Publisher: The Danbury Press / Grolier Enterprises Inc.

Year: 1975

Pages: 142

Type: Hardcover

ISBN: 0-7172-8106-X

“Children are entitled to know the truth.”

Disney has quite often delved into the realms of education. They have called this output ‘edutainment’ as they use Disney characters to get sensitive or difficult subjects over to young children. This book attempts to answer such questions as ‘Where did I come from?’ and ‘What is this between my legs?’ What parent couldn’t use help answering those questions? Yikes!

So Mickey is the doctor in residence and many of your favorite Disney characters are the patients, or individuals with the problems or questions.

Let’s refer to the note to the parents to explain the main thesis of Growing Up Healthy:

I must say that they haven’t shied away from blunt or graphic imagery to explain a subject. You can see simplified pictures of anatomy, the birthing process, and the changes of puberty, to mention a few. But there are also some very entertaining cartoons like this one:

I doubt this book would become the go-to read for any child in the family. More likely it would be the parent pulling it out only when a difficult topic was raised and some help to explain it was wanted.

I would give this book more than 3 out of 5 Stars even if I were reviewing it back in the 70’s. Again, although it is written so that very young children could understand the language, it may still be a bit beyond their ability to understand the concepts. So for the 5-year olds one would have to select which sections to consider while the 10-year olds may be able to grapple with the more mature messages. Letting children of any age read this book alone may end up raising more questions than the book itself answers!