Amazing You!: Getting Smart About Your Private Parts: A First Guide to Body Awareness for Pre-Schoolers

We bought this to help explain anatomy and baby-making basics to our 3-year-old, who has recently become extremely inquisitive on the topic. It is a very detailed introduction to male and female anatomy; although it is aimed at small children, it is entirely unapologetic in its honest graphic depictions of its topic. I think it is a tasteful introduction to body differences and to the basics of reproductive development and where babies come from. However, the book is not for everyone, and whether you find it helpful will depend on your particular values, your comfort levels with certain images, and whether you think your child is ready to discuss certain ideas. Spoiler alert. ;) Some details that might help you decide whether this book is for you: - The book is not narrative-based, but rather a step-by-step discussion of various aspects of anatomy, development, and how babies come to be. - The cover children are white Europeans and many of the inside illustrations follow suit. That said, the authors did include other races in the book. THAT said, the example family in the make-a-baby scenario is white. - The unstated assumption throughout the book is that people who are making a baby are a race-matched man and woman who love each other. If your family is mixed race, if you are a single parent, if you are two Moms who had a baby, if you adopted a baby made by someone else, etc... your family is not overtly depicted. That's not to say this book is useless to you, but of course more discussion is needed beyond the scenarios depicted here, and other books might do a better job in terms of having your kid identify with the illustrations. (In my opinion, even the book's perfect target audience would do well to discuss the fact that your family is not the only kind of loving family set-up out there. But at least the illustrations are less potentially confusing in your case.) - There is a page that depicts a baby boy next to a preschool boy next to an adult man, in full frontal nudity, to contrast developmental stages and illustrate how the body changes; the page next to it does the same for girls. We are not embarrassed by nudity in our family, and teach context (when is it appropriate to be naked versus not), but some families might be uncomfortable with these pages. - There are pages for both boys and girls that show what the "inside" anatomy looks like. The book uses accurate medical terminology to describe many anatomy details ("labia", "scrotum", "urethra", etc.). Some of this is more detail than our kid needs right now, but will be extra information for a later time. We initially just gloss over some things to avoid getting muddled in details. - The book talks about how a sperm and egg join to make a baby. One silly detail: the cartoon sperm and egg are smiling and saying "hi" at each other. In an otherwise fairly realistic book, this is a bit fanciful. (Our kid likes to point out that this isn't "really" what they look like and that eggs and sperm don't have faces; it's a source of humor.) - There is NO depiction of sexual intercourse in either words or images. "Amazing You" skips from talking about a man and woman loving each other and deciding to make a baby right to picturing the meeting of the egg and sperm, leaving the adults to decide whether to fill in the in-between detail. - There is a page that shows a baby in-utero and a description of what the umbilical cord does. - There is discussion of what happens during labor (that the uterus pushes the baby out and the vagina stretches to allow the baby to fit). None of this is shown in pictures (the pictures are of an excited-looking couple contemplating the pregnant belly and then a hospital room image of a doctor handing Mom the baby with umbilical cord still attached while another person-with-surgical-mask and Dad look on, and no Mom-private-parts are shown). - There is a page that talks about self-exploration, discussing how curiosity is natural and that touching private parts is a private act. (The accompanying picture is of a closed door with a "private" sign on it, and the family dog running in the hallway outside.) Some readers may find this discussion offensive and possibly above the level of the intended audience. From a developmental perspective, it is normal for very young children (yes, including those who have not been confronted with the horror of abuse) to touch their private parts and find them interesting; it would be strange if they found their toes fascinating, but completely ignored another, equally interesting, part of themselves. This page offers an opportunity to address healthy boundaries for such behavior without shaming the child for normal curiosity. It can also be skipped if it doesn't yet seem relevant to the child. Or it might be a deal-breaker for you on this book if this topic is just not something you're comfortable discussing (yet, or ever) with your child. Overall, I think this is a great book. Our kid loves reading it and discussing how things work, and is proud to know more about the topic. The images are graphic but innocent in nature, and helpful for a real conversation about private parts. If you're like us and want to be open about this topic, I'd recommend trying this book. If you want to take this conversation a little slower, or the details described above are not in line with what you're looking for: save your money for another book.

This is my 3-year-old daughter's favorite book. She has asked for this as a bedtime story every day this week. It even beat out her Frozen book. Her favorite parts are when the egg comes down the "fa fa tube" and the baby with the "um-il-lah" cord. On one page it says "If you're a boy..." to which I turn to her and ask "Are you a boy?" and she'll say "No, I'll find." and flip through the pages until she finds a picture of a boy. This book has opened up discussion on who has labia and who has a penis. Though it did open up a very interesting discussion about the gender of her not anatomically correct doll. I like the illustrations in this book. The anatomy is cartoony but accurate and the characters are fairly diverse. Though, as a couple reviews have mentioned, there are no non-circumstanced males. And I do wish it mentioned c-sections as well, since my vagina didn't turn out to be "very very stretchy." There also isn't a lot of talk about appropriate versus inappropriate touches. There is one page about silly made up names for your private parts. I believe it's meant as a tie in if your child has already made up a name, but since we have used correct labels since birth, this page is a little confusing, and I tend to skip it. I do not think this book is too detailed. It is perfect for preschoolers. There is one picture of an adult male and one picture of an adult female on the page that says as you grow your body changes. And there is absolutely no mention of intercourse. That's left for another day. The most detail this book has on that subject is one page that says when the egg and the sperm meet a baby is formed. No mention on how that would ever happen, just that when "you're much older" girls release eggs and boys make sperm. This is the perfect book for teaching your preschooler (or yourself) the proper names for their private parts. It's fun and informative and really keeps the child's attention. Could use some more information, but a very good starting place.

