It’s So Amazing!
ThA Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families
Written by Robie H. Harris
Illustrated by Michael Emberley
Candlewick 2014 (2nd Edition)
HC ISBN: 9780763668730 | 88 pages
How does a baby begin? What makes a baby male or female? How is a baby born? Children have plenty of questions about reproduction and babies — and about sex and sexuality, too. It’s So Amazing! provides the answers — with fun, accurate, comic-book-style artwork and a clear, lively text that reflects the interests of children age seven and up in how things work, while giving them a healthy understanding of their bodies. Created by the author and illustrator of It’s Perfectly Normal, this forthright and funny book has been newly updated for its fifteenth anniversary.
Reviews
★ “An outstanding book. . . . Meets the needs of those in-between or curious kids who are not ready, developmentally or emotionally, for It’s Perfectly Normal.” —Booklist (starred review)
★ “[A] friendly and sensitive guide for younger children . . . Harris throughout manages to leave no stone unturned in this thoughtful, intelligent, and most importantly, exuberant celebration of the creation and operation of children and adult bodies . . . Parents looking for a way to keep embarrassment to a minimum when discussing sexuality with their young children will appreciate this book.”
—The Horn Book, (starred review)
★ “Another barrier-breaking contribution by Harris and Emberley that seamlessly bridges IT'S PERFECTLY NORMAL and HAPPY BIRTH DAY! . . . An essential guide that will delight and inform and appeal to young readers as well as adults.”
—School Library Journal, starred review
“Even if your child hasn't reached puberty, talk with him or her about what lies ahead. If you'd like some help, check out the excellent picture book IT'S SO AMAZING! . . . It could help prepare your son or daughter - as well as reassure you.”
—Time magazine
“It's a beauty; it's your privilege to use it. Enough said.”
—Boston Globe
“As a pediatrician, I know that children have many questions about reproduction, birth, bodies, babies, and families. Finding the answers, in a comfortable, appropriate, and interesting way, is an essential part of growing up healthy in body and mind. This book provides an opportunity for children to find answers to their questions with clarity of explanation, fabulous illustrations, and humor, together with an all-important sense of wonder.”
—Perri Klass, MD, Professor of Journalism and Pediatrics, New York University
“A cleverly illustrated guide to everything from adoption to zygotes.”
—Child Magazine
“Genuinely sweet, in a genre in which there’s a fairly despicable tendency to be edgy, brash, and cool, as if what kids can put out must be what they need from grownups.…sensible, even existential, answers…honest and tender drawings.”
—The New Yorker
Look Inside
