A dynamic new story about how babies make their way in the world-and how grown-ups have tried to make sense of these tiny inscrutable beings.
As a new parent, Nicholas Day had some basic but confounding questions: Why does my son find the straitjacket of his swaddling blanket comforting and not terrifying? How can he never meet a developmental norm and still be OK? And when will he stop sucking my finger? So he went digging for answers. They were not what he expected.
Drawing on a wealth of perspectives-scientific, historical, cross-cultural, personal-Baby Meets World is organized around the mundane activities that dominate the life of an infant: sucking, smiling, touching, toddling. From these everyday activities, Day weaves together an account that is anything but ordinary: a fresh, surprising story, both weird and wondrous, about our first experience of the world.
Part hidden history of parenthood, part secret lives of babies, Baby Meets World steps back from the moment-to-moment chaos of babydom. It allows readers to see infancy anew in all its strangeness and splendor.
"With wry humor and sharp writing, Nicholas Day explains how -- as in childbirth -- raising a baby is often a reflection of the time and place in which it happens. Most important, he offers the perspective parents so often lack in the fog of battle. If you read one parenting book, make this it."
Tina Cassidy, author of Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born
"Baby Meets World is a breath of fresh air for parents increasingly pressured to do the next "right" thing for their children. By exploring the wondrous complexities of early development in the context of personal experience as well as cultural norms, fads, and fancies, Nicholas Day provides a fascinating, entertaining, and ultimately reassuring look at what babies really need."
Susan Linn, author of The Case for Make Believe: Saving Play in a Commercialized World
"Nicholas Day has birthed a perfect book: expertly researched, beautifully written, wise, warm, honest, funny. What makes it fascinating is the same thing that makes it reassuring: When it comes to caring for babies, there has never been one right way to do it, but dozens -- contradictory, bizarre (goat wet nurses!), hilarious in retrospect but always well-meant. If you have a baby, expect a
