Review - What's Down There?

What's Down There?
by Alex Waldron
Date: 2019
Publisher: Ruby Tuesday Books
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book non-fiction
Pages: 36
Format: e-book
Source: NetGalley

All the grown-ups make up cute little names. But nobody seems to call it the same. In their Fantastic World, Stevie and her cousins, Fred & Woody, discover there is lots to learn about girl bodies with some help from Big Nan, who knows everything!

• Huge talking point right now - the charity, Eve Appeal, says girls need to use the right words ‘from the start’, that opening up conversations gives women the best chance of a healthy life, and that 44% of parents regularly use euphemisms such as ‘front bottom’ and ‘fairy’ instead of correct terms: https://dailym.ai/2kT9FNp

• Funny, engaging text and cool, hand-drawn illustrations – injecting humour through honesty to break through any nervousness around the topics covered by the Fred & Woody series

• Designed to be read-alone, or read-together, at home and in the classroom

• Initiates honest, realistic, helpful conversations from an early age

• Incredibly useful section at the back of each book packed with tips and ideas for the grown-ups to get the most from the book for their little ones, written by a highly-trained Relationships and Sex Education Trainer (Relationships Education is compulsory in UK primary and secondary schools: http://bit.ly/GovGuidelines)

• Boosts body confidence, awareness and understanding of health and hygiene, safeguarding and consent. Shows children that we are all different and perfect in our own way, in all shapes and sizes, and that their body is just that – theirs!

The Fred & Woody books are perfect for all parents, carers and pre- and primary school educators who wish to initiate honest, realistic and age-appropriate conversations with young children about their private parts and the important issues of consent and staying safe.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This book is confusing. And I say that as an adult who knows the names for everything that's "down there".

First of all, if this is supposed to be about using correct terminology, why is the title What's Down There?... and why is the companion book called That's My Willy?

Second, the author does lip service to gender dysphoria, but the book itself is pretty trans-exclusionary. The subtitle alone (A book about girl bodies for curious kids) should be enough of a warning, but things don't get any better on the inside:

[A vulva and vagina] are both important parts of MY body.
They make Stevie a girl and Big Nan a lady.

Third, the book is confusing. It's told all in rhyme, in the first person. But there's no indication of when other people are talking. Stevie starts out as the narrator... so I was confused by the following line:

But what's down there? What's its name?
Ours is a penis but yours isn't the same.

This is actually Stevie's cousins talking, but it's not indicated in any way. (As for the first bit I quoted above, I think that was Big Nan talking. But she's confusing things even more by referring to herself in the third person.)

Things get even worse when vaginas are compared to caves, oysters, and treasure chests. Can we please not do that?

The illustrations are... well, I don't even know if they'd be legal in certain jurisdictions. There are naked children, plus lots of pictures of hairy vulvas (oh, and that's another thing; the book implies that vulvas are hairy... but for this target audience, that doesn't make a lot of sense). The illustrations are all black line drawings on what looks like brown paper. They're not very interesting.

Finally, how am I supposed to take the grandfather seriously when his name is PooPops? That kind of makes me want to vomit, actually. (To my North American ears, that sounds like a popsicle made of crap. I wasn't aware that "poo" meant something different in the UK, but maybe it does. I can't think why you'd name a grandpa after feces otherwise.)

Sadly, this just doesn't cut it. While it is important to teach children the correct names for their anatomy, the message gets a bit undermined when you keep using the term "down there". This book is also unsuitable for anyone but cisgender children, so keep that in mind if you want to give it a try.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ruby Tuesday Books for providing a digital ARC.

Premise: 3/5
Meter: 2/5
Writing: 2/5
Illustrations: 2/5
Originality: 2/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2.14 out of 5