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Andrea McAuliffe

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That first morning in the hospital after you have a baby, your room bustles with activity. It's not the baby. He or she sleeps peacefully in that weird Plexiglas cradle, while nurses bring you painkillers and doctors poke at you and ask questions. Family and friends crowd into the tiny room lugging so many gifts your husband's eyes pop, knowing it will take seven trips to the car to get them home. There are people with papers to sign, people delivering trays from the cafeteria, women from the breastfeeding clinic, volunteers from the local church, the guy who hooks up the television, the person who cleans the rooms. I even had a hospital maintenance worker come by to fix the clock when my daughter was three hours old.

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They all tell you to get some rest as they close your revolving door. It's exhausting.

But in New Brunswick, one visitor to new and weary moms stands out. It's a quiet volunteer bearing a bright red bag marked "Born to Read."

The program ensures every baby born in the province goes home with French or English books, the parents armed with information on the benefits of reading to babies.

The sack has at least two books, one of which is written by a New Brunswick author and illustrated by a New Brunswick artist.

Shirley Downey, of the New Brunswick chapter of the IODE, a charitable organization of Canadian women, founded the program in the '90s to encourage reading from birth. Over the past few years, the University of New Brunswick's Early Childhood Centre has held a province-wide contest to find the next Born to Read book.

Last year, the winning manuscript belonged to Karen Davidson, a grandmother from Elgin. Her book of poems, Baby's Garden, comes to life with bright watercolour paintings by Saint John's Patricia Tingley, who won the illustrative component of the contest. The book was launched in Fredericton in May.

Pam Whitty, a UNB professor of early childhood education and director of the Early Childhood Centre, said Baby's Garden was chosen because it was unique.

"It was an outstanding manuscript but very unusual," Whitty said this week by phone from Fredericton.

The book, with its rolling words and rhythms, is a great way to introduce tiny ears to language. It reminded me of another Born to Read book I received in the hospital when my son was born in 2004: Singing and Dancing by Anne Hunt, illustrated by Hampton artist Kathy Hooper. Our copy is stained and tattered now but still a favourite. I will always treasure the cuddly times I shared with my infant son while we read it.

That's the point, said Whitty.

"It's not just about the reading, it's about holding the baby, playing with language, having an emotional bond with the baby, between the baby and the mom or the baby and the dad or the baby and the grandparents."

It's also special that the books are written and illustrated by New Brunswickers for New Brunswickers.

When the jury picked Tingley to illustrate Baby's Garden last year, it was the beginning of months of hard work. A full-time staff member in the children's department at the Saint John Free Public Library, Tingley said she found it challenging to complete her illustrations.

The whole experience has made Tingley hungry to illustrate another book, maybe even write her own. She said we have lost a lot of our storytelling skills.

"We start off as children writing and using our imagination and drawing and suddenly, somehow at some point you question your drawing ability. But every child draws and makes up stories. I think a lot of people could write. I'm not saying that it's easy to do but it's worth a try."

Karen Davidson and Patricia Tingley will unite for a Baby's Garden Party on Sept. 11 at 10:30 a.m. at the Saint John Free Public Library, a free event for pre-schoolers. There will be treats, games and copies of the book for sale.

Andrea McAuliffe mcauliffe.andrea@telegraphjournal.com is a reporter and editor at the Telegraph-Journal and mother of two. Parental Guidance appears every other Saturday in Magazine and addresses important issues as well as the lighter side of parenting.