Description

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

Beth Ann Fennelly, writing to a newly pregnant friend, goes beyond the nuts and bolts or sentimentality of other parenting literature, in letters that range in tone from serious to sisterly, from lighthearted to downright funny. Some answer specific questions; others muse about the identity shift a woman encounters when she enters Mommyland. This book invites all mothers to join the grand circle of giving and receiving advice about children.

About the Author

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Beth Ann Fennelly is the author of three poetry collections, Unmentionables, Tender Hooks, and Open House; two memoirs, Heating & Cooling and Great with Child; and a novel, The Tilted World, coauthored with her husband, Tom Franklin. She teaches at the University of Mississippi, and is also the state’s Poet Laureate. She lives in Oxford, Mississippi.

Praise For…

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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

I read Great with Child in one sitting, crying and laughing throughout. Beth Ann Fennelly has written an instant classic, filled with humor and wisdom.

— Lee Smith, author of On Agate Hill and The Last Girls

A poetic and heartfelt guide to pregnancy and young motherhood.... A moving and magical read.
— Scholastic Parent & Child