Baby: A Portrait of the Amazing First Two Years of Life

by Desmond Morris

Popular science meets parenting in this fascinating and beautiful book. Covering a baby's first two years with retrospective glimpses of life in the womb, it details the incredible changes that occur as development progresses. Desmond Morris' thought-provoking book sets out the astonishing facts with outstanding visual reference to make you marvel at the complexity of the human body and your baby's ability to achieve so much in so little time. Stunning photographs and artwork overlays complement amazing facts about the growth, genes, anatomy, physiology, and learning capacity of babies. An engaging read and enchanting reference, "Baby" is the ideal gift or self-purchase for new parents, as well as anyone interested in how the human body evolves and works.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction, Psychology, Science, Anthropology, Biology

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Desmond John Morris (24 January 1928 - 19 April 2026) was an English zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter, as well as a popular author in human sociobiology.
He is known for his 1967 book The Naked Ape, and for his television programmes such as Zoo Time.

After the death of his wife in 2018 he lived with his son and family in Ireland. Morris died in Naas, County Kildare, on 19 April 2026, at the age of 98.

abridged from Wikipedia

Reviews

[Samantha]

Dit boek kreeg ik een tijdje terug van mijn zusje voor in mijn verzameling zwangerschaps- en babyboeken. Een heel mooi vormgegeven boek met plaatjes die over de foto's vallen om de anatomie van een kind te verduidelijken. Het is geen makkelijk boek, aangezien er soms best diep op de ontwikkeling en anatomie wordt ingegaan, maar dat maakte hem voor mij nog interessanter. Wat ik wel grappig vond is dat in het voorwoord wordt genoemd dat dit geen boek met adviezen is, om dan daarna regelmatig adviezen te gaan geven.. Sommige uitspraken over zorgverleners komen ook niet overeen met de werkelijkheid, maar dat is misschien ook omdat dit geen oorspronkelijk Europees boek is.
Mooi boek, mooie foto's en interessante info!

[Jennifer]

This book is fabulous. It has wonderful photos, plus overlays showing how a baby's bones, organs, and more grow.

I enjoyed this book more than most baby books because it explains the science behind a baby's development, rather than "Your baby should do this by this week." It also emphasizes the uniqueness of each baby.

I think this would be a great gift for a new parent. I just checked it out from the library and was fascinated.

[Sebastian]

Simply brilliant. Despite the fact that (verrrrry) occasionally an outdated bit of info does manage to slip through the editorial guard, the overwhelmingly positive attitude while dispensing clearly organized no-bullshit information about the tiny human animal during its first two years of life, coupled with the lovely photo sets, makes this easily the best book about babies I've ran across.

[Ryan]

Impressive photos and illustrations - as befitting a coffee-table (or waiting room) book - the sections are concise and well organized as well.

Unfortunately, while there are some interesting developmental facts within, they are presented alongside a number of contentious, dubious, and unsupported theories and assertions (all without citation). These range from the benign/risible to the patently illogical/offensive; for example:

1. Mothers evolved to distinguish the cry of their own baby so they wouldn't wake up when other babies cried in the village huts.

2. Mothers favor resting their baby on their left breast where the baby will better hear the mother's voice in their left ear which is linked to the right hemisphere of the brain, which is responsible for processing the emotional quality of sounds.

3. Dizygotic twins are more likely to be conceived from an intensely emotional or violent coupling, such as rape.

4. Only a diet that includes animal proteins can supply the human digestive system with the ideal amino-acid balance.

5. Males evolved to be hunters, explaining their inborn tendencies towards emotional suppression, and increased strength/agility/spacial awareness compared to females, who evolved to be multi-taskers, explaining their inborn tendencies towards sociability, emotional intelligence, caregiving, etc.

Had I been familiar with Desmond Morris prior to picking this up I would have left it on the shelf as I see he has made a career "popularizing science," by erroneously extrapolating the findings of his specialty (zoology circa the early 1960s) to a number of other disciplines (anthropology, psychology, cognitive neuroscience, etc.) while ignoring contradictory evidence emerging from within those specialties.

[Rati]

Simply brilliant! I recommend this book to anyone with children or even planning to have children. It tells you everything you need to know about your tiny baby's physiology in a simple, easy to understand manner. An added advantage, my 10-month old loves looking at the beautiful, glossy photographs of babies on almost every single page of the book.

[Ciara]

Worth five stars for the pictures alone. Big hurray for Malahide Library who had it " out back" as no bookshop in dublin seems to have it at the moment. I think a paperback version is due out in May.

