Sunday, July 6, 2014

Review: How We Became A Family by Teresa & Bernard Villegas


Summary:
To build a family, first of all you need love. But how do you talk with your child about their in vitro origins? How do you tell your children they were conceived with the help of a donor?
  • Adding children to a family -making a baby- takes all the same parts needed to make any baby animal.
  • Knowledge of science and our bodies is a smart and beautiful thing.
  • This complex story is explained in an easy and positive way that children can accept and be proud of.
This book is for couples who understand that their children's well-being comes from knowing how much they are wanted, who they are, and how they came into this world and into their family. Celebrating the story of your child(ren)'s origins through the simple act of reading can reinforce your family's journey of deep bonding and open communication.

My review:

When I first got the opportunity to read this book, I thought it might be interesting. There are certainly all kinds of families including ones that were created through in vitro.

My curiosity was peaked because I have never seen a book that explains how such a child would be born. I was hoping that it would be done tastefully.
Truthfully, this is where my review begins and ends. To say they wrote the book tastefully is true. I will give the authors that. However, I had some major issues with this book otherwise.

First, this book is targeted for ages 2-10, although that information is not on Amazon. That is quite a difference for this type of book. I would not begin to read this book to kids unless they were 5 or older and maybe get a tiny grasp of the concepts.

The photos in this book are not real either. They try to gloss the whole human concept over by making the people look like birds. Seriously, we are not in the 1950's anymore! I am not saying we should have an all out basic human chart either. Which brings me to my next issue...

There are two side by side pages in the book that cover terms and body parts with real but hand drawn pictures. The terms are watered down: "seeds=sperm, eggs=comes from females, a nest=safe nurturing place for baby to grow..."
Seriously, do you think a child is going to understand any of that? Not to mention eggs coming from a female is true but I can just envision a child never wanting to eat chicken eggs ever again. Yuck!

I will say this lastly in the authors defense, they are open to the fact they had three children born this way and it is admirable. They attempted to write and illustrate a book that would help other couples in the same situation. For that, I cannot totally hate this book because they did try but in my opinion fell short in so many ways.

Therefore, I can only give this book 2 stars.
~Naila Moon

Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book for my open and honest opinion. The view expressed here is 100% my own and may differ with yours.

Where to find the authors:

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