You Are a Masterpiece: Teaching Your Child About Life Before Birth

It's only natural: children wonder where they came from, and having a pregnant mother, teacher or relative will often spark their curiosity. Produced by the conservative Human Development Resource Council, and vetted by eight medical consultants, this tape offers a superb explanation of human conception and prenatal development for young children, and while you might expect a little cutesy-ing up of the subject (okay, a cartoon ovum and sperm flutter eyelashes at each other), the program uses all the correct medical terms and shows children practicing saying funny words and phrases such as “zygote,” “fallopian tube” and “umbilical cord." Enhanced with in utero photos and videos, medical drawings depicting the growing fetus within the mother's body, video of women with advanced pregnancies, and the cutest gaggle of babies this side of a Gerber commercial, You Are a Masterpiece still leaves some things to the child's imagination and parents' discretion (how the sperm gets delivered to the ovum is not mentioned, nor are all the details of birth). Sure to be very popular, this is highly recommended. Aud: K, E, P. (R. Reagan)