A Baby for Mabel and Frederick
by Karen Poston
Language: English
Lulu.com, c2005
20 pp.
ISBN: 1411660242; 9781411660243
$13.25
Ages: 4-8
Summary: Emma's mom is a surrogate - she's carrying a baby for a couple who can't have their own children. Emma is very excited and proud that she and her mom are helping to make a new family. Helps children understand in simple terms what goes on during a gestational surrogacy.
Review: Emma’s mom is a gestational carrier, and Emma has mixed feelings about it, sometimes wishing that the baby her mother is carrying was her new brother or sister, worrying about all the doctor visits her mother has to make, and also sometimes having to explain to her friends that her mother is carrying the baby for another family. This story is narrated by the daughter of a gestational carrier and is also available in a version narrated by a boy as well as a coloring book version.
Available: http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/karen-poston/a-baby-for-mabel-and-frederick/paperback/product-16588502.html
Waiting for You
written and illustrated by Kelly Frederick Mizer
Language: English
Lulu.com, c2008
[32] p. : col. ill. ; 28 cm.
$26.95
Ages: 2-6
Summary: Waiting for you is about anticipation, love, and family. Gorgeous, full color illustrations depict the small, but precious moments that take place before any new child makes their grand entrance for the very first time. The story acknowledges that even though families form different ways and certainly don't all look alike, the one thing they share is waiting. This is a great for children of all ages, and is particularly nice to read to big sisters and brothers as they eagerly look forward to meeting their new sibling. The text is also a nice way for parents to begin discussions about adoption, surrogacy, and birth.
Review: This is a simple story about waiting for a child to come into your life even long before you’re ready to have one. It elicits a feeling that no matter how a child is conceived and arrives in a family (via growing inside the mother or having to travel to another country), that child was meant to be in that family. Every family has one thing in common––waiting for their child. It’s included here because it touches on the fact that not all babies come from inside their mothers. Excellent illustrations.
Available: http://www.lulu.com/shop/kelly-frederick-mizer/waiting-for-you/hardcover/product-3863873.html
A Most Precious Gift: a story of egg donation
By Kerry Crabtree
Language: English
Lulu, c2009
44 pp.
$20.18
Reading level: ages 4-8
Review: Told in rhyme, this blank-page book created to “support [the]child to draw their own illustrations or attach photographs,” is a long poem that tells the story of a fairy godmother who donated her egg so that another couple could have a child, “But your fairy god mum, gave a generous gift that’s true / A perfect little tiny egg, that helped us to make you.”
Available: http://www.lulu.com/shop/kerry-roling/a-most-precious-gift/hardcover/product-4442263.html
Two daddies ... and me!
by Robbi Anne Packard
illus.by Lori Ann McElroy
Language: English
Bloomington, IN : Author House, ©2009.
1 v. (unpaged) : col. ill. ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 1438955588; 9781438955582
$12.99
Reading level: Ages 2-4
Summary: A young girl describes her life with her two fathers.
Review: Told in rhyme, this story is written by a woman who was the surrogate mother to a little girl born for a gay male couple. With colorful illustrations and few words, it is for very young children describing a day in the life of this little girl with her two dads, emphasizing that they are a family. The story is not clear about whether the author is a traditional or gestational surrogate and any of the other genetic questions regarding paternity.
Available: http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000263050/Two-Daddies-and-Me.aspx
A special beginning
by Megan Mileham
Language: English
[S.l.] : Authorhouse, 2008.
32 pp.
ISBN: 1434391183; 9781434391186
$16.00
Reading level: Ages 3-6
Review: The author, a surrogate mother, wrote this story as a gift to the parents to whom she bore a child. Told as if narrated by the parents themselves, it tells of their love for the woman who agreed to carry their baby. It is unclear whether the child is a result of traditional surrogacy (egg donated by the surrogate) or gestational surrogacy (egg and sperm from the recipient parents).
Available: http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000244353/A-Special-Beginning.aspx
Love spot: a story of in vitro fertilization conception
by Brenda Geise
illus. by Blair Geise Merkle
Language: English
Bloomington, IN : Authorhouse, 2008.
1 v. (unpaged) : ill. chiefly col. ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 1438911025; 9781438911021
$12.99
Reading level: Ages 2-5
Review: Told in rhyme, this discussion starter narrated by the mother of a child conceived via IVF tells her child how “the doctor said / you would get a good start / outside my body / close to my heart.” It reassures children conceived this way that they were still conceived in love. The author uses the idea of a “love spot” as a metaphor for a baby or the mother’s egg. The theme of the book is the idea that through love a child can be created. For a younger child it may be fine but may not be clear to an older child.
Available: http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000241577/Love-Spot.aspx
Before you were born
By Traci K. Schwein-Coff
illustrated by James Vaughn-Jackson
Language: English
Authorhouse, 2006
36 pp.
ISBN: 1420892266; 9781420892260
$19.98
Reading level: Ages 2-6
Review: This discussion starter tells the story of how Mommy and Daddy couldn’t get pregnant and needed the help of an egg donor.
Available: http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000360568/Before-You-Were-Born.aspx
