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Note: This section may include reviews for related titles (e.g., same author, series, or related edition).

From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

This fact-filled book comes with its own bird and a bee, cartoon characters whose responses and questions throughout echo those young readers might have as they dip into this information. The book is organized into 22 sections picturing widely diverse families of children and adults as illustrated by Emberley’s artwork rendered in color pencil and watercolor. In addition to the predictable topics, other subjects covered include “twins and more,” chromosomes and genes, “lots of kinds of love,” adoption, “okay and not okay touches,” and essential information about HIV. Harris and Emberley created the book for an age group desperately in need of such information due to the limited number of books about this subject for children of elementary school age. Harris and Emberley respect the ways children learn, what they want to know and how they want to get this information. In an opening section they report that science can change, not all scientists agree, there are questions without answers and there can be more than one answer to some questions. As they planned and prepared the book they talked with teachers, librarians, scientists, doctors, nurses, and clergy members. Readers with questions are encouraged to talk with their parent or someone in or more of these specializations. (Ages 7-10)

CCBC Choices 2000 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2000. Used with permission.

From School Library Journal

January 1, 2015

Gr 1 & Up-These highly acclaimed titles have been go-to guides for a whole generation of children, teens, and their parents wishing to address these delicate, often difficult-to-discuss topics. They are noteworthy for their straightforward and accessible style, reliable information, and warm, inclusive artwork. It's Perfectly Normal, which is geared toward children nearing puberty, has sold more than one million copies, been translated into more than 35 languages, and has been endorsed and used by teachers, librarians, clergy, health care and mental health professions across this country. It also has the distinction of being listed as #7 on the American Library Association's list of most frequently challenged books of the 21st century. This edition has been revised for a new generation, including updates in scientific and medical information about reproduction, birth control, abortion, sexual abuse, and sexually transmitted diseases. Harris and Emberley have also included information on gender identity and online safety. It's So Amazing!, written for a younger audience, has also been revised to include up-to-date scientific and medical information and also addresses being online and using the Internet.

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Horn Book

January 1, 2015
Celebrating our bodies and our sexuality for younger readers, this frank and nonjudgmental discussion is illustrated with anatomically correct cartoon drawings. The fifteenth-anniversary edition of this invaluable resource is Harris and Emberley's laudable attempt to keep the content "as up-to-date and accurate as possible." The updated text and art include a broader definition of gender and expanded information about using the internet. Ind.

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From Horn Book

November 1, 2014
The original Horn Book review of the 1994 nonfiction book It's Perfectly Normal (rev. 3/95) aptly described it as an "unassuming, coherent, comprehensive explanation of sex in all its complicated glory." Harris and Emberley's 1999 book for slightly younger readers, It's So Amazing! (rev. 1/00), celebrates our bodies and our sexuality. Each book includes frank and nonjudgmental discussion of a wide range of topics illustrated with anatomically correct cartoon drawings. The new twentieth (Normal) and fifteenth (Amazing) anniversary editions of these invaluable resources are Harris and Emberley's laudable attempt to keep the content "as up-to-date and accurate as possible." Both books include updated text and art, a broader definition of the term gender, and expanded information about using the internet, while the fourth edition of Normal also includes new and updated information about contraception, abortion, sexual abuse, and the prevention and treatment of STDs, including HIV/AIDS. cynthia k. ritter

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From Publisher's Weekly

August 2, 2004
In a starred review, PW
said, "The creators of It's Perfectly Normal
, targeted to middle-schoolers, here reach out to a slightly young audience with candor and humor, neatly distilling various aspects of sex, reproduction and love." Ages 7-up.

From Publisher's Weekly

January 4, 1999
The creators of It's Perfectly Normal, targeted to middle-schoolers, here reach out to a slightly younger audience with candor and humor, neatly distilling various aspects of sex, reproduction and love. An inquisitive, loquacious bird and an embarrassed bee act as comic and straight man and serve as diverting foils to Harris's conversational narrative; kids will both identify with and chuckle at the two characters' reactions and asides. The duo's cheerful banter also clarifies some potentially confusing issues ("So the fetus doesn't grow where the pizza goes!" proclaims the newly enlightened bee). Specific topics covered include changes in boys' and girls' bodies during puberty, intercourse, birth control, chromosomes and genes, adoption and adjusting to a newborn sibling. The roster of experts in the closing acknowledgments speaks to the sensitivity and intelligence with which Harris and Emberley handle their treatment of masturbation, sexual abuse, HIV and AIDS and homosexuality. Emberley's artwork ranges from lighthearted cartoon panels of a talking sperm meeting up with an egg in the fallopian tube to straightforward drawings of reproductive organs and a developing fetus. With its informal yet informed perspective, this volume renders much "amazing" phenomena reassuringly comprehensible. Ages 7-up.