Here’s a fabulous book I found this week at a thrift store. Now- generally sex education books are a dime a dozen, but this one is so cool with it’s cut out illustrations. Let’s take a look together, at How Babies Are Made by Andrew C. Andry and Steven Scehpp and illustrated by Blake Hampton. This should be fun and educational to say the least…
Did you know you started out to be the size of a pencil? Me neither- maybe that’s why your brothers always called you “pencil neck?” Go figure…
Here’s a picture that shows it takes two animals to make a new baby animal, but did you ever wonder how your breakfast was made?
Oh my- here’s how it was done-your scrambled eggs were made for you with love by chickens. Here’s a picture of chicken love!
Here come the eggs. YUM YUM! I really understand Veganism now.
How about puppies? You like puppies, want to know how puppies are made? Check out this cute doggy family.
WHOA there buddy- that’s a friendly puppy! Step away from the dog if it looks like this, kids. Frankly- this picture sums up why I am a “cat person” myself…
Let’s just skip the dog part and get to the people part of the book… because what you really came here for is “How Babies Are Made.”
Remember the two animals well- it takes two people. Two naked people (hey I used to look like that before I had five kids- sort of).
I hear Barry White music now…
Now here we see the baby growing inside it’s mama- pretty cool stuff, eh?
After 9 months or so, the baby is ready to come out. Some babies sooner then others and some later- but here he comes. Come to think of it I have never seen a picture of a cleaner birth in my life. Looks easy- huh kids?
Well there is a little clean up- see that squiggly thing, that thing gets cut off. Be careful- doctor!
Here’s the new baby with it’s mama- isn’t that sweet…
and here you are with all your friends. Now you know how babies are made. Put some clothes on kids!
Weird. The man and woman are bald until they jump into bed. Usually, you would take your wig off before bed. Maybe they each have a hand behind their back because that’s where they’re holding their wigs. Maybe they didn’t want anyone seeing their bare bottoms.
I don’t know maybe bald people put on wigs to have sex. It’s like dressing up or something.
Remember the Seinfeld where George gets dumped by the bald lady…heh heh poor George!
I only vaguely remember that episode of Seinfeld. And, by vaguely, I mean very vaguely do I remember a bald woman dumping George. If you had asked if a bald woman ever dumped George, I would not have been able to answer the question because I remember it only by your mention of it.
The poor chicken looks like she’s struggling to lay the egg. In some cases, egg binding can lead to death. I think the hen may need to be put on a more nutritious diet if she’s having such difficulty laying eggs.
Weird! I can’t decide whether it’s charming or disturbing. Charmingly disturbing, perhaps? Particularly the happy dog…
Interesting how it started with chickens. You’d think you’d focus on mammals when your goal is to teach human reproduction.
Dan – egg binding sounds terrible- I learn something horrible everyday!
Jenny- It is a little of both. I thought is was charming because of the paper cut outs. I showed it to my 16 year old and he grimaced and said, “is that for kids?”
What I showed was just a portion of the book. It actually started with plants, moved to birds, then animals and finished with humans. There were a lot more pictures… some charming and some disturbing. I laughed out loud when I got to the page of the two dogs having sex ( I did not show this in the blog post). Not because it was particularly graphic or like I hadn’t seen that in real life a million times… I laughed because I pictured the illustrator sitting around making all these funny paper cuttings. That’s what’s so amusing.
Really!!! I am nearly speechless. Nearly! I didn’t think things were so graphic back in the 60′s.
Goodness! It was bad enough without being a pop-up book! The dog cracked me up. And I have to say that dcr has a point about the wigs. I guess the 60′s were really as wild as they were made out to be, after all! LOL. This was a great find, Michelle!
You posted the chicken luv just for me … right?
ALL I know is that the paper woman turns my crank. Frenching = “paper cuts”. Seems a small price to pay really. I could buy her clothes from a doll book ((cheap))
Deborah- the 60′s were all about free love and it was started in the hen house.
Hi Teeni- thanks the dogs were funny!
Speedcat- of course the chickens were posted for you- the paper doll lady told me to tell you she says you could wrap her in a KFC napkin and take her home. RAARWWWW
AhahhaahHHAHAHHAHhahahah. I love this book! For serious!
Not only were the humans bald “before”, they also had no faces! Weird…
Well you know we evolved from our paper made ancestors. Thanks for dropping by.
Seriously, for anyone who wants a book to help them teach the “facts of life” to 3 to 10 year olds, HOW BABIES ARE MADE by Andry and Schepp (Time Life Books and/or Little Brown Co) is the only book you should consider using. It’s fabulous — a classic!
It’s inconceivable that you could, and would, be sarcastic about and “make fun” of such a wonderful book as How Babies Are Made. It’s a fabulous book that’s been in print for over 40 years and bought by millions all over the world.
I had this very book at age 4 and I loved how easy it was to read and understand everything. Wonderful book!
Hi Michelle. my mother actually used this book to teach my sisters and I about the birds and the bees when we were little (5,6,7), which at the time, we found hilarious. I was on Google searching for the pictures online which is how I found your blog post. The images are just as I remembered them. Thanks for taking the time to post this where babies come from content as this was a blast from the past! I talk about this book in a recent comedy skit for toastmasters last week that you might find amusing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ziWTzMXoPE – (fast forward to about ~3 mins in RE references to where babies come from book). Thanks for sharing!
Hi Michelle, Like Rick my parents gave this book to me back in the late 60′s as a four year old child. While I’m not sure I comprehended it, I do know that it contained answers. And answers were what I wanted. The simple pattern of sex in lift was clearly drawn out and not frightening at all. I stumbled across your blog because just today at lunch a co-worker mentioned that her 3 year old asked how babies are made and I referenced this book. Thank you posting this so that I could show her how I was taught way back when! Yah, the sixties were a pretty cool time to be a child. Saw much more of life and far more honesty than is presented now.
I wuz on google, annd i typed “n” and naked showed up and i clicked. then i scrolled down and found this. i wuz like, “lol-cool” cuz i just happen 2 have this book. but i lost it… and sum pages got/r stuck 2gether so i cant read sum. D’: k. im leavin nau.
plus, lol the same thing u said about the dog(s) and being a “cat person” i am a cat person, too. k, bai.
OMG this is the book I had as a kid. It was a fantastic tool for my parents… My sister bought her boyfriend home at 17 and I (then 4) parked myself on his knee and read him my FAVOURITE book lol, you can’t get a better contraceptive than mortified teenage boy!!
I found your blog while researching a post I was writing on “How Babies Are Made.” Just have to say that I loved your take on this relic from my childhood and the charming/scary illustrations.
This is the piece I wrote on my blog about the book (also included a link to your blog and a shout-out). http://www.andiepants.blogspot.....chive.html
Cheers!
Great post- I had a chance to check out your blog yesterday. It’s a fun book to write about.
I was just telling my kids about this book and how my mom gave it to me at like 4 or 5 when I wanted to know ..I was a smart kid there was no tell me some bs story about a Stork lol I was born in 73 and remember this was printed in the era of the Summer of Love and Woodstock people it was hippies free love and all that lol … amd it was only cardboard so they could get away with it
My mom read me this book when I was a curious kid… It seems silly to us, as adults, but as a child it really did help me understand.
I am enjoying the discussion as it is my partner who did the illustrations while at Berkeley. I just learned about Blake’s illustrations after almost 35 years together. Yes they are cut outs which makes the pictures that much more interesting. I would like to add a comment; t if you are using this to teach children about making babies, the pictures are very benign and not intimidating I would not want to teach a child with a book showing graphic pictures or which would be too clinical at this point.