What's in There?: All About Before You Were Born (Let's Talk about You and Me)

Another terrific book by Robie Harris!I wasn't sure about buying this book for my son because we adopted him, and I wanted a book that would focus mostly on what's going on in the uterus and how a woman's body changes when she's pregnant, but that wouldn't go overboard with lots of mentions of "mommy." My son has a relationship with his birth mom and understands that he grew in her uterus, but he knows me as "Mommy." I wanted a book that would give him the information he needs, without also making him sad that he did not grow in my uterus (because then he won't want to read it).Yes, I do know that's a tall order. But I checked out the pages I could see on Amazon, and was cautiously optimistic that this would be a good book for him. I wouldn't say this book is perfect (although 5 stars seems appropriate because it's so much better than anything else that's out there). The author uses variations of the sentence "Children are born into their families or adopted into their families" in several of her books -- which I dislike because it creates the potential for a child who was adopted to believe that s/he was not born at all but came into being by some other means (as the sentence seems to set up adoption as an alternative to birth). I generally amend it when I read it to "Children are born into their families or adopted into their families after they're born."I've read only the main text (not the speech bubble text) thus far. My ideal would be if the main text were mostly factual and spoke of pregnancy and childbirth in a general sense, using terms like "woman" and "baby." For the most part, this book does exactly that. It seems to fall out of that pattern on page 23, 24, and 25 (using "mommy" several times on these pages). The break in that pattern was really obvious to me, and it is an area for improvement in my view. My ideal would be that the speech bubble text take a more personal approach, using "mommy" and "daddy" liberally to describe the situations/relationship of the book's characters. I haven't read the speech bubble text in detail yet, but based on a quick skim, it seems to do just that.Overall, I'm really satisfied with this book, and think it is a great addition to my son's library.

So, overall there's a lot I like about this book. We bought it when my 3 (almost 4) year old started asking more questions about my pregnancy. She definitely has been able to gain a basic understanding of the formation of the fetus, and seems to have a better sense of what's going on developmentally, which is great. She's really enjoyed reading it MANY times (I think we're up to 22 or so in two weeks?)My main concerns about the book have to do with some of the language. It's very gender = biological sex with some of the descriptions (women have this, men don't, etc). which isn't inclusive for gender-nonconforming, gender non-binary, and trans individuals. Also, for some reason, the phrase umbilical cord is never used, just twisty tube, which is strange. Luckily, we've been able to modify the language while reading to adjust it to language I'd feel more comfortable with (ie person versus specific genders, and leaving out certain sections all together that don't feel necessary).So, overall I would recommend the book. I would just be aware of the language things going in.

The illustrations are great. The wording gets a little snarky and over a toddler’s head. “Tummy” refers to the stretch of skin between the ribs and the pubic bone. They try to say the baby isn’t in the tummy, but in the uterus, while skipping over that a “tummy” is not a stomach, and just throwing in the word uterus without any explanation of where that is (spoiler alert, it’s in the tummy). Also, for some reason they try to explain that only “Mommies” can have babies while “Daddies” don’t. These labels describe gender roles within a family unit, not sex. Trans Dads exist and they give birth just fine thank you. All of this over the top technicality and they turn around and call an umbilical cord a “twisty tube” as if that’s an anatomical term. It’s a missed opportunity to talk about where belly buttons come from, which is much more interesting and less confusing than arguing about babies not being in “tummies” or who can and can’t be a “mommy” or “daddy”.

I bought this book for my 4 year old when we found out we'd be having a new addition to our family. As a children's librarian, I find myself recommending Robie Harris's books to MANY people. This one is particularly great because it's very age-appropriate for a 3 or 4 year old. There is not much discussion about HOW a baby is made, just how it develops inside the mother. At this point, my daughter has not questioned how the baby got in there (though I know some do!!), she just wants to know whether or not it cries, gets hungry, pees/poops, and how big it is. She also wants to know: when's the baby coming, already?! The illustrations are sweet and go through the whole year (actually, right in-line with my own pregnancy's development), so that in early spring the mother is still looking pretty normal but by Halloween that bump has grown! It's really cute, I highly recommend.

I liked the book and appreciated that they used medical terminology. Just wasn’t quite sure why instead of saying umbilical cord they said twisty tube or something along those lines. I mean when you’re dropping the word vagina in a children’s book you might as well just say umbilical cord.

This book depicts a family of four, soon to be a family of five. The family goes about their year, with drawings of the womb and fetus on the fully dressed mother. The kids discuss the baby as it grows. It is a fun, light-hearted way to learn about how a baby grows without going into a lot of detail. It would probably be good for a curious kindergartener. It sure is a lot more information than I ever got at that age, though.

Amazing kids book. Just enough info for my son to learn correct information without overwhelming him. Definitely a must have.

Such a good book for kids.

I have other books by this author and for the most part like them.I bought this book to introduce the concept of how babies are made, develop and are born.This book introduced starter concepts ‘generic’ way, I was hoping for something a little more educational. For example referred to the umbilical cord as a ‘twisty tube’ without giving it an actual name. For explaining how a baby is made all that is said is that it starts as one cell, half of the cell comes from a woman’s body and half comes from a man’s.The book did do a good job at covering different milestones as a baby grows: baby can hear, baby is growing eyelashes, baby is now big and strong enough to be born...Depending on what you are looking for this book may fit your criteria. I was hoping for something that went a little more in depth.

My daughter is 4 she loves this book, we read it a couple of times a week. It has exactly what level of information I wanted. Only thing I change is the word pee for wee.