What Makes a Baby

I got this book for my 2 year old. There is no mention of gender in this entire book. The book does not show genitals or sex in any way. It says "some bodies have sperm in them, and some do not." With a picture of a completely androgynous person, with a little picture of a sperm close to where the sperm would really be in their body. I recommend this book for every kid in the world and stress that there is no such thing as being too young for this book. Older kids may like it as well, it isnt cheesy and uses real words. The only mention of genitals in this is the word "vagina" but it does not show one. It only talks about the fact that "some babies are born by coming out of a part of the body most people call the vagina" and it shows a picture of a midwife taking a baby out of the vagina in a birds eye view, so that we dont see the vagina. The opposite page shows a c section and explains that the doctor makes a hole, takes the baby out, and closes the hole. The picture is not scary and shows zero blood or gore, but is realistic and easy to see what is happening. There is a picture of the baby upside down inside of a person's body with the umbilical cord. They show a picture of a uterus and explain that some bodies have uteruses and some do not, and that babies grow inside the uterus. There is a picture with lots of people, and some of those people have a uterus and some do not in the picture. Again I stress that there is no gender in this book which is fantastic. The pictures are very colorful and fun, yet informative. The single only complaint I have is that it doesnt talk about the sperm going into the egg, but just the sperm dancing with the egg. After we read the words on that page I just always add "and then the sperm goes in the egg." I think thats all that's really needed. This book started a really nice conversation between my little one and I and now if I ask, my two year old can tell me which parent had an egg, and which parent had a sperm to make my little one and who had a uterus where my little one grew and got bigger and bigger (the book shows pictures of the stages of development) and then came out and how. This book also does not talk about "mommies and daddies" which is great since we have a Daddy and Shoey in our house, and no Mommy. I would recommend this book for families who adopted or had a surrogate, etc. It just talks about a sperm and an egg, but doesnt say anything about what kind of people "should" have a sperm or an egg or a uterus. There is no mention of male or female or intersex or man or woman, etc. It also shows a lot of different families, family members, and babies, but they are very diverse and a lot of them are very androgynous. I haven't looked too much but there may or may not be obviously gay couples, nonbinary couples, and families with 3 or more parents. Super duper inclusive. I love this book. It is absolutely perfect for our family. Perfect for your queer kids and gaybies too. xD

My daughter was donor conceived and I have never kept that hidden from her. She's now 7 and began asking a lot of questions about a year ago. It made me realize that even though it was never a secret, it also wasn't talked a lot about or part of our regular "story." I began searching for books that were age appropriate to help me explain things to her and this was recommended. It's a great book! It's age appropriate, accurately explains things, but does so in a way that kiddos can process the information, and includes brightly colored pictures and fun stories to keep their attention. It didn't match our circumstances exactly, but I don't expect any book to. It was a great foundation and I filled in the holes when needed. This is a wonderful book and I would recommend it a thousand times over!

I received this book and read it to myself as my son (3.5 yrs) was busy playing with his Legos. I haven't even read it to him yet since then but I have to say *I* love it and I hope he does, too. I was smiling as I read through it. The illustrations are lovely and whimsical and avoid genderizing more than necessary or even representing ethnicity. Each of the people is represented in an androgynous and colorful (think rainbow) way with no definite faces, hair styles, clothing, skin tones ... the focus is on the reproductive organs necessary for making a baby and the feelings involved in the relationships that result in a baby. Really a well done presentation of the IDEA and the theme to a child who is curious without imposing "social norms". I really like that it doesn't impose a schema of gender expectations on a child or what a "couple" looks like just because the book is talking about sex. Really a lovely and well written and illustrated book! Right length, great simple presentation. (Aside: Just an example of why it's important to me personally that stereotypes are not reinforced: My son has long hair. We live in TX where this doesn't seem to be even remotely common and he is repeatedly confused for a girl even though he is wearing clothing that I would consider typically "boy" clothes. I don't think only girls have long hair or that it should be considered odd for a boy to have long hair, or for a girl to have short hair. So on the same note I would prefer a book to not enforce the expectations of long hair on a female, or specific roles that are required/expected of men or women.)

This book is amazing. First off, it has bright colors and interesting pictures that kids will like. This book is good for any donor families, surrogate families, or any families built in a "non-traditional" way. We are a double-donor, LGBTQ family, and my wife carried our son. I am unaware of any books out there explaining our exact situation. This book accurately explains how babies are made, but it leaves things generic enough that it can fit any family or situation, just like it fits ours. Now we have a great starting point to explain our son's story to him when he gets a little older.

Awesome for my donor conceived child. She enjoys the representation in this book, even with c section information. Love the story and is she appropriate

Excellent book as a jumping off point for discussion for a non traditional pregnancy with kids. Has really general info for biology (some bodies have eggs, some have sperm, the egg and sperm get together and need a body to grow in). Allows for parents to fill in as much or as little as you want, and discussion of in-vitro, surrogate or other individual circumstances.

Great book to extend knowledge for our children ages 7 and 9. Goes into a little more detail without too much.

Excellent book for introducing little ones to facts of life and how they came about esp for an IVF baby Not graphic just real

Super brilliant book for parents who are grappling how to explain it right!! Loved it! Everyone should read it for info!

Libro facile, colorato e molto carino. Ho spiegato a mia figlia (7 anni) dopo svariate domande come si fanno i bambini, con un linguaggio semplice senza raccontare fandonie e senza creare traumi. Top. È in inglese ma veramente easy.

This book is perfectly inclusive and just exactly what I was looking for to complement the more mainstream "Amazing You" book by Dr. Gail Saltz. Amazing You!: Getting Smart About Your Private Parts In an extremely inclusive way, it guides children through a basic, colourful, non-gender-conforming understanding of the elements required to create a baby, without even ONCE making reference to a pronoun. I didn't know how they'd do that, but the end result is amazing. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone seeking an honest, accurate no-fuss description of the components required to make a baby. It gets the child to ask themselves who in their lives were waiting for their arrival - a great chance to discuss with ALL children the different ways of being born - from full-term with a biological parent, to adoption, to surrogacy, to surgical deliveries - its a well thought out beginning to many, many doscussions. My son is 4, and I can see that we can go back to this book for several years and just add on different layers as he's ready for them. I am *so* glad I saw this book on an online list, because I knew I wanted nothing religious, nothing that minces words, all while being aware of - and open to things other than - gender-normative terms. As a Birth Doula I especially appreciated the time to mention both vaginal and surgical deliveries. It was a nice touch. Overall this is a great starting point for discussions with a young child, even though my family's CIS-ness made other similar books "accessible". I wanted to do better than that.