Let Me Explain: A Story about Donor Insemination [Hardcover]

Jane T. Schnitter (Author), Joanne Bowring (Illustrator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0944934129 | ISBN-13: 978-0944934128 | Publication Date: December 1995

A little girl explains how she was conceived through artificial insemination and that although she has genes from her mother and a donor, her dad is her only father.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 6 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Perspectives Press (IN) (December 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0944934129
• ISBN-13: 978-0944934128
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,795,243 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Too family specific - not a good source of general DI info, December 29, 2003

By 

donna thompson (Duluth, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Let Me Explain: A Story about Donor Insemination (Hardcover)

This book is great for a school-aged girl who has been conceived through DI, is being raised by a mom and a dad, with the dad being the best father in the world.

I found this book to be lacking in general, nuts and bolts, child friendly information about DI. There is a little in there, but the majority of the book is devoted to discussing the relationships between the girl and her parents.

As a children's book, it is very wordy and the illustrations leave much to be desired. It is clearly directed toward children who are at least 7 or older.

As the single mother of a bright, question asking 3 year-old who was conceived through DI, I am beyond feeling dissappointed with this book. I actually feel it would do our family more harm than good. My guess is that most same-sex parents of children conceived through DI will share my opinion.

28 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great way to approach what could be a tough topic, March 1, 2000

By 

Jen (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Let Me Explain: A Story about Donor Insemination (Hardcover)

A child's DI origins may be difficult for a parent to discuss. How do you bring it up? What do you tell them? Well, this book will definately help! It is written as a story that you can read to your child at a young age. A must for any parent of a DI child.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sets the stage for family conversation about DI, May 17, 2007

By 

Sue Stuever Battel (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Let Me Explain: A Story about Donor Insemination (Hardcover)

While I agree with others that this book is wordy (23 pages of story and pictures) and has a lot of feel-good text about Daddy (not necessarily a bad thing, though perhaps overkill), it did exactly what I wanted it to in our family. It does not have a lot of detail about DI, but it opened up the door to conversation. The story features a little girl conceived by DI telling about her daddy in loving terms. She talks about their relationship and how dad is always there for her: "When I was little, Dad always held my hand tightly while we crossed the street." She talks about genes "and I don't mean the blue jeans that people like to wear," and then about sperm and ova. She uses the analogy of her broken bike chain to describe how they tried to fix the chain and couldn't figure out what was wrong with it so they had to get a new one, just as mommy and daddy went to the doctor about why the sperm couldn't make a baby and had to get sperm from a donor. She explains that she doesn't know a lot about the donor and will probably never meet him. She ends with the message that the sperm came from someone else, but she has only one dad.