The title of this controversial book is pretty self explanatory of what the book is going to be about. Children are curious and want to know where babies come from. Usually they ask their parents, and either they get the truth or they get some made up fantasy story of how kids are made. If the parents don't give the kids an answer they are going to learn it sooner or later from friends. Anyways, this book starts out with these parents treating their kids like babies and giving them with crazy made up stories of how babies are born. The parents say that girls are made from sugar and spice and everything nice, and boys are made from slugs, snails and puppy dog tails. This line right here can facilitate a discussion about stereotypes of boys and girls. So are girls only supposed to be nice and be in the kitchen with sugar and spices? Are girls not allowed to get dirty and play with bugs like boys do? I didn't like this "made up" story that the parents tell their kids in this book because it is stereotypical of what girls and boys are "supposed" to be like in our society. Another tale that the parents made up is that babies are delivered by dinosaurs. I mean come on! Are the kids stupid? Dinosaurs have been extincted for millions of years, so how could they deliver babies? If I was a child, I wouldn't want to be lied to. If anything, I would rather my parents say they don't feel comfortable talking about it, and I would either forget about it or go ask my siblings or friends. I really liked how the kids in this book listened to their parents stories and then they responded by pretty much saying " I don't think so, daddy has a tube with seed pods and mommy has an egg inside her". Then the kids go on to say "this fits inside here" and explain the actual process by drawing different positions of how mommy's and daddy's fit together. The way the kids explain it is "it's a speed race for the eggs and the winner get the egg and it grows into a small baby". I understand how this book would be a very controversial and perhaps inappropriate book to share with students in the classroom. But I do think that this is an excellent book for parents to use if they do want to explain the truth about where babies come from. I really appreciated how this author showed how many people patronize young kids and act like they don't know anything. Most kids do know a lot, and if they don't, they will learn. It is a natural part of life.
Great post. I also read this book last week and felt the exact same about how ridiculous the nature of the story is. I think it is important to get real with your kids at a young age. Kids are learning more and more from their peers in school and that is where misconceptions are made. I know you said parents could use it as a teaching tool, however, I feel the opposite. I think that if parents were going to incorporate this into their discussion with children, the children may feel overwhelmed and confused. Personally, I do not think I know where this book should ever come up with children, but perhaps you could find a great way to use it yourself!
ReplyDeleteI personally believe that this book should be used at home and not in the classroom, mainly elementary classrooms. I think how babies are made is an important topic that needs to be discussed but only in the home life. I know as they get older we have health education and some sex education classes. But the up front, truth, first initial talk should be done with paretns. I don't think I would use this book because the sterotypes at the beginning but also the pictures are too "weird" for me. There is something about them that I don't think a 3 year old needs to understand. Just a thought:-)
ReplyDeletedinosaur egg? Nice! I have never read this book before, but I think that if maybe your 4th or 5th-6th graders were having a sex ed talk, (with parental knowlege/consent)it could be used in a classroom. Then again, I've always thought the straight forward and honest approach was the best way to talk to kids about tough to talk about topics.
ReplyDeleteI agree Sasha, except that though teaching (and talking with parents) one person's "honest" approach can be an outright lie for another! Such a tough line to walk...
ReplyDeleteI think it's so funny that as teachers we are supposed to encourage questions...except sometimes we really don't want to talk about the actual questions kids have!