The baby tree

Title:

The baby tree

Author:

Summary:

After learning that his parents are expecting a baby, a young boy asks several people where babies come from and gets a different answer from each before his parents have a chance to give the right answer. Includes advice on answering questions about reproduction.

Physical Description:

1 v. (unpaged) : col. ill. ; 29 cm

Genre:

Picture books.

Subject Term:

Sex instruction for children -- Juvenile fiction.

Questions and answers -- Juvenile fiction.

Infants -- Juvenile fiction.

Pregnancy -- Juvenile fiction.

Publisher:

Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

Publication Date:

2014

ISBN:

9780399257186

Publication Information:

New York, NY : Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 2014.

Call Number:

P BLACKAL

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607002864430	Picture Books	BLACKAL	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Cleverly revealing the basics of reproduction in an age-appropriate way, award-winning Sophie Blackall has created a beautiful picture book full of playful details to amuse and engage readers.

Sooner or later, every child will ask, Where do babies come from? Answering this question has never been this easy or entertaining! Join a curious little boy who asks everyone from his babysitter to the mailman, getting all sorts of funny answers along the way, before his parents gently set him straight.

Author Notes

Sophie Blackall was born in 1970 and grew up in Australia. She received a Bachelor of Design in Sydney in 1992 with honors. She spent the following few years painting robotic characters for theme parks, providing the hands for a DIY television show, and writing a household hints column. She also had many exhibitions of paintings in galleries in Sydney and Melbourne.

She moved to New York City in 2000. Her editorial illustrations have appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Architectural Digest, Town and Country, Vogue, and Gourmet. She has illustrated over thirty books for children including Ruby's Wish, Meet Wild Boars, Pecan Pie Baby, Big Red Lollipop, and the Ivy and Bean series. She won the 2016 Randolph Caldecott Medal for the Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear and the 2019 Randolph Caldecott Medal for Hello Lighthouse. Her first book for adults was entitled Missed Connections: Love, Lost and Found.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

PreK-Gr 2-After a boy's parents tell him that he will be a big brother soon, he starts to wonder where babies come from. He asks trusted adults, but his teacher, babysitter, and grandfather give him different answers, further confusing the young narrator. The child then goes to his parents, who tell him in realistic but age-appropriate language how babies are conceived, grow, and are born. Chris Patton's narration captures the pacing and tone of a curious young boy, but his reading fittingly shifts when he reads the back matter, which includes additional discussion of the subject as well as brief information about same-sex couples, adoption, and related topics. VERDICT Even without Blackall's illustrations, the text stands on its own and will be useful for parents to share with their inquiring young children.-Maria Salvadore, formerly of the Washington, DC Public Library © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publisher's Weekly Review

Blackall once again excels at portraying a thoughtful child with a rich inner life, as her hero/narrator finds his world upended when his parents announce the arrival of a new baby. "I have a hundred questions in my head," the boy confides to readers, "but the only one that comes out is Are there any more cocopops?" Regaining his bearings, he asks the other adults in his life where babies come from. Their gently evasive half-answers enable Blackall to unleash her special brand of elegant, pokerfaced surrealism; when the kindly but taken aback mailman indicates that he "thinks babies comes from eggs. But he doesn't know where to get the eggs," the boy imagines a cozy nest of human baby eggs in various stages of hatching. But Blackall also admires her hero's inquisitiveness, and the way he squares his parents' eventual, more scientific explanation with what he's heard throughout the day (eggs are involved, after all) makes for a lovely tribute to the blossoming mind. An afterword offers helpful narratives for grownups facing a similar line of inquiry. Ages 5-8. Agent: Nancy Gallt Literary Agency. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.