What Makes A Baby - A Picture Book For Every Kind of Family and Every Kind of Kid

"What Makes A Baby" by Cory Silverberg, illustrated by Fiona Smyth

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.

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.

Definitely a picture book I wish had been read to me when I was a little kid!

Interestingly, this book was first self-published (through a hugely successful kickstarter campaign) and is now in it's second printing with Seven Stories Press.  There's a great interview with Cory and Fiona about making the book here at Pen and Oink.  

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