SHOW ME: A Picture Book of Sex for Children and Parents

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 21, 1975

We're acquainted with more than one community where very mild sex and family life programs were instituted in the public schools, only to set off a rash of wild rumors about what was going on in the classrooms. This book would confirm the rumors, and then some. The appended text--in the form of a parents' guide favoring childbirth at home, breast feeding on demand, free pre-adolescent sex play and open inter-generational communication and opposing too early toilet training and locked bedroom doors--has a not uncommon liberal/romantic slant that most parents can take or leave with equanimity depending on their own feelings about privacy. But less conventional are the full page pictures--captioned nude photos of a little boy and girl exploring themselves and each other (""Show me yours and I'll show you mine"") and frolicking with their parents, also nude, and of a teenage couple that the children, with their mother's dewy-eyed encouragement (""That's right, darling, they're in love with each other so they're sleeping together""), observe in various activities from masturbation to intercourse. (There's even a double-page closeup showing that ""now he's real deep inside and his semen is flowing into her vagina."") All the while that the little gift and her mother are remarking how ""nice"" and ""beautiful"" it is, negative comments like ""obscene"" and ""disgusting"" are attributed to a wrinkled old woman whose reactions are answered with ""What an old crab! And just 'cause. . . she's kissing his penis."" Because we are deeply convinced not only that sex is nice but also that no one was ever corrupted or traumatized by a sex book, we didn't hesistate to show this to our own children. (Their reaction--""Too much. . . They really shove it at you."") But we are just as certain that many library patrons, including young ones, are not ready for this--and not at all sure that what young children need in the way of sex education is a bedbug's eye view of their elders making love. If you decide to shelve it (and it belongs, at least until we're all more liberated when we won't need it anyway, in the adult collection), we recommend lining up advance support from locally prominent pediatricians and educators as well as library administrators.

Pub Date: May 21, 1975

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1975

Categories: NONFICTION