Book Review
A short overview of this book
The Facts of Life: Three-Dimensional, Moveable Illustrations Showing the Development of a Baby from Conception to Birth by Jonathan Miller and David Pelham is a vintage 3D pop-up book that provides an illustrated educational overview of reproduction and conception ie how babies are made.
I love this book that was published in the 80’s. I was so excited when I finally found a copy of this book! And I was even more excited when it arrived in the mail! Even my kids (who find ‘yet another sex ed book’ a little boring) actually got a little bit excited and sat down and had a good look at it too!
Inside you’ll find 6 huge popups of the baby inside the uterus, the male reproductive organs, the female reproductive organs, the egg being fertilised, the fetus developing, and the baby inside the uterus pushing it’s head down ready for birth. Plus there are lots of little lift the flap sections, with tabs to pull that will make things move.
The images are medicalised and lifelike but aren’t too threatening. The 3D element just makes it so much more fun and interesting to look at!
Ideal Age
Ideal for children aged 4 to 13 years.
Buy this book
✅ Buy a copy of The Facts of Life by Jonathan Miller and David Pelham from Amazon.
Video Transcription
A transcription in case you are more of a reader than a listener
Hey there! I’m Cath Hak from Sex Ed Rescue, where I cover all things related to sex education. Today, I want to talk about a super cool book that I recently discovered. It’s a 3D pop-up book that explains how babies are made. How awesome is that?
So, a friend of mine mentioned this book on my Facebook page. She remembered it from her childhood and I was instantly intrigued. I searched high and low for it, but all I could find were lift-the-flap books. I wanted the real deal – a pop-up book!
But guess what? Last Christmas, when I was visiting my mom, my little brother mentioned that he knew the book I was looking for. It’s called The Facts of Life. We immediately jumped on the computer, looked it up, and found it on Amazon, eBay, and Abe Books. There are plenty of copies available, so you can easily get your hands on one.
Now, usually I have a rule that I only include books that are easily accessible, but this one is just too good to pass up. You can find second-hand copies for around 15 Aussie dollars, which is super affordable.
Let me tell you, this book is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It’s similar to the Leonard Nelson books, with black covers and lots of lift-the-flap pages. It starts off with a baby and goes into detail about how everything works. The illustrations are amazing!
There’s a page that shows the male reproductive system, with everything clearly labeled. And get this – there’s even a pop-up that shows the penis going into the vagina! It’s really cool. You might not be able to see it clearly in the video because of the lighting, but trust me, it’s there.
Then, there’s a page that shows the inside of the female reproductive system. You can see the vagina where the penis goes, and there’s a pop-up that shows the egg popping out. Plus, there’s more information about the changes and growth that happen during pregnancy. It’s all so fascinating.
One page sometimes gets stuck, but my husband is a pro at fixing it. And there’s another page that shows what happens when the sperm joins the egg. You can actually see the sperm penetrating the egg. How cool is that? And inside, you can see all the cell division and development happening.
There’s also a page that talks about how the baby grows throughout the different stages of pregnancy. It even shows the sizes and how the sex organs develop. It’s truly a remarkable book.
I have to admit, I was secretly hoping for a page that showed the penis going into the vagina in more detail. But hey, it’s still great that they included it. And the best part is, it’s not too overwhelming or graphic, so you can decide how much detail you want to go into when discussing sexual intercourse with your kids.
I absolutely love this book. It’s my favorite, hands down. I’m actually going to leave it out tonight and read it with my 9-year-old son. We haven’t looked at it in a while, so it’ll be fun to see what he thinks of it now.
I wanted to share this book with you because I think it’s too wonderful to keep to myself. It’s a fantastic resource for teaching kids about how babies are made. I hope you find it as amazing as I do!
Cheers, and happy reading!
