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THE SPROG OWNER'S MANUAL by Babette Cole

THE SPROG OWNER'S MANUAL

(or How Kids Work)

By

Pub Date: March 1st, 2006
ISBN: 0641769857
Publisher: Red Fox/Trafalgar

Filling the gap between her Mommy Laid an Egg! Or, Where Do Babies Come From? (1993) and Hair In Funny Places: A Book About Puberty (2000), Cole offers a frank, if not quite strictly scientific, anatomical guide to young "Sprogs" of both the good (female) and the bad (male) persuasions. Facing pages feature labeled cutaway views of each type. For "Fuel Processing," for instance, viewers have the option of either following a banana from a good sprog's mouth, through her stomach and intestines and out to the toilet, or tracking several noxious items into a lad's whirling internal blender, through a "Wormery (worms convert sludge into slime to be pumped around body)" and thence out his "Bin bag's" stringy exit. Cole concludes her tour of each body system in turn with general maintenance advice, and closes with cogent "Helpful Hints for Future Owners," like "Remember a sprog is for ever . . . not just for Christmas!" Budding sprogs of either variety will pore delightedly over the lurid, yucky-colored cartoon illustrations. Required reading for would-be parents of any age. (Picture book/nonfiction. 8-10)