Review by Booklist Review
Ages 5-8. In her own inimitable illustrative style, Cole sets out to do what everyone wants done--present an accessible, humorous, accurate look at where babies come from. Retro-hippy Mom and Dad start by telling their two scruffy (but bright) kids that you can make babies out of gingerbread, find them under stones, and squeeze them out of tubes of "baby paste." Laughing uproariously, the two kids tell their parents in simple, plain language how babies are really made, with their explanations illustrated by childlike, anatomically correct (but not graphic) cartoons. While the double-page spread picturing "some ways Mommies and Daddies fit together" may give some readers pause, it answers the question that follows the illustration depicting "this fits in here." The expressive countenances of all concerned lend an air of hilarity to the proceedings that may help see parents through their children's earliest questions on human reproduction. ~--Janice Del Negro
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Cole ( Supermoo ) unleashes her endearingly loony sense of humor on the subject of the birds and the bees, and the result is, as expected, hilarious. When a thoroughly befuddled set of '90s parents (he wears his gray hair in a ponytail, she wears Birkenstocks) decides to inform their offspring how babies are made, their explanations (babies are grown from seeds, made out of gingerbread, squeezed from tubes like toothpaste, brought by dinosaurs) are greeted with an explosion of giggles. Their children quickly grab paper and pen and proceed to set the record straight. Cole's drawings and simple text are candid without being offensive and, without getting terribly complicated or serious, communicate the essentials of conception and childbirth in a direct but light-hearted manner that will leave everyone grinning and no one embarrassed. As always, Cole's idiosyncratic, cartoon-style illustrations are a treat--and her renditions of greenhouse babies and baby-paste tubes are outrageously funny. All ages. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Someone laid an egg here, but it wasn't Mommy. What begins as an amusing premise gets waylaid along the way. Mom and Dad offer their kids twists on the old clichés about the birds and the bees. The children are wildly amused, and decide to teach their parents the facts of life, illustrated with their own crayon drawings. In the explanation, Mothers have eggs inside their bodies, while daddies have "`seeds in seed pods outside their bodies. Daddies also have a tube. The seeds come out of the pods and through the tube. The tube goes into the mommy's body through a hole.'" On a double-page spread, a line is drawn from Dad's penis to an opening in Mom, labeled ``This fits in here.'' On the next page readers are shown some ways moms and dads fit together, copulating on a skateboard, hanging from balloons, etc. The ``crayon'' drawings are crude, but everyone gets the picture. Fertilization and birth follow. The cartoon characters and watercolored line drawings are vibrant and amusing-dad's gray hair is in a ponytail, while mom is a blonde earth-mother type. The kids are messy replicas of their parents. Joanna Cole's How You Were Born (Morrow, 1993) still sets the standard; this effort doesn't measure up.-Denise L. Moll, Lone Pine Elementary School, West Bloomfield, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
A refreshing twist occurs as a sister and brother correct their parents' misconceptions about where babies come from: they don't grow in gardens; they don't hatch from eggs; but, as the kids explain, seeds and eggs do play roles. Comical drawings help make the topic approachable, although adults should note that a spread of gleefully copulating figures is included. From HORN BOOK 1993, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The full facts about human reproduction, ingeniously set in a story about parents who are offering their son and daughter some whimsical explanations--``You were delivered by a dinosaur'' or ``Sometimes you just find them under stones''--while the humor of these possibilities is dramatized in Cole's vibrant, cartoony illustrations. After Mom avers, ``You can grow them from seeds...Or just squeeze them out of tubes!'' and Dad chimes ``Mommy laid an egg,'' the kids take the discussion in hand. Laughing off the nonsense and remarking that ``You were right about the SEEDS, the TUBE, and the EGG,'' they describe what really happens, illustrating with explicit kindergarten-style drawings--a remarkably innovative way to offer diagrams that are clear without being uncomfortably detailed; there are even four ``ways mommies and daddies fit together,'' their faces expressing engagingly childlike glee. The lesson continues until ``out pops the baby.'' ``So now YOU know,'' conclude the sensible tots to their wide-eyed parents (whose cheeks have gone much pinker, the only suggestion that this could be embarrassing), ``...and so does everyone else,'' as they open the door to a slew of animals and their young. For those who choose to share these specifics with young children, a notably fresh, matter-of-fact approach. (Picture book. 4-8)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
