The first pop-up is cute, and then it is downhill. Fish biting at swimmers, swallowing boats, and a boy completely in a shark's mouth! Enough to frighten a younger child out of the ocean and too juvenile in presentation for an older child. My husband was more shocked than I was. Needless to say, we did not give this book to our child. "The Fish Book" by Christopher Angelfish is a much better choice for little fish kids.

Fun and humourous small pop-up book, this is not meant for story-telling but is an adorable little pop-up for younger children.

I was disgusted when I read this book! One could very easily pick this up and start reading it to a child or a child pick it up and start looking at the pictures because the illustrations at the beginning of the book appear to be very innocent and cute!
A few pages into the book, one discovers very graphic and detailed crayon drawings of anatomically correct males and females and how their parts fit together and even positions in which they can fit together. This book should be snatched from all library and bookstore shelves. It's intent could be nothing more than to ... children's innocent minds. I believe in ... education for children, but this is going a little too far!!

I found this book to be quite funny. The foundation of the book is about an expectant couple trying to explain, in the way they feel best, how babies are made...and it turns into the children telling the parents and drawing pictures of how they believe they are made. The words never rang truer for "Out of the mouths of babes!" I found this to be quite charming and am sure that children would find it easier to relate with it being told by other children as oppose to by adults. Perhaps my opinion will change should the day ever come that I need to explain this to my three year old, however I am sure I will look back to this book for some assistance. My opinion: the concern should not be to avoid embarassing the adults, the concern should be in keeping the lines of communication open with the children. They need to understand that they are allowed to ask questions and that they should expect to get legit answers.

Maybe you have to be English, but I havn't laughed this hard over a book for at least a decade. This is not a book to teach children about sex, it's to show us adults how misunderstood and hilarious our lessons can become. I'm giving the book to all my friends who are starting families, as well as many who have been there, done that!

My 6 year-old-child just recently picked this book out from the juvenile section of our local library. I always look at the covers to make sure the book is going to be age approbriate. The cover of this book is extremely misleading. 'A Book About Puberty' is in the bottom righthand corner--in much smaller print--not highly visible. In fact, the last eight adults I have shown this book to, did not notice this part of the title. It wasn't until the following morning, when I noticed the abscence of my eight-year-old daughter, who happened to be 'just finishing' the book, that I realized the contents of this book. 'Graphic' is an understatement! This animated book addresses the stages of puberty for boys and girls. Nude, detailed, drawings are throughout the book. We still cannot figure out what the nude young male-admiring himself in front of a full length mirror-is holding in his hand. Cole's depiction of 'Mr. and Mrs. Hormone' is frightening! Before knowing about the contents, my six-year-old daughter read this [before my older daughter] and asked if her hormones looked like the ones in the book. I tried to explain to her that they did not and that this personification was very inapprobriate. My older daughter wants to know what was 'growing big and small [on the boy in his bed] and 'what the sticky stuff was?'. Yes, I got myself into this situation! I trusted the judgement of my local library! I will not make this mistake again. In my opinion, this book is not approbriate for any child under the age of 13. A topic like puberty needs to be discussed on a more honest/truthful level. While teaching,I could not read Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are to my first graders. Parents told me afterwards that their child/children were frightened by the monsters. The hormone's characterized in this book are many times more frightening then the monsters in Where the Wild Things Are! Parents of young children DO NOT PURCHASE this book!!

Hair in Funny Places tells the story of puberty. Typical of most young children, a little girl asks her teddy bear when she will become a 'grown-up.' The teddy bear tells her what happens when Mr. and Mrs. Hormone, tiny creatures who live inside everyone, mix the potions that turn kids into 'grown ups.' By using the girl's parents as an example, the teddy bear goes through the various physical and emotional changes that each respectively went through to become adults. The teddy bear then tells the girl about the "wildest potion of all" - love potion, which brought her parents together. The story ends when the girl assures her teddy bear that even when she is grown up she will always love him. While Cole's objectives may have been to present puberty playfully and comfortably with her fun pictures and light-hearted tone, her story is a gross misrepresentation of the truth about puberty and could give children many wrong impressions. First of all, the girl learns about puberty from her teddy bear - not her parents, who should be the ones to teach her. Because she depends on a stuffed animal to tell her the facts of life, this could discourage children from feeling comfortable confiding in their parents. Cole's portrayal of Mr. and Mrs. Hormone adds to the unnecessary mystery and intrigue of puberty. Mr. and Mrs. Hormone are hairy, pimply characters with horns - kind of a combination between a porcupine, bug, and mad scientist. It seems that these mischievous, insidious looking creatures have nothing better to do than plot to thwart a child's life with potion. Mr. and Mrs. Hormone could cause further confusion for children when they create their crazy love potion. The picture at this point shows the girl's mother and father running wildly at each other, as if being driven by an uncontrollable force. This idea cheapens the idea of love by insinuating that it is simply a byproduct of our hormones. Finally, the story's ending further separates children from discussing these issues with their parents when the young girl exclaims, "On no, Ted, you are so wise, I will always love you." There is so much potential to encourage children/parent relationships at this point, but instead Cole chooses to end the story in the world of make believe where wise stuffed animals take the place of loving parents.