Maisie's Blueprints

A (IUI/IVF/ICI) Donor Conception Story for Two-Mom Families (My Donor Story)

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Pub Date 9 Jan 2023 | Archive Date 23 Feb 2023

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Description

Maisie's adores her parents, Mommy & Mama. Mommy and Mama are both architects, and on a walk to her first day of school, Maisie learns Mommy and Mama designed one of the houses in the neighborhood.

Upon arriving at school, Maisie meets a boy who asks her how she was able to be made without a daddy.

Maisie rushes home after school to find out the answer.

Together, Maisie, Mommy and Mama explore what it means to be donor conceived via sperm donor and how generosity, genetics and love combine to create many families just like hers.

This book is for two-mom families who conceived using their own egg + a sperm donor via IUI, IVF, or ICI.

Maisie's adores her parents, Mommy & Mama. Mommy and Mama are both architects, and on a walk to her first day of school, Maisie learns Mommy and Mama designed one of the houses in the neighborhood.

...


Advance Praise

“With gentleness, meatphor, lyricism and love, Sharon Leya explains the complex concept of donor conception, genetics and pregnancy so that a child can learn, appreciate, and love how they came to be. This is an important tale, gracefully told.”-Jeffrey Kluger, best-selling co-author of “Apollo 13” and the new novel “Holdout”

“A perfect companion to guide parents and children through joyous discussions of their unique genetic stories.”

-Dr. Hutton M. Kearney Hereditary Genomics Mayo Clinic

“The birds and the bees for the donor-conceived generation.” -Melanie McGee Bianchi/Editor/Bold Life Magazine

“With gentleness, meatphor, lyricism and love, Sharon Leya explains the complex concept of donor conception, genetics and pregnancy so that a child can learn, appreciate, and love how they came to...


Available Editions

ISBN 9798986947341
PRICE US$3.99 (USD)

Average rating from 33 members


Featured Reviews

This book was amazing, I love that things like this exist now. Growing up with two moms, there were no resources like this when I was a child. Every lower elementary classroom should own this book.

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A very short but beautiful story!

I saw this book on my explore page and I needed to know more about this book.

It's about Maisie and her two moms. On Maisies first day at school she gets asked who her father is, but she doesn't know because she has two moms. After school she asks her mothers where she came from and they explain it to her in a very beautiful way.

The story is easy to understand and explains everything very well.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for this EARC!

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This is a book to help kids understand donor conception which has two moms as the parents. It’s a story that wonderfully depicts the variety of ways one can grow a family using the metaphor of housing and architects and blueprints. It is a springboard book for parents to talk to their kids about what it takes to grow a family using the scientific but age appropriate words and information that they might need to know. It also shows through the pictures that trans people exist, which is a really touching moment. This book makes sure that kids know that their family and not their donor are the ones responsible for their true identity. This book is ultimately something that parents should use to make sure their kid never has to feel alone. Parents should always tell their kids that they were donor conceived and how that makes them different, but also a very special part of a family which this book manages to accurately represent.

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This book used a great analogy of blueprints for how families are built. When the daughter of a same sex couple hears at school that her two moms couldn’t make a baby, she questions how they are made. The moms explained how a donor helped build their family. It also gives tips to parents at the end about how to answer kids’ questions.

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5 Stars

I don't believe I have ever seen a children's book covering this topic of sperm/egg donation. However it's an important book for those that have gone thru it and want a way to explain it to their children. Although not my area of expertise, it seems like this book does a great job explaining to kids what this means in a creative way.

I really liked the illustrations of this book and the range on inclusivity shown in this story. It really was fantastic.

I think this book will be great for families that want to share information with their children about how there are kinds of ways to have a baby. Well done!

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for this advanced reader copy. My review is voluntarily my own. I will be sharing my review to my Instagram page the.littlest.bookworm and retail sites.

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I received a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was great! As a lesbian mom, we are always looking to find resources to explain to our kiddos how our family works and how other similar families work. I think the author did a great job at using simple but accurate language to explain what process is for conceiving a child, while still emphasizing the loving connection between Maisie and her moms. Even the boy who asked about how she was made was curious, rather than mean, which feels like an accurate representation of kiddos. I cannot wait to pick this up for our home library!

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a unique book with very nice illustrations! and about how parents explain to their children, I like it 😀👍

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This book was great and definitely would help a child understand their family or others who used IVF and similar contraception methods. I loved that it wasn’t too long, loved the nursery drawings, and the discussion questions!

