Beth Ann Fennelly

Great With Child

"May be the best book ever to give for a baby shower."—Tampa Tribune

A toddler's mother, both an intimate guide and an affectionate coach, writes to a pregnant friend about the transforming experience of motherhood. "These are letters I would have welcomed when I was pregnant," says Beth Ann Fennelly, as she seeks to go beyond the nuts and bolts or sentimentality of other parenting literature. The letters range in tone from serious to sisterly, from light-hearted to downright funny. Some answer specific questions such as decisions about pain medication; others muse about the identity shift a woman encounters when she enters Mommyland or address our responsibility to the natural world. Still others explore the magic and mysteries of childbirth, the wonders of language, and the exhilaration (also the ambivalence) about a baby's first steps to independence.

Here are modern letters written in an old-fashioned way, not as hasty e-mails but more slowly and filtered through the sensibility of a spirited, fearless poet. Though written for a specific person, their themes are universal, inviting all mothers to join the grand circle of giving and receiving advice about children.

"Captures the doubts and frustrations as well as the joys of motherhood....Her missives are alternately moving, funny, and practical, with an unusual honesty about just how hard it is to be a young mother."—Margo Hammond, St. Petersburg Times

"My wife and I read Great with Child in the middle of a particularly sleepless and challenging time in our daughter's life; we found ourselves instantly calmed and reassured....A wise and deeply honest book—one that any parent or expecting parent needs to read."—Dean Bakopolous, author of Please Don't Come Back from the Moon