Best Books for Reading to Siblings

Many of the greatest of children’s book authors have written books about the new baby, including Ezra Jack Keats (Peter’s Chair) and Lucy Cousins (Za-Za’s Baby Brother). Good as these books are, there’s a certain sameness to them: The older child discovers having a sibling is not all it’s cracked up to be and then learns that there are certain perks to being the big sister or brother.

This approach gives kids a vocabulary to talk about the life-altering change that a new baby is. At the same time, parents may not want to introduce these ideas of rivalry and loss if the older child does not yet feel them, and the pat solutions of these books may not really fill the emotional ache at all – nor show what really is great about having a sibling.

Instead, parents might want to seek out books not about babies, but about families and siblings. Russell Hoban’s A Baby Sister for Frances and A Birthday for Frances both look at the downside of having a baby in the house, but Best Friends for Frances may be the most effective sibling book of the three, because it holds out the promise of friendship.