Where Do Babies Come From?

When inquiring young minds want to know the answer to this burning question, it can be all too easy for a flustered adult to offer either too much or too little information. Royston dishes up just the right amount. Here the focus is not on the reproductive act but on how the baby duck/kitten/human grows inside the mother and emerges. The details will eventually need to be bolstered, of course, but what's provided in this picture book is suitable for those first inquisitive forays. Royston's matter-of-fact presentation (""An egg joins with a sperm inside the mother to make a tiny kitten"") is informative, reassuring and discreet. While readers see a newborn kitten emerging from beneath the mother cat's tail, people in the photographs remain fully clothed--a drawing of an unborn child in a fetal sac is superimposed on a casually dressed pregnant woman's belly--and readers are simply told that human babies are ""pushed through a special passage between the mother's legs."" DK's signature graphics work particularly well with this straightforward approach. Ages 3-up. (May)