I am not too fond of this book. It seems rather ridiculous. I think the conversation should be rather heartfelt, however, this seems a bit too informal, sarcastic and irrational. If anything, I think this book would leave kids with more questions to ask – rather than clearing everything up.
The illustrations are okay, but some pages seem a bit graphic. I do not think that younger kids would be able to understand exactly what the pictures were trying to tell them. If I were teaching my son or daughter where the birds and the bees were from – I would not use this as a tool. There has to be better books out there than this!
Overall, not my favorite book So sorry to the author, but my oh my! How would this help the situation at all?
I read this book too and I actually thought it would be really helpful for teaching children. I agree it may not clear everything up but I think that it could be a big eye opener for parents as well. The whole idea that parents think their children don't know anything about this stuff is funny to me and is really common in society. I think parents have this belief that their children don't know about these things until the parents tell them about it. The reality is that children know and you don't have to "dumb it down" for them, just talk to them. I also really liked this book because it made it humorous. I agree that at certain times the conversation should be heartfelt and very understanding but sometimes you just have to laugh and I think that by making it okay to laugh about it the conversation will be more relaxed and not so tense.
ReplyDeleteI also read this book and I agree with you that this book was a little too graphic for elementary aged kids. Using this kind of book as a teacher would be hard, because it would probably cause students to focus more on the aspect that the teacher showed a picture of the parents "private parts". The kids would probably be too distracted as this point. However, I also think that this book has many teaching oppurtunities that parents could utilize with this book. I agree very much with Hillary that this book demonstrates how teachers, parents, and adults in general patronize young kids and treat them like they are babies. In my opinion, I think because kids are going to figure it out eventually anyway, we as parents should give them the correct facts so that they don't have these false ideas in their mind. I don't think this book should be brought into the classroom, because this book is so graphic and the book would cause a lot more grief for the teacher than good. This is a very touchy subject, but I do think books like these can be used to help kids understand that the reproduction process is a natural part of life.
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