Barbara Park

Children’s book author Barbara Park had her kids back in the days before there were ultrasounds. So when Park, who writes the Junie B. Jones book series, accompanied her pregnant daughter-in-law on a doctor’s visit and saw an on-screen image of her unborn grandson, it seemed to be something from a Discovery Channel documentary.

Watching the image, Park wondered what it must be like for the baby in utero. What did he do? The answer: not much, of course. Aside from the occasional kick or hiccup, the kid is pretty much just floating around in there. A few weeks later, Park wrote a poem for her daughter-in-law, which eventually became the picture book Ma! There’s Nothing to Do Here!: A Word from Your Baby-in-Waiting. It captures, in rhyme, the long list of things the baby can’t do (“I’ve tried hide-and-seek and I don’t even peek. But I’m so intertwined, I’m too easy to find.”) Learn what else unborn babies can’t do at today’s reading. 7 p.m. Blue Willow Bookshop, 14532 Memorial Drive. For information, call 281-497-8675 or visit www.bluewillowbookshop.com. Free.
Mon., Feb. 4, 7 p.m., 2008