Thank you all for your book suggestions. I went to our local library, and they ... didn't have any of them. Surprised?
Anyway, I checked out the one book the library did have, What's The Big Secret? Talking About Sex With Girls And Boys. I took it to my room to skim over before reading it with Moonpie, who of course found it immediately and opened it to the picture of the naked boy and girl.
So much for parental guidance.
She is fascinated with drawings of the naked children, and less interested in the actual story about how a baby is made. Sex? BORING. Cartoon drawing of a penis? FASCINATING.
Incidentally, is anyone else kind of weirded out that the book is drawn by Marc Brown? As in, the cartoonist for "Arthur"? The name didn't click with me at first, until we were reading the part about going to the bathroom and I realized that Pal was sitting beside the girl on the toilet. This has led to Moonpie naming all of the children in the book after characters from "Arthur", which ... led to us discussing Binky's naked winky.
"His penis looks like a hot dog! And she has a bun!" Moonpie said, pointing to the genitalia on the drawings now known as "Binky" and "Francine." "Why don't they just call them a 'hotdog' and a 'bun'?" she asked. "It would be easier than 'penis' and 'vergyna'."
The kid has a point.
Eventually the book will have to go back to the library, although the questions will not, so I have ordered It's Not The Stork from my local bookstore to have and to hold from this day forward. I am also going to steal my mother's copy of A Child Is Born, which is how I and most of my elementary school age friends learned about sex, sneaking it out of my parent's bookshelf and reading it with a flashlight during spend-the-night parties. Apparently the updated version has discussions of fertility treatments, which might be a good resource for those of you looking to introduce the concept of IVF to kids.
Continuing our household obsession with sex, I picked up a copy of Mary Roach's latest book, Bonk, and keep having to make up cover stories of "what's so funny?" when Moonpie hears me laughing out loud. There was a line about sex with a corn dog and ... wow. Seriously. Sex has never been so bizarrely funny. Or disturbing. I never knew that a man could actually fit a toothbrush into his urethra, or that he would do so on purpose, or that it was a big enough problem that urology journals would devote articles to it. If you are looking for a hilarious book full of weird facts, I can't recommend this book enough.
And now I have to go change a poopy diaper. And read some more of Bonk.
Hotdog and buns would make explaining sex easier, too.
Posted by: Annika | June 11, 2009 at 12:09 PM
Chloe's not as concerned with parts (she sees her brother in all his 3-yo glory all the time) but really wants to know how a baby gets in a belly. And also, how does it get out? We are taking it slowly and I haven't gone into ART with her yet. :) She might be cocky about the fact that she cost oh so much money and Bradley was FREE! :)
Posted by: Abra Leah | June 11, 2009 at 09:22 PM
:) Libraries have trouble keeping books like that around unfortunately. They get stolen and defaced all the time. Plus there's always that faction of the noisy tax paying public that considers them indecent and inappropriate for libraries. Ugh. So bizarre about the Marc Brown illustrations.
Posted by: kimm | June 18, 2009 at 11:35 AM
Next time you are in Dallas you should try to attend one of Mary Flo Ridley's presentations. She'll teach you everything you need to know about teaching Moonpie everything she needs to know:
http://justsayyes.org/maryflo.php
Also glad Mary Roach has a new book out. I loved "Stiff" for its morbidly hilarious take on cadavers (of all things).
Posted by: Annie B. | June 20, 2009 at 05:39 PM