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Children's Literature in Education

, Volume 44, Issue 4, pp 326–343 | Cite as

A Womb With a Political View: Barbara Park’s MA! There’s Nothing to Do Here!, Prenatal Parenting, and the Battle over Personhood

  • Michelle Ann Abate
Original Paper
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Abstract

This essay makes the case that Barbara Park’s picture book MA! There’s Nothing to Do Here!: A Word from Your Baby-in-Waiting (2008) adds another equal-parts absurdist and alarming item to the ever-growing responsibilities of expecting mothers: ensuring that their fetus is entertained. The messages that Park’s narrative sends about fetal needs, however, have implications that extend beyond individual mothers; they also encompass larger societal issues concerning the origins of human life, the embryonic capacity for discomfort, and the existence of “fetal children.” Given the way in which MA! There’s Nothing to Do Here! ascribes thoughts and emotions to an unborn baby, the narrative engages with current highly-politicized questions about the rights of the unborn and the debate over personhood. The fetus in Park’s text may be ostensibly complaining about being bored in the womb, but he is making a far more powerful, if tacit, argument for life beginning before birth.

Keywords

Picture Books U.S. children’s literature and childhood culture Millennial motherhood Personhood movement Fetal learning Prenatal parenting Prenatally-advantaged children 
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Hollins UniversityRoanokeUSA

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