Mommy Laid an Egg: Or, Where Do Babies Come from? [Paperback]

Babette Cole (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1996 | Grade Level: Preschool - 7

In this hilarious twist on one of the most difficult discussions in a child's development, award winning author Babette Cole illustrates the one question all children are bound to ask: Where do babies come from? Mom explains that you can make babies out of gingerbread, grow them from seeds, or squeeze them out of tubes, while Dad says you can find babies under rocks. Amused by their parents' silly answers, the children decide to set the adults straight. In a series of zany diagrams, the children show the adults exactly where babies come from. The offbeat illustrations are accompanied by a text that is short, simple, and anything but predictable. This is a funny book that will delight, entertain, and educate the entire family.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cole ( Supermoo ) unleashes her endearingly loony sense of humor on the subject of the birds and the bees, and the result is, as expected, hilarious. When a thoroughly befuddled set of '90s parents (he wears his gray hair in a ponytail, she wears Birkenstocks) decides to inform their offspring how babies are made, their explanations (babies are grown from seeds, made out of gingerbread, squeezed from tubes like toothpaste, brought by dinosaurs) are greeted with an explosion of giggles. Their children quickly grab paper and pen and proceed to set the record straight. Cole's drawings and simple text are candid without being offensive and, without getting terribly complicated or serious, communicate the essentials of conception and childbirth in a direct but light-hearted manner that will leave everyone grinning and no one embarrassed. As always, Cole's idiosyncratic, cartoon-style illustrations are a treat--and her renditions of greenhouse babies and baby-paste tubes are outrageously funny. All ages.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2-Someone laid an egg here, but it wasn't Mommy. What begins as an amusing premise gets waylaid along the way. Mom and Dad offer their kids twists on the old cliches about the birds and the bees. The children are wildly amused, and decide to teach their parents the facts of life, illustrated with their own crayon drawings. In the explanation, Mothers have eggs inside their bodies, while daddies have "'seeds in seed pods outside their bodies. Daddies also have a tube. The seeds come out of the pods and through the tube. The tube goes into the mommy's body through a hole.'" On a double-page spread, a line is drawn from Dad's penis to an opening in Mom, labeled "This fits in here." On the next page readers are shown some ways moms and dads fit together, copulating on a skateboard, hanging from balloons, etc. The "crayon" drawings are crude, but everyone gets the picture. Fertilization and birth follow. The cartoon characters and watercolored line drawings are vibrant and amusing-dad's gray hair is in a ponytail, while mom is a blonde earth-mother type. The kids are messy replicas of their parents. Joanna Cole's How You Were Born (Morrow, 1993) still sets the standard; this effort doesn't measure up.
Denise L. Moll, Lone Pine Elementary School, West Bloomfield, MI
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 40 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (March 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811813193
• ISBN-13: 978-0811813198
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 9.9 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #599,867 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 57 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Really? March 9, 2011

By Kingdom Come

Format:Hardcover

This is a wonderful book that keeps humor in "the talk."

I am surprised by how many reviewers here oppose the sex theory in favor of the stork theory. Apparently, they never knew people needed to have sex to have babies. "How shocking! How offensive! And there're pictures of human body parts?" Do these people blindfold their children when it's bath time?

Look, if you're not an ignorant nematode, this is the book you've been looking for to give a good overview of sex and to keep your children from growing into sexually dysfunctional Amazon review trolls.

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Mummy Laid An Egg May 18, 2004

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This is a brilliant book and a terrific tool for teaching young children how babies are made. I gave it to my pediatrician and he read it to his kids. It uses gentle humour and non-threatening language to directly answer any questions. My young children love it and they now have an understanding of the facts and an appreciation that baby making is a happy thing and, yes, a little silly. It really helped prepare them for the arrival of their little brother.

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent! March 9, 2011

By Anthony Kehoe

Format:Hardcover

What a magnificent book! Demythologise sex and teach children the basics of reproduction from an early age, and we have the beginnings of a healthier, less prudish society.
I just wish I were supple enough to try sex on a skateboard...