How the “Not Yet, Baby” book came to be

I have been asked where the ideas for the beginning reading books came from. Are they real stories? Did we make them up? The truth is somewhere in between, as Mrs. A, the illustrator explains below about the book, Not Yet, Baby:

The idea came to me as I was traveling through national parks in Utah and Arizona a few years ago. Occasionally I would get a text or a picture from my son, Tom, the dad of two little boys. The younger one was walking and following his three-year-old brother everywhere. Whatever the older boy had, the baby wanted. Whatever the older boy was doing, the baby was underfoot.

I reminded Tom that he too, had been a younger brother and had been a pain in the neck to his big brother, Lou. Lou would build elaborate corrals with wooden blocks, enclosing a dinosaur in each compartment. Tom would totter across the rug, destroying the entire habitat. On the tour bus in the Rockies, as I remembered spending hours restraining the rambunctious Tom, the ideas flowed, and within a few days I had a book full of sketches!

Not Yet, Baby is the story of a big brother and the family baby. The little one wants to do whatever the big brother does.

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If big brother swims, baby wants to swim. If big brother eats a hot dog, baby wants to eat a hot dog. If big brother kick-boxes, baby wants to kick box. Often in danger, the baby is dragged away just in time.

Not Yet, Baby illustrates typical yet humorous situations that a four, five, or six-year old would understand. The book uses mostly one syllable, short vowel words appropriate for beginning readers. Interactive activity pages follow—word searches, matching rhyming words, filling in the correct vowel and completing a crossword puzzle.

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As you read Not Yet, Baby, you may remember being the older child trying to understand the limitations of a younger one.

Or maybe you can relate to a baby trying to keep up, or the adult who works tirelessly to keep one child safe and another one happy. Maybe the story will lead to talks with your child about your childhood or his. There’s so much to talk about in Not Yet, Baby. You can find Not Yet, Baby at Amazon.com.