Amazing You!: Getting Smart About Your Private Parts
PreSchool-Grade 1–This title tackles basic body awareness and sex education. The text speaks directly to young children, differentiating between body parts that are visible most of the time and those that are kept hidden, showing the differences between girls and boys and offering a simple explanation of how babies are made without explicit reference to sex. Cravath's sunny cartoons show the various parts in a straightforward manner, though preschoolers may be confused about where the internal ones are. The text also uses terms such as "vagina" and "urinate" without actually explaining what they mean, and, curiously, the text does not discuss breasts at all, though there are side-by-side illustrations of a boy and girl in the baby, preschool, and adult stages. An author's note advises parents on the finer points of discussing these delicate issues. Though Laurie Krasny Brown'sWhat's the Big Secret?: Talking about Sex with Girls and Boys(Little, Brown, 1997) remains the gold standard for sex ed for young children, this book is a friendly supplement or a nice starter for parents who aren't quite ready to go into the detail provided in Brown's book.–Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Maryland School for the Deaf, ColumbiaCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.