Book reviews

Our latest featured book reviews.

But I Don't Feel Too Old to Be a Mommy!: The Complete Sourcebook for Starting (and Re-Starting) Motherhood Beyond 35 and After 40

Maternal Fitness: Preparing for a Healthy Pregnancy, an Easier Labor, and a Quick Recovery

Mail Harry to the Moon!

You might also want to review this week’s recommended reading list, or check out our recently reviewed books.

But I Don't Feel Too Old to Be a Mommy!: The Complete Sourcebook for Starting (and Re-Starting) Motherhood Beyond 35 and After 40

 
by Doreen Nagle

The traditional childbearing ages for women have been 20-29. Today, however, the trend to later childrearing is significant, with the numbers of mothers over the age of 35 having grown 75 percent in the last decade, while the numbers in the traditional ages continue to decline. From celebrities to the woman next door, later childrearing is no flash-in-the-pan fad and isn't going to subside; future trends only show women will continue to delay motherhood, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

But I Don't Feel Too Old to Be a Mommy is the first and only book to fully address the concerns of the ever-growing but greatly ignored audience of literate, educated women who have delayed motherhood. In this comprehensive work, women who are considering parenting in their 30s, 40s and later-whether for the first time or starting over-will find all the information they need to make informed choices.

Author Doreen Nagle, herself a first-time mom over 40, details the risks, rewards, rumors and resources-from making the decision to start a family, to every imaginable way to get there, to the realities of motherhood beyond 35 and 40. Issues covered include infertility, pregnancy, surrogacy, adoptions, the pros and cons of later motherhood, single parenting, and financial and career considerations. Complete with quotes from medical experts, later-in-life moms and their kids, this one-stop book will calm the doubts and fears of women considering motherhood after 35 and beyond 40 by providing supportive yet realistic information. (Publisher Comments)

Buy from Powells.com
Buy from Amazon.com
Get it from the Multnomah County Library

Maternal Fitness: Preparing for a Healthy Pregnancy, an Easier Labor, and a Quick Recovery

 
by Julie Tupler

Buy from Powells.com
Buy from Amazon.com

Mail Harry to the Moon!

by Robie H. Harris

Mail Harry to the Moon is just one of the suggestions made by the narrator, who's suffering the displacement blues since the arrival of his annoying, attention-hogging baby brother. 'Before Harry, nobody but me sat on Grandma's lap,' he mourns. 'Yesterday, Harry did. So I said, 'Put Harry back inside Mommy.' But when the boy believes that Mommy and Daddy really have taken him up on the moon idea, his attitude changes dramatically.

Harris and Emberley (Happy Birth Day!) are old hands at striking the right balance between comic Sturm und Drang and genuine poignancy, and their considerable talents make this otherwise familiar tale feel fresh and funny — and psychologically true. Emberley's cartooning brims with terrific shtick — he gives the hero some slow burns and outbursts worthy of Ralph Kramden. Kids will particularly appreciate Emberley's gift for staging: the final sequence, in which the narrator sets off for the moon (a laundry basket serves as rocket, a colander as space helmet), blows out any vestige of sentimentality with its full-throttle energy. Ages 3 — 6. (June)" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Buy from Powells.com
Buy from Amazon.com
Get it from the Multnomah County Library