When I was pregnant with my second, I bought my toddler “Mommy Laid an Egg OR Where do Babies Come From?” - a hilariously graphic picture book by the British writer Babette Cole. Zoe loved it. She giggled as the school of sperm swam furiously up to the egg (”C’mon, boys!”) until one emerged victorious (”Gotcha!”) and the rest protested (”We was robbed!”). She chanted along with me as “The baby got bigger, and bigger and BIGGER!” and “The mommy got fatter, and fatter, and FATTER!” It was a fun way to tell her what was going on in my own body and to prepare her for the arrival of her sister.

The babysitter blushed each time Zoe begged her to read it. My husband flat out skipped entire pages (including “Here are some of the ways mommies and daddies fit together”).

So I’m not sure what to make of the flap over “The Higher Power of Lucky” by Susan Patron. (Thanks, Tobi, for sending this on.) Despite winning the prestigious Newbery Medal, the book has been banned by librarians around the country because it contains a word.

The word is “scrotum,” and it appears on Page 1.

When Zoe and I were at Wild Rumpus this morning, I picked up the book. I discovered it’s for 9 to 12-year-olds. I also discovered it’s about a 10-year-old named Lucky whose mother has died. And that the words “alcoholics” and “gamblers” also appear on that infamous first page. I figure if a kid can handle reading about those issues, they can probably handle the word scrotum.

Cribsheeters? What’s acceptable and what’s not in children’s literature?

Update 3/4/07: Susan Patron replies in the LA Times to her critics.

Sunday’s Arts & Entertainment Books section featured Laura Billings’ review of a memoir by St. Louis Park native Peggy Orenstein.

Her latest book is entitled: “Waiting for Daisy: A Tale of Two Continents, Three Religions, Five Infertility Doctors, an Oscar, an Atomic Bomb, a Romantic Night, and One Woman’s Quest to Become a Mother“

Her journey includes many grueling roadblocks along the way to conception while never letting go of hope. Sounds like a brutally honest yet inspirational read for those who have gone, or are going through the process of trying to conceive.

If you’d like to hear more, Peggy will appear in person at the Galleria Barnes & Noble at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 1. 3225 W. 69th St., Edina

You meet someone and instantly connect. There’s so much to talk about, you have so much in common, it’s almost like you share the same DNA.

Well, if you’re part of a new generation born with donor sperm, this might actually be true.

Kay Miller has this fascinating tale in today’s Strib about the scattered children of anonymous sperm donors who are finding each other.

Book Review: “The Experts’ Guide to the Baby Years: 100 Things Every Parent Should Know”

($19.95) By Samantha Ettus, published by Clarkson Potter, 2006.

Let’s face it. After the second baby, it’s hard to get excited about yet another baby book, so when Star Tribune Source editor Rhonda Prast asked if I would review this one, it took me a while to get around to it. Then I devoured it in one afternoon.

The idea behind this book, part of the “Experts” series by newspaper columnist and new mom Samantha Ettus, is pure genius: She gathers 100 contributors to write about specific topics, combining in one punchy book the voices of pediatricians, psychiatrists, fashion designers and even the woman who runs traffic safety for the AAA (she tells you how to install a car seat).

There’s the usual stuff on getting baby to sleep through the night, avoiding diaper rash, giving baby a bath, reading to baby and weaning baby that you’ll find in most baby care books. And then there are a bunch of topics and/or voices you probably won’t.

Ettus, who lives in new York with her husband and daughter, gets maternity fashion mogul Liz Lange to write about how to be a stylish new mom. Lange’s counter-intuitive advice: avoid “loose, shapeless clothes” and go for “slim, sleek and stretchy styles that are fitted but never tight.” Author Wendy Sachs weighs in on choosing between working and staying home, and Michelle LaRowe, founder of a Boston nanny service, on how to interview a babysitter or nanny.

Kate Spade, designer of handbags, tells you how to pack a diaper bag - pick something gender-neutral since “your partner will want to carry it without feeling silly.” Tracy Gallagher, Travel Channel host, suggests flying at off-peak times if you have baby in tow. And others offer tidbits on how the touchy subject of how take a baby to a restaurant and the even touchier one of maintaining friendships with childless friends.  

There’s sensible advice on that all-important other person in the equation - your partner. Marriage counselor Carol Ummel Lindquist advises separating “romantic time” from “problem-solving time.” Valerie Davis Raskin, a Chicago psychiatrist, puts in print the lament all new parents recognize with a pang, that “spontaneous sex is gone for now.” (Though I balked at her improbable solution - “Ask Grandma or a babysitter to take baby out for an afternoon stroll for an hour, turn off the phone, and do it.” Eek.)

There’s also a Minnesota connection (Isn’t there always?). Martha Farrell Erickson at the University of Minnesota write a chapter on managing separation anxiety.

Like all books created around a gimmick - the multiple experts twist - and a catchy number - 100, some chapters are better than others. If you’re looking for in-depth advice on anything specific, you probably won’t be satisfied here. But as an entertaining and mostly useful read, it’d be hard to do better. Plus it’s small and light enough to throw into a diaper bag (Kate Spade-approved or otherwise…)

(This review, plus a shorter, less enthusiastic one on “The Wonder Years” from the American Academy of Pediatrics, is in the Strib’s Relationships section today.)

What are your favorite books on caring for/coping with baby? I’ll start: “Touchpoints,” that old stalwart from T. Berry Brazelton. He’s always so sensible.

Each holiday season brings a barrage of new kids’ books into our bookstores. Here’s the pick of the lot from the Strib’s Kristin Tillotson.

I’m particularly intrigued by one titled  “Three Names of Me,” about a Chinese girl adopted by American parents, seen through the child’s eyes. With so many Minnesotans adopting from China, I’m sure many of you are too. And as a sucker for stories about unsung heroines, I like the sound of “Mrs. Claus Takes a Vacation.”

Anybody read any of the books on the list?