Rachel’s top pics for her favorite subject
Reading is what I love to do . . .
I was elated to be invited by Shepherd to share my five favorite books for youth about anatomy, modern human reproduction, and family – my favorite topic of conversation, of course!
You can read my author list here: https://shepherd.com/best-books/anatomy-modern-human-reproduction-and-family
Before I dive into my assignment, let me take a moment to tell you about Shepherd. It’s a new platform for browsing books. You can search for books by author recommendation (e.g., books about reproduction by Rachel HS Ginocchio), genre, age, Wikipedia topic, or for titles that are similar to other ones you’ve loved.
It was one of the funnest marketing tasks I’ve taken on, in support of my debut book Roads to Family: All the Ways We Come to Be. My assignment was to come up with five - and only five - books that I felt did a good job covering the topic at hand: anatomy, reproduction, family. This was no easy task, as not one book tackled all of the subjects in a way that I like to see them covered — that is why after all, I wrote my book. So I came up with a list of books that although individually don’t cover everything, collectively they do a great job. Here’s how I came up with the fab five that together explain all three facets: (1) reproductive anatomy, (2) how our bodies and science work to create a human, and (3) how that human comes to be part of family.
Reproductive Anatomy
An explanation of reproduction must start with a conversation about reproductive anatomy. So my list begins with any book written by the dynamic mother-daughter duo of Lynda and Area Madaras. They do a fabulous job explaining anatomy and function, in a way that is simultaneously scientific and approachable. They have two versions of their work - one for a younger audience and one for an older audience, so adults can choose the version that’s most appropriate for their kiddos.
Reproduction
There are a ton of books out there on sexual reproduction – the good old fashioned way of bringing babies into the world. But most of them are quite marginalizing to people conceived through assisted reproduction (insemination, IVF, donor conception and surrogacy) and those who join their family through adoption, foster care, co-parenting, remarriage, etc. There are also a number of books out there that cover one specific means of assisted reproduction; for example books on donor conception or on surrogacy. I was after books that covered all means of reproduction in one volume. But that is super hard to find. And ones that do exist are for a specific grade level - a picture book here, a book for teens there.
So just to recap, I was after books on reproduction that cover all means of reproduction equally and that talk to youth of all ages. In the end, my list consists of books that cover at least some components of assisted reproduction, and that together scaffold through the ages.
For a picture book, I picked The Amazing True Story of How Babies are Made by Fiona Katauskas; moving onto It’s So Amazing by Robie Harris which has more details for a more mature/curious audience; and ending with You Know, Sex by Cory Silverberg for tweens and teens. Alone, each book provides age-appropriate descriptions for its audience; together, the books provide a stepwise progression of information and concepts.
I just want to note that if readers like Harris or Silverberg’s work, these authors have additional books that include assisted reproduction, that are written for audiences of various ages. In other words, these two authors have their own set of books that scaffold up/down from the ones I listed here. They are all great additions for the family’s reading list.
Family
But, my list is not quite complete. I felt that I wanted to give a shout out to some resources for youth about diverse families. For this category, I picked the American Girl Books - but don’t let the title fool you. Their books are great for kids of all genders. They do a really nice job of tackling the emotional/social aspects of growing up - including how to understand and appreciate family.
If you haven’t been over to Shepherd, it’s a super fun site to browse. Here are some other author’s picks for books about anatomy: https://shepherd.com/bookshelf/anatomy
Happy reading!