The Facts of Life: A Three-Dimensional Study

by Jonathan Miller, David Pelham (paper engineer)

An easy to understand, pop up book for teaching the facts of life for children.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Childrens, Reference, Health

12 pages, Hardcover

First published October 11, 1984

About the author

Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE was a British theatre and opera director, author, television presenter, humorist and sculptor. Trained as a physician in the late 1950s, he first came to prominence in the 1960s with his role in the comedy review Beyond the Fringe with fellow writers and performers Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett. Despite having seen few operas and not knowing how to read music, he began stage-directing them in the 1970s and became one of the world's leading opera directors with several classic productions to his credit. His best-known production is probably his 1982 "Mafia"-styled Rigoletto set in 1950s Little Italy, Manhattan. He was also a well-known television personality and familiar public intellectual in the UK and US.

Reviews

[Kristine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ellie's always been interested in medical type things. She wants to be a nurse when she grows up. Add that to the fact that we're committed to teach Elle the correct anatomical terms to our body parts, and you could say we have a little Curious George on our hands.

Ever since we stopped letting Ellie shower with us two years ago she's been asking for body books from the library. I started in the picture book section with very general cartoonishy sort of books. She wanted more detail so I got a few old textbooks - but most of those were showing the inside nervous, muscle, and skeletal systems and less "body parts."

Well Ellie's best friend Maddy's mom is a nurse who believes the same as I do about teaching kids early. So Ellie came home from her friends house asking if babies came out of vaginas. I'm very clear that I will never lie when my kid asks questions like this - I'm telling the truth but I'm only telling facts and then stopping. No expounding. Just answer questions as they come but always be open so she's willing and able to ask. This leads to more questions about making babies so I tell her next time we'll get a lot better book about that stuff. She made sure to let me know she wants a book that shows a peni*. She's never really seen one (a little drawback to not having a baby boy around getting his diaper changed) and she's about dying to find out. How to show a 5 year old a factual-medical-body part in an appropriate way? Hmmmmmm . . . .

Enter: The Facts of Life


I was SO glad my library had this book. It is written in a way where young kids can just look at the pictures, a little older kids can read short paragraphs in larger text, and much older kids and adults have pages and pages of tiny text to learn from. Almost all of the pictures are cross sections of body parts that don't make much sense to a child unless it's explained. We have eggs and sperm, embryo growth, babies in utero, as well as both the male and female reproductive systems.

Did I mention it's a 3D pop-up book? Of male anatomy?

After we were done reading and asking and answering questions what does Ellie say? "Mom, you need to go get me a new book. This one did not show the outside of a peni* and I have never seen that before. I still need another book." She went on to talk for a few minutes about how unfair it is she has never seen one and I am the one that could get a book to show her but I never get the right kind of book, etc. Seriously in 2 minutes she dropped the p-word about 20 times. It was a struggle to keep a straight face. Because seriously . . . .

How is it my child is probably the only child in the world not satisfied with a diagram of a pop-up peni*?


EPILOGUE

When telling this story to my mom and sister, after picking ourselves up off the floor from laughing so hard my mom had an idea. She had a huge "History of Art" book that we all started searching for naked men-statues. {And really what else would you rather do with your mom and sister than search through books for naked-men-statues, ya know?} Thank you Renaissance and the statue David. I think we may have nipped this problem in the bud.

[Radiolab]

Radiolab asked listeners for their sex ed recommendations.

Corey, a Radiolab listener, says, "My mom sat me down at the kitchen table in 4th grade and told me she had a "special pop up book" for me to read. She handed it to me and left the room. I love to tell people that I learned about the birds and the bees from a pop up book, although it was pretty scientific and didn't rely on the pop-up gimmick in the way you may be thinking. There was, however, an image of sperm cells fertilizing an egg that still haunts me. It felt like an alien attack on some mother ship. Which I guess it kind of is..."

[HeavyReader · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a pop-up book all about the "facts of life" (and I don't mean the TV show with Jo and Tootie and Mrs. Garrett). Ok, so there is NOT a pop-up penis going into a pop-up vagina in this book. I know you are disappointed. I was too. But otherwise, the book is pretty cool, although the pop up sperms are kind of scary. This one is cool for kids and adults.

[Daniela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Het wonder van de voort planting

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book. The pop-up images are well done and add dimensionality.