We just borrowed (from the library) Let's Talk About Sex (in the US it's called It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health which I think is a better name)and Let's Talk About Where Babies Come From (called It's So Amazing: A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families in the US, which I think is much better), to take a look at the them and see which would be more appropriate for Liam.
We've already got It's NOT the Stork: A Book about Girls, Boys, Babies, Bodies, Families and Friends, which we got when I was pregnant with Eliane, but Liam's a bit beyond that now (though he still listens when we're reading bits of that to Mikaela, and makes his own requests of what pages to read.) He's just turned ten, and I think the first of the one's we borrowed is aimed at 10+, while the second is aimed at about 7-10.
Anyway, after looking at them we really felt we wanted something in between. There's definitely some missed out of the first one that Liam will need to know in the next couple of years, if not yet, but it seemed to go into a *lot* of detail, that he just might not have the patience or interest to read yet. So we thought maybe we'd get the earlier one and give it to him now, but get the later one too and leave it on the bookshelf, making sure he knew it was there.
But. We left both books sitting out on the dining room table, so naturally he had a look at them. Would he think talking about babies was too boring? Would he think talking about s-e-x was too icky? No on both counts! And in fact, although he browsed through both, he Definitely thought the second one was more interesting. Show's how much we know!
The only thing we didn't like was there seems to be an overly strong emphasis on the physicalities of puberty and everything that goes along with it, without as much emphasis on how it feels. But, I have admit that is on browsing, it's not like we read either book all the way through, word for word (is that bad, to admit that we're giving Liam a book to read on sex that we haven't read all the way through - are are reading and talking with him as well, not just leaving him to read it on his own, though he can and is doing that as well). And over all I still think they are still great books.
Hat Tip to Dawn, who recommended these books on her old blog, This Woman's Work.
Now watch while my daily hits suddenly go up by several hundred per cent!
