Every new parent needs a basic child-rearing book. With that in mind, here are four suggestions:

"What to Expect the First Year" (Workman, 2009), by Arlene Eisenberg, Heidi Murkoff and Sandee Hathaway. The book covers month-to-month growth and development, feeding for every age, and sleep strategies.

Also included in the book are charts of symptoms, how to do home treatments, and tips such as how to give a bath, how to figure out why your infant is crying and what to buy for your baby.

The authors offer answers to questions such as: "How do I know if my baby's getting enough to eat?" and "How do I cope with my colicky baby?"

Go to www.whattoexpect .com to join a message board about the joys and challenges of your baby's first year.

Speaking of which ...

"Your Baby's First Year" (Bantam, 2010), from the American Academy of Pediatrics. The book gives advice on all aspects of infant care, including sections on raising twins, multiples and children with autism; a month-to-month guide to your baby's first year; a health encyclopedia covering illnesses, injuries and disabilities; and advice on breast-feeding, bottle-feeding and introducing solids.

"Touchpoints: Birth to Three" (Da Capo Press, 2006) by T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., and Joshua D. Sparrow, a psychiatrist, includes information about sleep patterns, play and learning, SIDS, signs of developmental delay and child care.

"Touchpoints" are times when a child's behavior falls apart just before a surge of emotional, cognitive or motor growth, Brazelton says. The authors aim to guide parents through the basic stages of child development and to understand and cope with regression that comes along with the touchpoints.

"The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two" (Little, Brown and Company, 2003), by William Sears, a pediatrician; his wife, Martha Sears, a nurse; and two of their sons who also are pediatricians, Robert Sears and James Sears.

The Sears family supports the "attachment" style of parenting (stressing things such as breast-feeding and sharing sleep with your child). Advocating a "high-touch style of parenting to balance the high-tech life of the new millennium," the authors teach new parents how to connect with their babies.