Amy Forbes-Robertson - Brilliant Questions About Growing Up: Simple Answers About Bodies and Boundaries

PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE CHILDRENS

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First published 2020

Text copyright Amy Forbes-Robertson and Alex Fryer, 2020
Illustrations copyright Ava Puckett, 2020

The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted

Text design by Sally Griffin

ISBN: 978-0-241-44799-4

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

Welcome to this book filled with brilliant questions and awesome answers to help you understand AMAZING things like:

How the body works

How babies are made, grown and born

How to talk about families, friendships and feelings

Things that might happen when children grow up into adults

You might want to read this whole book in one go. Or you can just find the right bits when you need them! You might have a particular question about something, so you can use the contents page to find the part youre interested in. You can read the chapters in any order, and if theres a word you havent seen before, theres a helpful glossary at the back to help you understand.

You could read this book on your own, or you could read it with a trusted adult and together have some really great conversations about these topics. You might even have a giggle too because some of it is a little bit funny!

GROWN-UPS,

TURN TO !

We all have them, they come in all different shapes and sizes, they change as we get older, and it is really useful to understand what they do (even though they are often covered with clothes).

Do you know the names for these body parts?

Throughout this book, we use the proper words for things. And yes knowing the different names for our body parts is really important! Of course, you can carry on saying words like fanny or woo-woo or flower or willy or winkie or noodle if thats what you want to do, but we dont use different words for our noses or hands or eyes,

so why should we treat our genitals any DIFFERENTLY?

If you ever need to talk about your genitals, or ask a doctor or a nurse for help, then its good to know the real words. If you went to see a doctor and said,

Ive got an ouch on my tootsie

the doctor isnt going to know what you are talking about! But if you can explain that you fell off your scooter and hurt your big toe, and there is a sore bit just under your toenail that really stings then the doctor is going to be able to help you more easily.

The more we understand our bodies and know the right words, the more power we have to look after them. So the words nipples , breasts , may be quite new to you, but theyre extremely useful words to know.

Bottom is a pretty hilarious word, as is bum, backside, rear end, or derrire if youre feeling fancy. But no matter what you call it, your bottom is really important to learn about.

You will already be quite familiar with how your bottom works because most people use it all the time. Bottoms are great padding for our bones, and for the majority of people they are very useful for getting waste materials out of our bodies.

YES, WE ARE TALKING ABOUT POO

I bet you
LAUGHED!

A bottom consists of buttocks and an anus . The buttocks are the two round, squidgy bits we sit on, and the anus is the hole between them where the poo comes out that leads to the bowel .

Its important to make an effort to keep our anus clean so that it stays healthy.

Bottoms come in different shapes and sizes. Some are very squishy, some are bony, some are peachy, and some are hairy.

You might not have heard the word vulva before, but it is the correct name for these external genitals. Babies with vulvas are usually called female when they are born. If you have a vulva, you could look in the mirror if youre interested to see what it looks like, or here is a picture of its parts.