Jean Lifurgey posted a question:
At the request of some of our younger mothers, I am lookng for suggestions/recommendations for Christian-based books regarding reproductive sex for pre-school and/or primary grades. We are a Mennonite congregation, but not conservative, so our chidlren have access to television and its many surprises.
We had 2 replies.
Denise Roberts replied: We recently added a book titled, GOD MADE BABIES by Justin Holcomb. It is a book for the very young ages 6-8 and was put out in 2022. The moms who have read it have appreciated it, but it just came out so I don't have a lot of feedback yet.
Jenni Harvey replied: There is one reproductive picture book that I can think of in our church library. It is from the 60's or 70's so I did some online research to see if it was still out there. I found if several places from 3 - 19 dollars with or with out shipping. Its published by concordia house which is a Lutheran publishing house. We are Lutheran so that makes sense. It is a christian book that has a dad talking to his kids about the new twins in the family and talks about reproduction. It is written for 6-8 year olds I believe. Its called I wonder I wonder by Marguerite Kurth Frey. Hope this helps. I too would be interested in what other people come up with since most of our books are 60's to 80's and some reproduction books would not be a bad thing to have I'm just happy we have at least one. So good question Jean.
Replies
I have used and appreciated "God's Design for Sex" series as well. It's nice because it age-progresses and parents can decide which level is appropriate. With very young kids, ages 2-5, I found the book "God Made All of Me" (https://www.christianbook.com/aloud-story-children-protect-their-bo...) to be a wonderful tool in helping children understand that their bodies are good, but also need to be protected. It discusses the difference between secrets and surprises, which I found to be particularly helpful in discussions of body protection with my very young children. It is also by Justin Holcomb.
I would also check out resources from Focus on the Family (that's where I got all my info back in the 90s haha!) and CCEF (https://www.ccef.org). CCEF has lots of books covering everything from addiction to grief, marriage, child rearing, etc., so I'm sure they must have something in this arena as well.
Morlee, I have used the list created by Eva Nell Hunter for new books, all ages, for years. I thought I saw a list a few months ago, but have not been able to find it lately. When I became interested in library work it was her online instruction I used to learn to catalogue all forms of material. Later I was pleased to meet her at some of the serinars held in Dallas (Irving).
Missing her so much!
We are all missing Eva Nell! She had to stop doing her mediagraphies when her vision problems disabled her reading. Let me do some searching to see if we still have them on the CLN. But they would be very dated now.
The "God's Design for Sex" series published by NavPress is excellent. They were all updated in 2019, and include 4 age-appropriate books (age 3-5, 5-8, 8-12, 12-16) and a parent's guide. They've been well received at our church.
We have "God Made Babies" by Justin Holcomb, which came highly endorsed. Also, if you needed a resource for gender understanding, "God made boys and girls: helping children understand the gift of gender" by Martin Machowski, who is recommended by our pastor (Baptist). Both of these books are published by New Growth Press (https://newgrowthpress.com/).
God Made Your Body by Jim Burns, published by Bethany House is really good.
There is a storybook about a baby growing in the womb called Angel in the Waters by Regina Doman that is just beautiful.
Also, TOBET has an entire curriculum from toddlers to high school about purity, reproduction, and developing a strong identity that matches our sexuality with the bodies we are born with. It's called THE BODY MATTERS project. It is Catholic but the materials are pretty generic, at least the ones for little ones that I have seen.
https://tobet.org/the-body-matters/
Look for "Where do babies come from?" by Ruth Hummel.
https://www.christianbook.com/apps/easyfind?Ntk=author&Ntt=Ruth...