Mama's Heart Fits Two

“Mama’s Heart Fits Two” by Denise Carkhuff is a children’s non-fiction, autobiographical, picture-story book that deals with unique sharing issues found only in twins. Twins who share their parents from birth often end up feeling insecure and over-sensitive. Eva and Gia, fraternal twins named after their real-life namesakes, Denise Carkhuff’s own twin daughters, constantly fight over their mother, vying with each other to get their mother’s instant attention. To their great delight and joy, Eva and Gia finally know that they are both number one in Mom’s heart. As a mother’s love is selfless, never-ending and unconditional, Mama’s heart indeed fits two, as Eva and Gia learn to their utmost happiness and satisfaction.

Eva and Gina are both born on the same day and as twins they have to share their parents from day one. Of course, other children have siblings too, but they are not the same age. A baby needs more attention and two babies at the same time is a very demanding and time consuming task for the parents.

Both girls are afraid, that the other is more loved by their mother and constantly fight for the "pole position". Both want to sit on their mother's lap at the same time or quarrel over who will be rocked to sleep first.
Luckily their mother watches them carefully and listens to their sorrows attentively and once she's aware of their fight with each other to be her favourite child, her message is clear: her heart is big enough to love them both deeply and equally.
Now, feeling reassured and safe, the two can concentrate on the advantages of being a twin, as it certainly is a lot of fun to always have someone your age to play with.

The author, Denise Carkhuff, is a mother of twin girls herself and knows very well what it means to bring up twins. To be a parent of twins or multiples is different. Not only do you have to try and give two or more babies the same amout of attention, time and TLC, you also have to make sure, they are still treated as the individuals they are.
A book like this one, offers for parents of twins the excellent opportunity to read and share the story with their children and afterwards to sit down and talk with them about it.
The illustrations are very cheerful and tie in beautifully with the story, but I'm not the greatest fan of the text layout. The print is quite small and sometimes the background is very colourful, which leads to a lack of contrast and reading can turn into a bit of a strain. Also, I found the word crabby being used far too often on the first couple of pages.
Still, overall Mama's Heart Fits Two is a cute and helpful picture book for twins and their parents.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Although this book is aimed at twins, I feel like it can be a great read for any family that is growing. Especially when it's going from an only child to two or more. It had adorable illustrations and I feel like it gave validation to the feelings of children. I think a lot of them do fear being second in mommy's heart and this book makes sure it's clear that it's not going to happen.

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/review/R244XRK785WUUY/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B012EHL88E