The Night You Were Born

A warm, reassuring picture book that captures the joy of the arrival of a new baby. "Will Mommy and Daddy remember me," Jamie asked Aunt Isabel, "waiting here, all night long?" Young Jamie has the difficult, but important job, of waiting at home while his sister is being born at the hospital. While he waits he snuggles close to his Aunt Isabel as she joyfully recounts to Jamie what she did while she was waiting for Jamie to be born. Aunt Isabel had to drive a long distance to see Jamie, through the fog, along a narrow peninsula, through fishing villages, stopping often to call the hospital for news. Finally, Jamie's mom got on the phone and said, "He's here and we're just getting to know each other." In her excitement, Aunt Isabel sings, "Welcome to this day, your very first one." The long-awaited phone call from the hospital interrupts her story. Now it is time for Jamie and Aunt Isabel to celebrate and sing, "Welcome to this day, your very first one." The story sensitively addresses the older sibling's feelings on the night that a baby is being born, and the gentle, lyrical tone of the story is colorfully rendered in Sophy Williams subtle, soft pastels.