[Brittany Youngchild]

Very informative! This book has a good format and is well written with plenty of graphics. Totally recommend to any one having a baby, working with babies, or anyone interested in the amazing human body.

[Puty]

Bought this at last Big Bad Wolf Book Sale for a very good deal. This book is full of facts of baby as growing & developing mammal from scientific point of view. It reminds you of biology class only with cute babies photographs everywhere.

[Jennifer]

Wow! Obviously pertinent, since I have one on the way in a couple of weeks, but a really beautiful, educational book for anyone. The photos are gorgeous, and the 'lessons' are brief. Loved it.

[Sara]

I would like this more if he actually provided citations and proof of his claims about human evolutionary biology. I know this is a hard branch of science to test as we have rather long lifespans, but at least give us a bibliography in the back Also not a huge fan of him referring to humans living in tribes as primeval.

[Jasper]

Massively oversimplified and reinforces gendered and cisheteronormative biases with no sources. But the baby pictures are cute and it's an okay introductory text to child development (as long as it's looked at with a critical eye on pages about "gender differences").

[Xavier Roelens]

Leuk om te lezen, mooi ook met die vele foto's, maar er is weinig van blijven hangen dat me echt verbaasde.

[Amy]

Heel interessant boek als je wilt weten hoe in grote lijnen de ontwikkeling van baby naar peuter gaat.

[Geesje]

Niet alles gelezen, maar wel de stukken die voor mij interessant zijn. Duidelijk omschreven

[Amanda]

Developmental Psychology 101 presented in a way that is feels neither too simplistic for my level of expertise nor too complicated for the parents I work with who have very low education levels. The words are simple but are put together beautifully, so it is informative but not boring, educational but not condescending.

This book was purchased per my request by my agency for resource material and I would recommend it for everyone. I'm going to have to give this book at every baby shower I go to.

In addition to all this, it is the most beautiful book I've ever looked at. The pictures are really amazing and the plates overlaying pictures of real babies are so pretty and make it easy to understand.

Glad I'm getting paid to read this!

[Melanie Franklin]

This is a wonderful book summarizing the development of babies. What I particularly liked about this book is that the development is discussed in terms of evolution and natural selection. However, some of the developmental milestones discussed ARE WRONG according to when they happen. The author states that most babies walk by 8 months old. In fact, a walking 8 month old is quite rare. The picutures are beautiful, however.

[Erin]

This was a gift from Nate's aunt and a surprisingly beautiful book--it's the first two years (including in the womb) from the perspective of the child and how they grow and develop. The pictures are gorgeous, there are a few layover sheets of a baby's working system, and the descriptions are thorough and just detailed enough to be scientific without being too overwhelming. It's a lovely book, and was quite enjoyable to read.

[Lientje]

The best book ever when you have a small baby. Also a great gift to new parents. This book doesn't tell you what your baby 'should be able to do' at a given age -what most books do and usually results in parents worrying about their child. It rather describes the several stages babies go through and how they develop from a general point of view. A great read!

[Cindy]

Beautiful photographs of babies throughout the book. My son who is almost 9 months loves to look at the photographs of the babies.. I can see him growing and developing everyday..

This book explains how babies develop. It's a fascinating read.

[Lizita]

This easy-to-read book is full of brilliant photographs and illustrations about the baby anatomy. This is not a typical "What to expect when you're expecting" book, instead it takes a scientific approach to what happens as they baby develops up until toddler years. It truly is a must read!

[Donzel]

Lovely photography, each section deals with every step of a baby's physical, emotional and mental growth. The inability of the author to grasp who the Maker is taints the book with an evolutionist worldview.

[Robert]

Such a wonderful book that helps demystify a lot of what happens during a baby's development from fetus to toddler, with beautiful photography and overlays that do a great job illustrating many concepts.
Can't recommend it enough, particularly for first time parents.

[Sableamy]

this was easy to read, had great pictures, and provided lots of interesting information on the development from newborn to toddler.

[Alan]

Two words: Gore jush.

[Mindy]

Library Journal review assignment

[Geo_ayman_magdy]

u can download copy of this book from
http://www.ebook.honglinhsoft.com/?pa...
it's very good book to read if you have new baby

[Elizabeth]

good book. Cute pics, helpful, interesting info on a broad range of topics. Simply worded, to-the-point, and clear.

[Anna]

Awesome Desmond Morris genius.

[Eugenia]

Beautiful pictures, but the info is either unremarkable - i.e. generally found in many run-of-the-mill baby books - or somewhat dubious.

[fhsjkdhvkf]

I feel bad for giving it only two stars, as it’s a beautiful book and very informative, but I just couldn’t get into it.