Brightened by sunny, simply drawn cartoons featuring people of several ages and skin shades, this introduction to the reproductive organs is designed as much to allay parental anxiety as to provide answers to younger children’s questions. Saltz, a practicing psychiatrist, describes the male and female set-ups in a light, relaxed tone, suggesting that it’s better to use specific terms rather than euphemisms for visible organs, and tracking physical changes from infancy to adulthood. She steers clear of topics deemed beyond her child audience’s understanding, such as sexual intercourse, or stages of fetal development, and backs up vague allusions to masturbation and privacy boundaries with a closing note in much smaller type. Though urethras are repeatedly mentioned but never illustrated, there are no lists of further information sources, and a description of sperm as looking “sort of like tadpoles” may leave some misapprehensions about their size, this makes an adequate discussion starter for parents with children not yet up to the level of detail in Robie H. Harris’s It’s So Amazing! (1999). (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-525-47389-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
The best answer yet to that perennial question: what do Santa’s reindeer do during the off season? As her seven antlered uncles arrive, young Octavia counts them off: Uncle Uno’s a skier: “He has one hat. / He has one vest. He wears one stopwatch on his chest.” Uncle Duce’s an Elvis impersonator with two wigs, two boots, etc.; Uncle Trey’s a diver, and so on—but all gather once a year to set up the tree, get the gifts wrapped, and to confirm that she’s their favorite niece. Floca illustrates their arrival in simply drawn, splashy watercolors featuring cheery, pop-eyed figures sporting a variety of costumes and head-racks. Once the clan has gathered, and Santa steps on stage to take a bow, “We change our clothes. / We hitch the sleigh. / We’re ready now. . . . / We’re on our way!” Who wouldn’t want to ride along? (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-689-86469-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Richard Jackson/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2004
The text may describe a straightforward babysitting job, but the pictures tell a very different story, as Little Ellie’s an elephant and the sitters, a family of mice. “When Flora called to ask us to look after Little Ellie, we said yes. After all, you have to help your friends.” But imagine the challenges of feeding, entertaining and—wait for it—changing a baby who’s at least a hundred times bigger. Using a combination of large, simple, painted figures and clipped photos of pacifiers, crockery and balls of what may be actual elephant dung, the Archers prove equal to the task. Their scenes of dismayed-looking mice mopping up after a snack, woozily dragging off a used diaper, hauling an immense stroller to and from the park, then finally kissing their charge goodbye and collapsing back in their own living room (“It was a big day, but we didn’t mind. After all, she was just a little baby”) will leave young readers in stitches. The most hilarious take on the theme since Doug Johnson’s Never Babysit the Hippopotamuses! (1993). (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: April 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-58234-971-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2005
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