Naked Babies

Anyone who has ever witnessed a baby escape from his mother's arms--sans clothing--and run wildly, or crawl as the case may be, about the house in what can only be described as a euphoric state knows that babies are really at their best when they're naked. No bonnets or booties to hold them in--just pure, blissful nakedness. In Naked Babies author Anna Quindlen and photographer Nick Kelsh expertly record this unique time in childhood when modesty means nothing at all. Quindlen's perceptive and personal essays are remarkable musings on motherhood and the amazing little miracles that babies are, while Kelsh's photographs are, well, amazing little miracles in their own right. Shot entirely in black-and-white, these are not cutesy, sentimental, or traditional photographs. Rather, Kelsh captures "specific aspects of babies--the perfection of a hand, the swirls of a cowlick, the smoothness of skin on the neck--and all are honest, exquisite, and invitingly tactile." Both "an unusual meditation and a wondrous book," Naked Babies is the perfect gift for the parent or the parent-to-be.