass through time, big brother says there is no playing with his toys, and yet we see him sharing. He alone cooks with grandma and grandpa, yet little sibling joins in too. We see many different situations as the baby grows into a toddler, and we see big brother learn to love his time with his sibling. This book led to a lot of fun questions from my oldest child as he learned that the baby would be growing up with him and they would share in the fun together. He was not just getting a sibling; he was getting a best friend.
You Were the First by Patricia MacLachlan
Unlike the other books on this list, You Were the First is focused almost entirely on the relationship between the parents and their first child. It is natural to be concerned about how the second child will affect the family dynamic, and for my family, this book did a great job at assuaging those concerns. Speaking to the child directly, we go through the early years of their adolescence, telling the child they were the first in all these different situations. By highlighting various treasured memories, we are reminded that those times are forever in our hearts. My favorite page reads, “You were the first to teach us how to be parents.” This was a big concept for my firstborn to grasp. My wife and I were not parents before him, and he will forever be the one who made us parents. Just as he is learning to be a kid and a big brother, we are learning how to be parents. The book ends by reaffirming that though there may eventually be another or child or two, he will always be the first.
Ethan is a branch outreach specialist at OCLS
