First Comes Love: All about the Birds and Bees-And Alligators, Possums, and People, Too

This is a great book for a very basic introduction to love and reproduction for a young child around 4 years old. The main text of the story is cute and rhyming with no great detail about reproduction, just the words "sperm" and "eggs" without the hows of it. The pictures and words contain entertaining animal facts about how various fish, birds, and mammals court and raise their young. However, in small print on the bottom of each page are a couple of sentences containing a more in-depth explanation of reproduction, naming the body parts and how they fit together, so you can just read the rhyming cute part for a very young child and add the specifics as you choose for an older child. The illustrations are very cute and whimsical and not at all realistic; for example, baby seahorses in bonnets in a carriage and a crab as a knight in armor. There are no diagrams of actual anatomy. If you are looking for a book illustrating the male and female anatomy you will need to find a different book. This is really just a cute introduction to love and mating, and you will need other books to explain the specifics.

The whole book is written in funny rhymes. Each page gives a little short factoid about the mating behavior of many different animal species. The part on humans is only about two short pages, but it does give a brief overview of "the birds and the bees" in a humorous but straightforward way without going into great detail. You will have to fill in the blanks for your child. My daughter thinks this is a great book, and I agree. The illustrations are hilarious! However, if you are looking for a book that goes into more detail about human reproduction, I recommend the classic, "Where did I come from?"

I wish this book had been around when I was a child...I can think of no better way to introduce the "birds and the bees" to children!Jennifer Davis has done an amazing job at making an unjustifiably taboo subject easy to read and talk about.The illustrations are precocious, the poetry witty and charming and the facts, well, factual and informative.I've purchased copies for all of my friends' children and am looking forward to future books from this refreshing author.

I am a mother of two small children and I have fretted a bit about how I would answer their innocent questions about he birds and the bees. And then I found it.. "First Comes Love" is a wonderful picture book about flirting critters and amorous people and it even covers that tricky part about how that sperm finds his way to the egg. Unlike other clinical books on the subject this one is fun to read over and over just for the hip rhymes and the hilarious pictures. My children are learning and laughing and so am I. There lots of fun facts that are new to children as well as parents like "kangaroo newborns are rarely seen since they are no bigger than a lima bean." I won't tell you much more but what creature would you guess swishes bubbles under his darling's chin to charm her? (It's the alligator but do not tell.)If only my parents had given me a book like this....oh, the blushing I would have been spared.Happy reading