My 5-year-old really started escalating her questions around where babies come from and I was not prepared for it. She was no longer satisfied with my higher level summaries and I stumbled around, unsure how much information to give. Coincidentally a friend shared this book with me. She had checked out a copy from the library. As soon as I saw the content, I knew we needed it. My child LOVES this book and asks to read it every night at bedtime. It is absolutely perfect. It gives just the right amount of factual information for the 4-6 year-old crowd without discussing insertion. Now she knows the anatomy of both sexes, that gametes unite to make a baby, and how the baby is born. I can’t say enough good things about this book and highly recommend it. I’m glad I’ve got a copy for when my 3-year-old get curious about these things.

I think that this is a good book to help explain bodies to children, and it has some pointers/advice for parents/guardians who are teaching them. I only have one complaint - in the book it notes that touching one's self is totally normal. While that may be something to have in the section for parents, as they have discussions with their children, I don't think it is necessary for it to be included as a page in the book. It is contained within 2 pages that face each other, and it doesn't show a picture of a child touching their privates, so I just skip those pages when we read, instead of getting a new book. I do like that the book presents bodies and differences between boys/girls in a very basic upfront way. There are some illustrations of naked baby, child, and full grown adult for each gender, but they are tastefully done, in a manner to show differences, but not make a big deal of them. It glosses over sex, and jumps more into what happens inside the body to create a baby.

Kewl

This book, in conjunction with What Makes a Baby by Cory Silverberg, was a perfect choice for us for opening discussions with our preschooler. I do not believe in lying or even misleading my children about anything. I have this idea that when it comes to these sorts of things, I want to offer the information *before* my inquisitive four-year-old needs to ask it. This book offers some basic, perfectly-written information... and what you choose to do with it / how far the discussion goes with your preschooler is completely up to you. One thing the other reviews mentioned was the page dedicated to slang words for anatomical parts. We also don't use any slang so I just tooo the chance to explain that some families do use other words and we will just keep doing what we are doing. We have even launched off into discussions about hens and eggs hatching: "Mama, how come there are no baby chickens in the eggs we eat?". For us, this isn't the *only* book we are using. It isn't the right fit for everyone as it is very gender normative using boy/girl man/woman pronouns. The "When a man and a woman love each other" line doesn't settle well with me. I read about it in other reviews so I was able to also buy the above-mentioned book (What Makes A Baby), as I wanted to be sure to include some other discussions about how families can look all sorts of different ways. I also personally didn't mind the vaginal delivery being depicted - it's important to normalize non-surgical deliveries. But I can see how it doesn't really leave room for surgical deliveries unless the caregiver takes the initative to use the book as a starting point for discussion. Overall, an excellent book. If you are looking for a jumping off point for discussions with your young children, you can't go wrong here. I consider this a must-have for parents/guardians/caregivers of preschoolers.

I love the book. It has nice, normal cartoon style illustrations. It mentions all the information necessary and a child will ask you in terms that they can understand. Not really hard, not shameful, not something to worry and feel ashamed about. It is open ended in terms of sufficient details that the child will understand and also be satisfied with the answers. As they grow you can re-establish the necessary biological knowledge and even further more when they grow and ask more. I love the words, illustrations, and also the way of writing. Also the way they have taken effort to even write a note to the parents about how they should also not feel ashamed and answer their kids as honestly as possible so hey do not end up teaching their children of being ashamed of their body parts too. I have bought it for my 5 year old niece, although she has knowledge prior to this but is now very curious about how the organs and body parts look and work. So this was a good step for beginners.

I bought this book a couple of weeks ago for my 6-year-old son who kept asking me why I was a girl and why he and his dad were boys. I am very liberal and I am a school teacher, so I should know how to explain facts about life to my own child. However the explanations I gave to my boy were not enough or not clear enough. So I "googled" for books about the subject and found this one on an American website. My son loves it. He reads (or rather looks at) it all the time and he seems to understand more now. I like the drawings (accurate but cute) and the fact that it gives the appropriate explanations for a child of 6 and nothing else. It is liberal (no patronising, no religious bigotry) but at the same time respects the necessary innocence of a young child and tells children that they are the result of love between a man and a woman. That is all what my 6 year old needed for the moment as I give myself a bit of time before I explain that two men or two women can be parents as well etc. Thank you for a very cheap and great book!

El libro llegó dentro de un sobre pero estaba muy maltrado, el contenido es lo básico que esperaba, describen las partes privadas y el proceso del embarazo de manera sencilla.