What Makes a Baby: A book for every kind of family and every kind of kid. Following the huge success of a Kickstarter campaign in which What Makes a Baby became the highest funded children's book project in the history of the site, we see this title as a go-to among parents wanting to teach their curious children about where babies come from no matter who was involved, where it took place, and when. What Makes the Baby is the first in a three-book series teaching young readers about conception, their changing bodies, and sex and sexual health.
Finalist for the 2014 Lambda Award for LGBT Children's/Young Adult
What Makes a Baby is a book for every kind of family and every kind of kid. It is a 21st century children’s picture book about where babies come from that reflects the reality of our modern time by being inclusive of all kinds of kids, adults, and families, however they came to be.
Geared to readers from pre-school to 8 years old, it teaches curious kids about conception, gestation, and birth in a way that works regardless of whether or not the kid in question was adopted, conceived using reproductive technologies, at home or in a clinic, through surrogacy, or the old fashioned way, and regardless of how many people were involved, their orientation, gender and other identity, or family composition. Just as important, the story doesn’t gender people or body parts, so most parents and families will find that it leaves room for them to educate their child without having to erase their own experience.
Most books about where babies come from leave many of us out. They tell a nice story (mommy + daddy + intercourse = you!) but the truth is that more and more of us are acknowledging the help we get to bring children into our lives. That help might be a doctor, fertility clinic, adoption or foster agency; it might be a turkey baster and a friend; it might be a sperm donor or a surrogate. What Makes a Baby helps parents tell children a story about where they came from that isn’t just true for them, but true for everyone.
Written by a sexuality educator, Cory Silverberg, and illustrated by award-winning Canadian artist Fiona Smyth, What Makes a Baby is as fun to look at as it is useful to read.
