Author: Jodi Meltzer Darter
Illustrators: Caryn King & Jodi King Camarra
Publisher: Mascot Books
ISBN: 978-1-54396-0

“When you lived in my belly during month one, I thought being pregnant would be so much fun,” Jodi Meltzer Darter begins her children’s book, When You Lived in My Belly.


This unnumbered thirty-eight-page oversized hardbound targets ages two to eight years old, especially those who are fascinated with being born or have a sibling on the way. With no scary or violent scenes, it does contain complicated words that beginner readers will need help understanding or pronouncing. After the story, there is a lined page for the parent to write to their child, along with acknowledgments and extra blank but colored pages.

The short rhyming tale is written from a mother’s standpoint as a baby grows within her. Starting with the first month, she tells of morning sickness, craving food, the child’s development, movement, and activities, gaining weight, and the anticipation of birth. The colorful illustrations have small but noticeable black and white drawings of the fetus growing inside the womb throughout the nine months.

The book contains not only what the mother and child go through during pregnancy, but it also has the visual month-to-month aspect of the baby’s growth. I like the clever rhyming and the different artistic viewpoints of the birth journey. I greatly appreciate the author’s stance that the baby is a human being while in the uterus.

Those who do not prefer to show young children about their growth while in their mother’s body may not want to share this book. Others may find it too complex for those under four years old. The two and three-letter words may be too frustrating for beginner readers.

It would be thoughtful if the book included in the blank pages at the back the suggestion to add ultrasound photographs, interesting information, or memories from the pregnancy.

If you are looking for a book that briefly explains to a child what happens during pregnancy, this is a well-done book geared toward young ones. I plan to give it to our three-year-old smart grandson who is expecting a sibling soon so he can better understand what is happening to Mommy and her enlarging tummy.

Thanks to Bookpleasures, Pace Public Relations, and the author for this complimentary book that I am under no obligation to review.