It's So Amazing!. A Book About Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families

90 Pages·2014·25.91 MB·English

by  Robie H. Harris

A Book about Eggs,
Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families
It’s a boy!
A girl?
Boy?
So what
sex is it?
Girl?
A mI tASz’oSInG! ?!

illustrated by
Robie H. Harris Michael Emberley
A Note to the Reader
Celebrating the 15th Anniversary Edition of
It’s So Amazing!
One of the most amazing science stories added to It’s So Amazing! And we spent
is how an egg and sperm get together to a lot of time talking to and checking with
make a baby. While creating this book, these experts to make sure that all the
both of us were fascinated by this story information in this anniversary edition is
of how we all began. And we bet that you as scientifically accurate and as up-to-date
would be fascinated too. as possible. When we learned that new
Ever since this book was first published information or a new topic or new art
fifteen years ago, we have continued needed to be included, we added it. That’s
to talk with kids and adults about the why we have added more information
information in it. And we’ve found out that about being online and using the Internet
today’s kids, parents, teachers, librarians, to this newest edition of our book.
and health professionals continue to think We hope that you will find the information
that the information in this book is so in our newest edition as amazing and
amazing! Over the years, another exciting fascinating as both of us still do today.
thing has happened: every year, this We also hope that It’s So Amazing! will
book is used in more and more countries continue to answer most of the questions
around the world. you may have about eggs, sperm, girls,
Kids everywhere have lots of questions boys, bodies, love, pregnancy, birth, babies,
about how girls’ and boys’ bodies are the adoption, and families. But if you have
same and how they are different, about more questions about any information in
how babies are made, and about how our book, it can also be very helpful to
kids’ bodies grow and change. However, talk with someone you know and trust —
information about these topics often can a parent, doctor, nurse, teacher, librarian,
and does change. So for this fifteenth therapist, school counselor, or clergy
anniversary edition, we asked parents, member — and even share It’s So Amazing!
teachers, librarians, doctors, nurses, with that person.
psychologists, psychoanalysts, scientists,
and clergy what needed to be changed or Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley
Contents
mEEt tHE BIRD AnD tHE BEE WHAt’S InSIDE?
Do You Know What I Read? WHAt’S oUtSIDE?
4-5 Male Parts
16-17
CURIoUS? EmBARRASSED?
ConFUSED? tHE AmAzInG EGG tRIP
So How Do Babies Really Begin? What Do Eggs Do?
6-7 18-21
EGG + SPERm=BABY tHE AmAzInG SPERm tRIP
Reproduction What Do Sperm Do?
8-9 22-25
SAmE AnD DIFFEREnt WHAt’S SEX?
Male—Female Female or Male—Loving—
10-11 Making Love—Making a Baby
26-29
GRoWInG UP
Babies, Kids, Teenagers, Grown-ups WHAt’S LoVE?
12-13 Lots of Kinds of Love
30-33
WHAt’S InSIDE?
WHAt’S oUtSIDE? tHE BIG RACE!
Female Parts Sperm and Egg Meet
14-15 34-39
A WARm AnD CozY WomB BEComInG A FAmILY
Pregnancy By Birth—By Adoption
40-45 64-67
FRESH FooD! FRESH AIR! KEEPInG SAFE
Growing and Staying Healthy “Okay Touches”—
46-49 “Not Okay Touches”
68-71
StREtCH! PUnCH!
KICK! HICCUP! BURP! tALKInG ABoUt It
The Growing Fetus HIV and AIDS
50-53 72-73
tWInS AnD moRE! GURGLES AnD DRooLS
Twins, Triplets, Quadruplets, Feelings about Babies—
Quintuplets Fun with Babies
54-55 74-75
ComE oUt, ComE oUt, LEt’S CELEBRAtE!
WHEREVER YoU ARE! Happy Birth Day! Happy Adoption Day!
Birth 76-77
56-61
It’S So AmAzInG!
Still Talking!
78
WHAt mAKES YoU — YoU!
Chromosomes and Genes— tHAnK YoU So mUCH!
And Other Things, Too! 79–80
62-63
InDEX
81-82
Meet the Bird and the Bee
Do You Know What I Read?
Do YoU know
PSt!
what I read?
PSt! WHAt?
no-ope!
SHH!
or maybe babies
I also read that a long,
come from rocks. maybe
long time ago, people thought
a big bolt of lightning
that when thunder and
hits a rock — and
lightning struck, the earth’s
out rolls a baby.
I read that a long, crust cracked open a bit — and
long time ago people out zoomed the babies.
thought that babies fell Waaa-ait a minute!
