I started reading this book with my 9-year old son. At first I was embarassed by the pictures and text. My son was perfectly fine! To him, it was just another science book! This books presents sexual information in a way that pre-teens can understand. I feel better knowing that my son got the correct information from me rather than incorrect information from his friends. I could not have done this without this book.

I am a 14 year old now. My mom bought this book when i was around 10 or 11 and just left it in the shelf. I read every page of this whole book alone. I never really discussed it with my mom, but I don't remember feeling uncomfortable or anything. Some lady wrote about erections being something a preteen should know about?!?! Crazy?!? The pictures are cartoons...if your kids watch MTV, that is much more graphic then this website! Many video games have sexual seens in them as well. You get 10x more graphic and explicit stuff just going to school everyday! Kids these days are so much more exposed to sexual things then when you were kids. So if you think your kid will think too much of this your probably wrong. I know many kids in 6th and 7th grade who started looking at pornography on the internet already. This book explains everything in a good way, and has some humor. BUY THIS!

As a summer camp counselor who works with 9 to 11 year olds, and as an 18-year-old who is still young enough to remember how uncomfortable puberty can be, I cannot stress enough the importance of sex education at a young age. After reading reviews of this book stating that the content was too graphic, I decided to take a look for myself.

What I found was a refreshing and frank discussion covering almost everything a preteen would want to know. From physical changes to contraceptives to masturbation, a 9-12 year old can easily have his or her questions answered without feeling shame or embarassment. I was impressed with the overall tone of the book - it was very reassuring, and emphasizes that everything that happens, however and whenever it does, is "perfectly normal." The illustrations throughout the book best depict this, as they feature bodies of every shape, size, age, and ethnicity. In fact, the illustrations are one of the most effective parts of the book - they are detailed enough to give kids an accurate depiction of a human body, yet not so vivid that they are intimidating.

As for parents that are afraid to give their kids a book of this nature, keep in mind that your kids are talking about sex more than you know or may want to know. The high volume of sexual content that kids are exposed to, be it through the media or though hearing about it from their friends, makes it an absolute necessity that they are given proper, accurate information. Preadolescence is also a time during which a kid's sense of self is exceptionally fragile, and it is imperative that they are reassured that what they are going through is, as the book implies, "perfectly normal."

I've read and heard lots of thing about this book and checked it out for myself. Quite frankly, I think this is a great way to let kids educate themselves, simply by reading it. YES, it is embarrasing. But remember when you were a kid and you snuck into your parents rooms to look at your dad's porn? Or you found "The Joy of Sex" or "Our Bodies, Our Selves"? Cartoon drawings are far less offensive than learning about sex in this way and the idea of these books is to open a dialogue...it ain't pretty either way. And kids... you gotta deal with it. I take serious offense to a parent allowing a kid to right a review about this book to say how embarrasing it was for them to read. If it weren't embarrasing, I would think your kid was the dalai lama reincarnated.

Not only does this book serve its purpose of providing children with a sane, fair and intelligent approach to human sexuality, it really, really annoys the right-wing freaks. That alone makes it worth every penny.