Katherine Roy

This beautifully illustrated book features reproduction in animals and plants, excepting humans. Fertilization in species that children are familiar with are featured, such as fish, rabbits, and oak trees. While the testes, penis, vagina, and uterus are depicted, it is in a stylized manner that many parents, caregivers, and teachers will be comfortable with. Human reproduction is largely left out for the parent, caregiver, or teacher can explore that with other materials or at another time. The information is scientific and accurate.

There is a large amount of material covered in this book. The reader may choose portions based on age and interest level. Some scientific terms may not be in an adult's typical vocabulary. A glossary at the end of the book is helpful. Due to the detail of the information, the book may be used for some purposes into the teen years or for an adult reviewing the material for themselves.
One issue with the information is that it is very complete and condensed onto one page when it could be better covered in two.

It would be helpful to know what the relative size of the anatomy depicted, for example, egg, sperm, and reproductive tracts. Since these features are often depicted without the animal's body as context, It would be helpful to indicate size. Given the age that the content is created for, a brief description of microscopes and magnification would be useful. Perhaps the magnified items could have a different color of background to identify them. While the art is somewhat abstract, it reflects realistic processes. The addition of a party hat and birthday cake for the snake emerging from its shell is only a distraction.… (mehr)

Making More: How Life Begins is a beautifully rendered book about reproduction in plants and animals. The illustrations are wonderful and the diagrams are helpful. An amazing amount of material is covered in the 72 pages, with asexual reproduction, evolution and biodiversity touched on. The book mainly concerns sexual reproduction, the common form of reproduction for plants and animals. Katherine Roy writes in a very matter-of-fact manner. Human reproduction is dealt with in the context of reproduction by mammals. This book is very informative and moves easily from one type of reproduction to another. My only uncertainty about Making More is the suggested age range of 9-12 years. An example of text: “The shell membrane holds in moisture, and a fluid-filled sac called the amnion keeps the embryo safe. A membrane called the chorion provides the embryo with oxygen, and another called the allantois stores waste.” The technical terms, while accurate and informative, in my opinion are beyond the ages this book is written for, certainly so for the younger end of the range. Some terms are beyond what either my husband or I remember learning in high school biology. Too many scientific terms in the book, I think, become distracting from the basic information that children of the suggested ages would be interested in and able to remember. That said, I again want to say that the book is wonderfully done, with instructive diagrams and photos to match the comprehensive text, and would be interesting for high school students and beyond as well.
Thank you to NetGalley and Norton Young Readers for the ARC of this book.… (mehr)