How a Baby Gets Out of Its Mom

Katherine Roy shares Making More: How Life Begins, distilling the science of reproduction into its simplest components and highlighting the astonishing variety of this process with examples from across the natural world, from ferns and butterflies to trout, hawks, rabbits, and more.

BOOK DESCRIPTION: Making More: How Life Begins by Katherine Roy

Page Length: 72 pages

Ages 9 to 12, Grades 4 to 7

From fish to mammals and plants to insects, every organism on Earth must reproduce, and the survival of each species--and of life itself--depends on this and on the diversity it creates. In this groundbreaking book, Katherine Roy distills the science of reproduction into its simplest components: organisms must meet, merge their DNA, and grow new individuals; and she thoughtfully highlights the astonishing variety of this process with examples from across the natural world, from ferns and butterflies to trout, hawks, rabbits, and more.

Lucid, informed, and illuminated by beautiful paintings, Making More weaves a story that seamlessly explains life's most fundamental process, answers children's questions, and provides an essential tool for parents, caregivers, and educators.

NOTABLE QUOTES:

(5:01) “Over time you can get variation through a population and life can change, which gives us biodiversity on our planet, which I absolutely love because we live in a gorgeous planet, um, a beautiful world. And I love looking at life through this lens of thinking about the system of genes and inheritance and how we are all connected. And that makes me feel really alive.”

(7:32) “It's all connected. Every living thing has parents and every cell in our body, every living organism has this story written into itself that go back and back in time to the earliest life on earth.”

(8:51) “What is it that kids wanna know?

These are geography questions. How does the baby get out? How did the egg get in? Like, that's a location question. That's a transportation question, right? I can answer this. There's nothing wrong with this.”

(12:52) “I think people get funny when kids ask a question about how a baby gets out of its mom. Right? And I don't think there's anything wrong with that question, and I don't ever want a kid to feel like they asked a bad question, because that's a great question and it deserves an answer. And I want kids to feel like they can come to their trusted adult, or their teacher or their parent and ask this question and not be turned away.”

(14:10) “I just wanted to give kids a chance to ask these questions and to get answers from a safe and trusted source. And I've done my absolute best to make the information as beautiful and accurate as possible so that kids can have an understanding of how this process works without somebody getting funny on them.” 

(19:23) “You know, this book was set in a forest ecosystem because that's where I live, but you live in a different place and maybe a book needs to be written about your habitat and what's making more near you, and it's just a totally different way to look at where you live. So I hope that you go out and enjoy your backyard, your neighborhood, and just have a whole new way to look at it.”

ADDITIONAL LINKS:

• Katherine Roy Website - www.katherineroy.com

• Purchase the Book - Making More: How Life Begins

TALK ABOUT THE EPISODE:

1. Why do living things make more? What is a benefit to creating more of something that shares your same genes?

2. Do you think it’s hard to talk about the subject of making more? What about the topic of making more do you think makes some people uncomfortable?

3. Katherine Roy shared that all living things are first developed in one of three different kinds of ponds. Can you remember what this pond is like for fish? What about for reptiles and birds? For mammals?

4. What was a term or fact you learned from this episode that you found interesting or might want to share with someone else?

CREDITS:

This podcast episode of The Children’s Book Podcast was written, edited, and produced by Matthew Winner. For a full transcript of this episode, visit matthewcwinner.com. 

Write to me or send me a message at matthewmakespods@gmail.com. 

Our podcast logo was created by Duke Stebbins (https://stebs.design/). 

Our music is by Podington Bear. 

Podcast hosting by Libsyn. 

You can support the show and buy me a coffee at www.matthewcwinner.com.

We are a proud member of Kids Listen, the best place to discover the best in kids podcasts. Learn more at kidslisten.org.

Fellow teachers and librarians, want a way to explore building a stronger culture of reading in our communities? In The Reading Culture podcast, Beanstack co-founder Jordan Bookey hosts conversations that dive into beloved authors' personal journeys and insights into motivating young people to read. And I am a big fan! Check out the Reading Culture Podcast with Jordan Bookey, from Beanstack. Available wherever podcasts are found.

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