Mommy 2.0

"My Beautiful Mommy" is aimed at kids ages four to seven and features a plastic surgeon named Dr. Michael (a musclebound superhero type) and a girl whose mother gets a tummy tuck, a nose job and breast implants. Before her surgery the mom explains that she is getting a smaller tummy: "You see, as I got older, my body stretched and I couldn't fit into my clothes anymore. Dr. Michael is going to help fix that and make me feel better." Mom comes home looking like a slightly bruised Barbie doll with demure bandages on her nose and around her waist.

The text doesn't mention the breast augmentation, but the illustrations intentionally show Mom's breasts to be fuller and higher. "I tried to skirt that issue in the text itself," says Salzhauer. "The tummy lends itself to an easy explanation to the children: extra skin and can't fit into your clothes. The breasts might be a stretch for a six-year-old."

The book doesn't explain exactly why the mother is redoing her nose post-pregnancy. Nonetheless, Mom reassures her little girl that the new nose won't just look "different, my dear—prettier!"

It remains to be seen how many plastic surgeons will recommend the book to patients. Richard D'Amico, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, who gives the book a B grade, says he would "make them aware that it's out there and leave it up to the patient's discretion." He says the illustration (specifically the breasts) look somewhat "overdone," since most moms are just looking for restoration.

Child psychiatrist Elizabeth Berger, author of "Raising Kids With Character," likes the idea of a book for kids. "If the mother is determined to pursue cosmetic surgery, I think it's terribly important to discuss it with the child," Berger says. But she says the book is incomplete. She wishes that the mom had just said something like, "This is silly, but I really want it anyway," she says. "That is more honest and more helpful to the child."

Berger doesn't want to come across as anti-cosmetic surgery, but she notes that it can be difficult for small kids to understand. "The younger the child, the more mysterious and potentially hurtful the mother's absence, or mother being out of commission, or mother looking like she's been beaten up, will be," she says. Small children are "concrete" and "sensible" and think "you go to a doctor because you're hurt or sick," she says. After considering how their children might react, she says that "some mothers may realize that the total burden of the child's anxiety might be a side effect of the procedure they hadn't quite thought through and that might inspire them to postpone it until the child is older."