How You Were Born

Rating:
Summary: A Great Beginning for the That Difficult Talk
Review: Every parent dreads that moment. You know the one I mean- that moment when your child begins to ask about S-E-X. This book is a wonderful aid to help you through it.

Most experts suggest only giving as much information as a child is ready for, and answering the questions as they come up. This book is wonderful for the beginning stages of this process when your child wants to know where babies come from, but is neither ready for nor interested in the details of conception. This book has beautiful pictures of babies in utero in various stages of development and gently discusses the development of the fetus, the birth of the baby (in a non-graphic but honest way), and the excitement of welcoming a new life into the world.

I bought this for my eight year old, but it is gentle and non-graphic enough that my 3 year old loves it, as well. In fact, I wish I'd had this book when I was pregnant with my younger child. This would be a wonderful book for expectant mothers to share with their older children as they prepare for a new sibling.

There are other books out there that will answer more advanced questions in a more graphic way. This book is not going to answer everything, but it is the perfect book to use for beginning the journey of educating your children about reproduction, and it is written in such a way that parents can easily discuss their own beliefs with their children.

Rating:
Summary: My kids kept saying "WOW"!
Review: This book focuses mainly on fetal development and childbirth. My 5 year old daughter, who always wants to hear stories about her birth, loved it and kept saying "Wow!" and "Awesome" througout the book. It had beautiful pictures and lots of factual information. It was great!

Rating:
Summary: Fun, factual and reverent... what more could a mommy want?
Review: This book is a fun, low-key, high-quality way to introduce kids to the miracles of development and birth. Mine (6 and 7) were less interested in the pictures of actual babies as they were in those of the developing fetuses, and their long looks over each page allowed plenty of time for my narration -- about how much each of them was wanted, about how amazing it is that a real baby can be so tiny, and so on.

My daughter seemed a little uncomfortable with one of the pictures, which depicts a woman "giving birth" -- you do see the side of her hip exposed, in a fairly realistic position, but there's not much more skin visible here than you might see on a beach. I think overall, the pluses here -- especially allowing kids to see the developing fetus as an actual baby -- outweigh any possible drawbacks (the very slight nudity).

As "facts of life" books go, this one is full of fascinating facts, doesn't dodge any tricky issues, and can help instill a much-needed sense of reverence around the whole process.

NOTE: There is nothing in this book about how babies get made in the first place. If that's what you're looking for -- and in my case, it was, in part -- you will need other books to cover THAT information.