Customer Reviews

Amazing You: Getting Smart About Your Private Parts

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

My 3 year old and I like this book quite a bit. I'm a pretty liberal mom so the graphic yet tasteful illustrations of private parts and the frontal nudity of grown adults doesn't bother me in the least nor does it seem to faze her. Some adults might be freaked out by this so I wouldn't give it as a gift unless you're sure the parents won't faint from embarrassment.

I was a bit bothered by a few things though such as the sentence, "But what about the other parts, the parts that nobody else but you sees?"

I don't think there are any preschoolers who are the soul viewer or toucher of their private parts. I still need to do hygiene on my daughter, as do her grandparents, and preschool teachers. And, of course, the doctor sees her private parts. I think this book missed an opportunity to explain when and who it is appropriate to show one's genitals to and when it's inappropriate.

There is an illustration of an ovum with a face drawn on it. This may not be a big deal but my daughter was confused by the bodyless head. And trying to explain it was a bit difficult.

One other thing was this passage, "The baby will come out of the mother's vagina, which is very, very stretchy. It stretches wide enough for the baby to come out and then goes back to the way it was before." Well--I wasn't very, very stretchy. My daughter was born by c-section as (If I am correct) 20% of babies are now a days. I would have liked to have seen c-sections mentioned since there are so many kids that come into the world this way.

I'm really just mildly nit-picking this wonderful book. The few problems I have mentioned as bothering me can be turned around and be grounds for starting a dialogue with your child.

I was looking for a book to use to start talking with my almost 5-year-old about sex. I thought this book was great. It has age-appropriate cartoons and text. I thought that after reading it to my daughter she might have some questions, but she seemed to take it in stride. We've always spoken without embarrassment about body parts and the introduction of the idea of eggs and sperm or babies coming through a vagina didn't seem to phase her. The book does not mention intercourse, which was fine because she didn't ask how the egg and sperm met or arrived in the uterus, so I guess that will come later. When I added that it did hurt when my vagina stretched for her and her brother to come out she said, "oh man, I'm only going to have one baby then." Her little brother looked at the cartoon of the baby in the uterus, pointed to the umbilical cord and said, "baby penis." Funny. I think it's a great introduction and starting point for other conversations (c-sections, circumcision, nurse-midwives, etc.)

I thought it was a good book, and that it really taught me about my private parts, but I think it was really meant for kids younger than me only because I'm 8 years old.

I was considering buying this for my 3.5 year old, but i was flipping through the pages, and only saw circumcised penises. I have an intact son, so i decided to not buy it.

I was very excited to receive this book after having read a glowing review in my local newspaper. The details seem to be just right for 4-8 year olds, the published target audience. The author deals with most of the body differences between the genders, as well as changes that each can expect while growing up [though oddly omitting any mention of breast changes or nursing a baby]. While intercourse is not noted as the means for fertilizing the egg to make a baby, she does go into appropriate detail about female and male reproductive organs. My only reservation for sharing this with my 5 and 4 year old is one page that talks about 'touching yourself.' While I am not so naive to think this is not going to happen, it seems that this topic might better suit 8-12 year olds than younger children. While the author handles the issue even without mentioning the word 'masturbation,' my personal opinion is that my own children don't even need to have the concept introduced to them yet! We have decided to keep this book and wait to share it until they seem more self-aware and are asking questions, which at this point, they are not.
Overall, though, great book!

I have two daughters, 3 ½ and 4 ½ yrs. old. My older daughter wanted to know what "the parts that I can't see are". This placed me in a slightly uncomfortable position because it brought up the fact that I have absolutely no parent training in this department. Growing up in an extremely conservative environment, I was raised not to even admit there were private parts. To be honest, I think that the area was considered more of a void. Since my mother was a Science teacher, we had all of our other body parts just no privates to "speak" of.
So I set out to find a book that would be age appropriate, would not treat the subject as if their private parts as if there might be something dirty about it, would still give my daughters the understanding that there is something private/special about the parts that they own, and have my daughters understand that ultimately the parts have the special ability to create life. Honestly, I thought that this may be too much to want from a book that I intended to read to little people. Well, I got lucky. I happened to be listening to the radio when Gail Saltz was being interviewed. During the interview, she was explaining that she is working on a series of books to help in the arena of the subject of private parts and the body. She went on to explain that the first book, Amazing Parts, was available and was intended just for preschoolers. I looked it up on Amazon and decided to buy it because she did not seem like a weirdo and the book sounded like it could be decent.
The book came and I sat down with both girls. I read through the book with them and went through the illustrations. Since my 4 ½ year old is in the "babies are so cute" stage, she really enjoyed knowing that the parts are responsible for making babies. Her favorite pages of the book are when the egg is shown travelling through the female parts on one page while on the opposing page the sperm is shown travelling through the male parts. She likes to exclaim how they travel so they can get married and turn the page to show that they are shown in a heart. (The authors do not approach the idea of two people being married to have a baby which although I firmly believe that it is best to have an intact system for children, it is not a necessary component to pregnancy and private parts. This to me would be something that the parents should have the right to teach marriage vs. non-marriage relationships.) Honestly, the first time through the book, I was quite scared to think that the authors may have decided to show intercourse on the following page, so I peeked to see that the pages were still okay to read, and they were. The book is perfectly geared for the age group intended. While the book is not written so no questions may be asked, the book is not written in a fashion to create questions that their age group may not be ready to have answered.

I bought this for my almost 5 year old daughter who was very curious about her body. It gives information in an accessible way, not too much information - just enough. Two problems for me: 1)The book shows pictures of penises - they are all circumcised! Not a "normal" penis for most boys, and not that of my daughter's brother!. 2) The mother is shown giving birth in a hospital, lying down in bed with a male doctor telling her to push. Most would agree that this is not the best position for a mother to give birth in :), although unfortunately it occurs often in the United States.

All in all, a decent book.

This book is an excellent tool for providing accurate answers in a relaxed manner for preschool and kindergarten-age children who are beginning to ask questions about their bodies. The illustrations are bright, colorful and engaging for both children and parents alike. The information is presented in a straightfoward manner, but still leaves room for fun. We have only recently expanded our sexuality education program to include Kindergarten through sixth grade and this book has been wonderful addition to our sexuality education library for our very young students.

Despite all the positive reviews we were disappointed with this book. It gives quick definitions of the body parts and then immediately dives into the topic of getting familiar with your private parts in private. While parents might choose to skip that if it is not relevant to their kids, we found that we skip way too many areas and described things in different ways. The illustrations could be better too. One very significant topic that the book does not cover is the idea of sharing everything that might pertain to the private parts and other people - the child has to know that it is OK and be comfortable to share everything with parents.

This was exactly what I needed to help me answer ALL the questions that my 6 yr old had about her/ girl's bodies without getting into the issues of intercourse.

After a lot of research, I came across this option and i was not disappointed. I have already recommended this for this age group.