to the earth with We’re not talking those are all —
the rain. “rock ’n’ roll” here! ust stories. And
besides — what
about the parents?
4
IT’S SO AMAzING!
now, you certainly don’t
the parents catch mean the parents catch a
the babies. that’s baby like they catch a cold
what they do. or the flu or a baseball—
’cause they don’t!
How ’bout a baby no-ooo!
begins when a stork drops It’s not the stork!
So what do you What I Do know
the baby down a chimney, We all know that,
REALLY know about is definitely — none
and the baby lands right don’t we?
where babies come from? of your beeswax!
in the middle of the
or how they begin?
mother’s tummy?
okay. What I REALLY read that’s when the seed gets
is this: the father has scrambled together with
seeds — called sperm — inside the egg yolk. And then
him. the mother has eggs — the seed and the egg start
called eggs — inside her. to grow into a baby.
So?
So one day,
one of the seeds
gets planted in
one of the eggs.
oh, yuck! But seriously
this is all one big It’s true, I have now, how Do you How a baby begins—how a
YoLK! I don’t been YoLKInG think a baby baby is made—even how a baby
believe one word around — a bit. really begins? is born—it’s all one big
of this! mystery to me-eee . . .
. . . and I like
it that way.
5
MEET THE BIRD AND THE BEE
1
Curious? eMBarrassed?
Confused?
So How Do Babies Really Begin?
When I was a
baby, I was
Have you ever looked at I’m trying to
so-ooo cute!
picture that!
your baby pictures?
YEP!
nooooo-ooooPE!
Have you ever wondered where
babies come from — or how babies
are made — or where you came
from — or how you really began?
Everyone — grandparents, parents, sisters,
brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, friends,
and even teachers, firefighters, librarians,
gymnasts, astronauts, dentists, scientists,
cooks, nurses, shopkeepers, doctors,
bus drivers, pilots, police officers, hockey
players, mayors, and rock stars — every
person in the whole wide world was a
baby once. The arrival of a new baby is
so amazing! Most kids — but not all — are
curious about how such an amazing and
wonderful thing could possibly happen.
6
IT’S SO AMAzING!
You may think that by now you already know — or that you should know — exactly
how a baby is made. But even if your mom or dad has talked to you about this,
or even if you and your friends have talked about it — it’s still perfectly normal
to have questions about where babies come from.
Talking with a parent, a doctor, a nurse, I’m so glad it’s
normal to have
or a teacher is a good way to find out answers
questions about
to your questions. And if you are thinking tHAt!
of using a computer or tablet to go online
I have questions
(on the Internet), ask any of these
about dinosaurs—
grown-ups to help you find a safe site about outer space—
but not about
for kids where you can get information
babies!
about questions you may have or
topics you may be interested in,
such as how our bodies work
and grow or how babies begin.
Sometimes you may feel very private about your questions and thoughts and feelings
about how babies begin. Or it may feel embarrassing or hard to ask questions about
making babies. Feeling curious about this, or embarrassed, or private, or even
confused, is perfectly normal. And having lots of questions about where babies
come from is also perfectly normal.
I can’t WAIt to find
Since the beginning of time, people young and out more about this!
old have tried to figure out where babies
come from and how a baby is made. But
I CAn wait.
how a baby is made is not a simple
thing. That’s why learning about it
can be interesting and even fun —
no matter how old you are.
7
CuRIOuS? EMBARRASSED? CONFuSED?
2
Egg + SpErm = BaBy
Reproduction
Reee-pro-DUCK-shun?
When a new baby animal or plant is made, Who are you
Re-pro-duc-tion.
calling a duck?
scientists call that “reproduction.”
To reproduce means “to make again”—
to make the same thing again.
Reproduction is how plants and animals
So birds re-pro-duce
make new plants and animals like themselves.
baby birds, and bees
re-pro-duce baby bees!
Trees make
baby trees! But apples DON’T
reproduce baby
oranges!
Seagulls make
baby seagulls!
Whales make
Flies make
baby whales!
baby flies!
Pigs make
baby pigs!
Mice make
baby mice!
Cattle make
baby cattle!
Humans make
baby humans!
8