Bookshelf with children's books.

3 Children’s Books About Healthy Sexual Development to Start a Conversation

We encourage parents to have small, frequent discussions about sexual health with your children (or, Little Talks). That can be difficult for a lot of parents, especially if sexuality wasn’t something that was ever discussed with you as a child or teen. One way to begin the discussion is through reading books together. We found three books that we think are a great way to start the conversation with your younger kids.

What Makes a Baby

by Cory Silverberg, illustrated by Fiona Smyth

At first glance, this book looks like it came straight out of the 1960s. The illustrations are bright, swirly, and entertaining. The story talks about the very basics of how a baby is made—through an egg and a sperm. It keeps things specific enough for curious children, but vague enough that you can decide where to fill in the blanks. This is a great book for all children, whether they were conceived traditionally, adopted, born through surrogacy, or any other way. Reading this together affords an opportunity to discuss how they came to be in your life. It will also allow you to open the door to other conversations about sexuality and allow your child to feel comfortable coming to you with questions.

I Said No!

by Zack and Kimberly King, illustrated by Sue Rama

This book is written with preventing child sexual abuse in mind. The story is told from the point of view of a child named Zack and the lessons he’s learned. The length of this book and the amount of words per page will be difficult for younger children, but can be divided into several reading sessions combined with discussions about the topics. It covers a lot of ground and will give you a lot to think about and talk about with your child.

Your Body Belongs to You

by Cornelia Spelman, illustrated by Teri Weidner

This is a book with a message. The author, a licensed social worker, starts the book with two pages for parents about not forcing your children to show affection when they aren’t comfortable doing so. The book goes on to expand on this theme, referring directly to the child or children to whom the book is being read to. The writing is simple, easy-to-read, and will be easy for children to understand. The illustrations aren’t that great and, though the message in the book is good, made it a more difficult book for some of the parents on our staff to get their child to engage with. However, it’s a great book to start a discussion about safe touch and uncomfortable touch.

Don’t expect these children’s books to do the teaching for you. They’re only getting the conversation started. It’s up to you to make sure that your child is getting the information, answers, and understanding that they need for their age and maturity level. We recommend reading the books by yourself first, so you can anticipate some of the questions that may come up when you read it with your children. While talking about sexual health can seem daunting at times, books are a great way to get the conversation started.

SUGGESTED READING:
What Makes a Baby by Cory Silverberg
I Said No! by Zack and Kimberly King, Illustrated by Sue Rama
Your Body Belongs To You by Cornelia Spelman, Illustrated by Teri Weidner
Disclaimer: As an Amazon affiliate, The Younique Foundation gets a small commission if you buy from these links that help to support our cause at no extra cost to you.

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Hilarious stories about what happens when you teach your child about healthy sexual development.

5 Hilarious True Stories About Teaching Healthy Sexuality

We encourage parents to speak to their children early and often about healthy sexual development. We know better than anyone that sometimes this can lead to some funny misunderstandings.

Below are five stories of what happened when members of our staff spoke to their children about sex:

01

Pregnant Women Eating Babies

When my daughter was about four years old she was worried that pregnant women were eating babies because other people were saying the baby was in the mom’s tummy. She was fearful of these cannibalistic women! I explained that the babies grow in a separate place called the uterus. So now whenever someone says “My mommy has a baby in her tummy!” my daughter educates them by saying, “Actually the baby is growing in her uterus.”

–Submitted by Clarissa

02

Pirate Parts

My wife and I have always tried to stay ahead of the curve when educating our children about sexuality. When they are little, around two to four, we know it is a good idea to help them learn the proper names of their body parts, especially their private parts, and to teach them that no one has the right to touch them inappropriately. We try to do a few things to reinforce these teachings, like having them wash their own private parts while they are bathing. When we were teaching my two-year-old daughter about her private parts, the conversation went fine. But like happens so many times with kids, a little twist came into the scenario. I don’t know if our daughter couldn’t hear the difference between the two words, but she began to refer to her private parts as her “pirate parts.” She even reminds us that she needs her “piracy.” It is a distinction we are still waiting for her to pick up on but we think it is cute.

–Submitted by Matt

03

Bake a Bunch of Babies

When my daughter was seven she and I were having some mother/daughter bonding time in the kitchen. We were baking cookies when she asked me about how babies were made. I gave her a very basic overview of what happens. “You’re not telling me everything,” she said to me. I explained that some things needed to wait until she was a little bit older. She looked down at the mixing bowl in her hands and said, “You’re just afraid I’m gonna go and bake a bunch of babies.”

–Submitted by Lacey

04

Dad Can We Talk About Something Else?

At a conference I attended on parenting, the speaker said that you should talk to your kids about sex at age eight. My wife and I felt like that was too early, but within two weeks of that I had a huge ah-ha moment when I learned how early in life boys can be exposed to pornography. So my wife and I decided together that I should talk to our eight-year-old son about sex. We were going to a basketball game together and I decided to have the talk with him in the car. He was sitting behind me in his booster seat and I couldn’t see his face. I just spilled it all, without embarrassment, just matter-of-fact. I went on for about 20 minutes before I finally asked if he had any questions. “Yeah, I have one.” I was pretty excited, thinking we were going to have a great conversation. “Can we talk about something else?” Luckily my wife and I learned from this mistake and started talking to our other kids a lot earlier.

–Submitted by Chris

05

Uncomfortable Touch!

I wanted my boys, ages four and seven, to know they should talk to me if anyone touched them in a way that made them uncomfortable. I explained “safe touch” versus “uncomfortable touch” and felt confident that they understood what I meant. I was pretty excited that I had opened up that dialogue. I let their dad know what I had been talking to them about and encouraged him to continue the conversation at his house. He assured me that he knew all about uncomfortable touch. Apparently our seven-year-old had started yelling, “Uncomfortable touch!” anytime his little brother tried to hug or kiss him. Further talks are obviously needed.

–Submitted by Pam

Do you have a funny, poignant, or powerful story that you’d like to share about talking to your child about sex? Submit them here. We’d love to hear what’s worked, what hasn’t, and what you’ve learned!

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