There’s a House Inside My Mummy

Author Giles Andreae and Illustrator Vanessa Cabban

“There’s a house inside my mummy where my little brother grows, or maybe it’s my little sister No one really knows.”

The book is about a young boy’s anticipation for his new sibling. The story is nice, funny, useful and may help parents introducing a young child to the idea of having a brother or sister. The rhyming is simple and the illustrations are of familiar daily activities such as brushing your teeth, getting dressed and playtime. The Text and pictures complement each other very well and explain the mother’s pregnancy in an uncomplicated way and from a child’s perspective. Throughout the book there are some clever explanations such as: the baby lives in a ‘giant bathtub’ and ‘mummy’s tummy house’, ‘And I tell him that I love him Through her tummy telephone’. The boy also gets an understanding of how his mummy feels: exhausted, sick and full of cravings. In the end the boy gets to meet his baby brother that he has wished for. Throughout the book there are references to ‘him’ and ‘he’ indicating that the baby is a boy. Despite these references and the fact that the main character is a boy I always felt that the book can be enjoyed by both boys and girls.