MOMMY LAID AN EGG!

The full facts about human reproduction, ingeniously set in a story about parents who are offering their son and daughter some whimsical explanations—``You were delivered by a dinosaur'' or ``Sometimes you just find them under stones''—while the humor of these possibilities is dramatized in Cole's vibrant, cartoony illustrations. After Mom avers, ``You can grow them from seeds...Or just squeeze them out of tubes!'' and Dad chimes ``Mommy laid an egg,'' the kids take the discussion in hand. Laughing off the nonsense and remarking that ``You were right about the SEEDS, the TUBE, and the EGG,'' they describe what really happens, illustrating with explicit kindergarten-style drawings—a remarkably innovative way to offer diagrams that are clear without being uncomfortably detailed; there are even four ``ways mommies and daddies fit together,'' their faces expressing engagingly childlike glee. The lesson continues until ``out pops the baby.'' ``So now YOU know,'' conclude the sensible tots to their wide-eyed parents (whose cheeks have gone much pinker, the only suggestion that this could be embarrassing), ``...and so does everyone else,'' as they open the door to a slew of animals and their young. For those who choose to share these specifics with young children, a notably fresh, matter-of-fact approach. (Picture book. 4-8)