The PurpleBook Baby & Maternity Edition, by Hillary Mendelsohn describes itself as “the definitive guide to exceptional online shopping.” The heart of the book is it’s short, concise reviews of 350 websites offering products and services for mothers-to-be, infants and toddlers.

The site reviews are arrange alphabetically by URL. Each entry contains the basic information you’ll need in order to determine if a particular site will meet your needs. Short descriptions which average about 100 words describe each site and their products.

Below the reviews are easy to understand icons which provide vital information about each site with a glance. The icons indicate shipping costs, if the site offers gift certificates, gift wrapping service, the user-friendliness of the site and if the site offers a registry service. There are also icons which indicate specific types of product categories: Infants, Gifts, Maternity, Personalized, Supersite and Toddler.

Once you learn the meaning of each icon it will only take a moment to determine if a site will meet your needs. Opening the book and glancing at the icons under the entry for BabyGiftIdea.com, it takes me less than 15 seconds to determine that the site is considered standard when it comes to user friendliness. They offer standard shipping based on weight and overnight shipping is an option. They also provide a gift wrapping service, a gift registry and sell gift certificates. The baby icons tell me that they offer personalized gifts for infants.

If you’re looking for a specific product you can refer to one of the 3 Indexes. The first Index is alphabetized and divided into product categories and sub-categories of everything from baby blankets to rocking chairs. The second Index helps you locate items by keywords such as All Natural, Keepsakes and Baby Proofing. The final Index is an alphabetical list of companies and their web addresses.

You can spend hours using search engines in your quest for the "right" baby site, or you can pick up a copy of Thepuplebook baby and within minutes locate baby & maternity websites that have exactly what you need.

If you're searching for a gift for a mother to be or are expecting and looking for guidance on what to buy, ThePurplebook Baby should be on your list of must have books.