A World of Babies: Imagined Childcare Guides for Eight Societies Updated edition

This newest edition of A World of Babies strengthens the first book's legacy, taking the reader on an in-depth tour of families caring for children around the globe. Written from the point of view of baby caretakers, this book challenges the reader to take a look at his or her own baby-rearing skills in comparison to the rest of the world. The myth of "there's one way to raise a baby" is totally debunked by this well written book. Highly recommend!

Really interesting book that is worth reading for anyone trying to put our own culture's and subculture's child rearing practices into perspective. I hope it calms down some super worried parents that think there is a secret formula for raising happy successful children.

Required for a class

A World of Babies is unlike most other books we have ever read. We believe it is probably meant to be a supplemental text for an anthropology course. However, it is an interesting read just by itself.The idea is that the book contains different case studies that are reported via fictional childcare manuals.We found most of these to be very interesting and informative. The book goes into a great deal of detail in some cases and the stories that are told are very believable and fun. However, it appeared to us that the last manual had an agenda the author was attempting to communicate to the reader.Each section starts out with a little background information regarding the region and some of its history. Then, sometimes we are given a fictitious biography of the alleged manual writer.Finally the writer, or in some cases writers, of the manual will write as if giving childcare advice.We can see that those wishing to learn more about cultures in other areas of the world will find this book very helpful.With the exception of the last section, the book appears to be written in a very neutral tone recording everyday life in the area.If you wish to learn more about different cultures, some you may have never heard of, this is a good source of information.FTC Required Notice:We, Suzanne and David, were given a review copy of this book by the publisher without cost or obligation. Our policy on all reviews is to give our honest opinion of the book. Neither one of us is an anthropologist, so we cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information contained in this book.

Dear Judy (author), my wife excitedly purchased your book, as we had a young child. She was juat started reading the first chapter and there is a huge glaring mistake on page 13 where you said, “in Kenya, the Baganda naming ceremony..”. I worked in Kenya and never heard of Baganda. The Baganda are an ethnic group in Uganda. You might want to get a new editor who is familiar with world geography and cultures. My disappointed wife is keeping the book but very disappointed, hence the one star for the first chapter.