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This is a donor conception story for children. I want to warn that just in case you might be wary- there are terms/diagram used for a sperm and egg to explain conception to the character Maisie. Now- this story was centered around Maisie and her Mommy and Momma. Maisie comes home from school wondering how she was made. So her parents explain it to her. I like how at the end of the story the author provides multiple discussion topics for readers to have conversations about. I guess I just feel like the story was a little short and I wish there was a little more! I think it would’ve been cool if Maisie went to school and continued the conversation with Emmett/classmates.

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I thought this simply and beautifully explained conception. The story could have been a little longer, maybe more about Maisie back at school explaining to friends. The book has great illustrations!

Thank you Netgalley & publisher for the eARC.

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This is a useful resource for helping kids understand non-traditional family units and alternative conception methods such as IVF. Both the text and illustrations are engaging and will appeal to young readers. While I would have preferred more content, it's a heartwarming read nevertheless.

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Maisie's Blueprints it was such a lovely comic. It was so well written and the lgbt content was so well researched and made accessible for the kids!

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As an IVF baby AND a publishing student, I loved this children’s book! It is a fun and engaging way for children to learn about the lgbtq+ community, opening their minds to learning and acceptance!

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A pretty cute book explaining how a child can be conceived when having two moms. Definitely a subject not often covered in children's books.

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Maisie's Blueprints presents a really unique way of explaining how families can be made up. It has enough details for kids to understand without being too scientific. Plus the discussion points in the back are an added plus!

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I loved this book! It sweetly and simply explains the important details on IUI. As it is designed for children, it is completely appropriate and is filled with fun illustrations which make the reading experience casual and breezy. I think this is a great addition to a child's bookshelf, irrespective of whether their parents are straight, or in an opposite gender relationship. Along with this, it helps parents answer some questions a child from a donor may have, to satisfy their curiosity.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the complimentary ARC. All opinions are purely mine.

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Wow!! What a book! There are so many things that need to be explained to kids today that we never had to explain "back in my day." I felt this book explained the concept very tastefully and without being too scientific so that a child would understand. Perfect for two mommy families!

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What a wonderful way to explain the different ways a baby can be made ! I appreciate the correct terminology as well !

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From the very beginning, the child-friendly language was so beautiful. I love how this story is told from Maisie's pov. It shows her questioning nature, and her moms are open and kind when talking about how she came to be. It emphasizes the importance of sperm donors while also acknowledging that the way you are raised can be just as important as genetics. The discussion questions in the back also provide a helpful way to talk about the story with children.

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This is a simple and fantastic way for children to read about two moms and donor conception. I like that the book is geared towards children in families with two moms who were donor conceived and I liked how the book could also be used to teach children from other kinds of families as well!

Thank you to NetGalley for making this book available in exchange for an honest review!

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**Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for this e-copy in exchange for an honest review**

Maisie has two moms, Mama and Mommy. She doesn't think much of it until a boy at her school asks her how she was born if that's the case, since it takes a mom and dad to create a baby. After school, she asks her moms about it. Mommy tells her that there are multiple ways to make a baby, and that she was created using sperm from a donor along with one of her eggs, and grew in her uterus. One of the most important takeaways from the book is that "love is how you build a family." That and the fact that her moms told her that they are always there for her to talk about anything.

The book also includes a discussion guide about how to talk to your children about their donor.

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This book is so cute and such an amazing way for parents to help explain to their children how they were made if they used a donor. I think this is the only book I’ve ever seen about this, which is why I really wanted to read it and share this with those who have used a donor to have a family. Even if you haven’t used this method to start a family, I think this is still a great book for children because it teaches them about one of the many ways families are created. We want to have an inclusive world and books like this are a huge part of accomplishing that.

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC. I would recommend that older children read this book since it has some technical terms that could be too complex for young readers to understand.

This is another great addition to family books and being inclusive to different families around us. This is also a good read for children to learn about the different ways that families can create a baby.

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Maisie's Blueprints is a helpful guide for children concieved by donor parents, it explains in fairly clear language how donor conception works and also what that means for Maisie's family. The illustrations were cute and children's books featuring two moms are always very welcome in my library. However, the langugage surrounding donor conception, while accessible to children, is technical and specfic in a way that some parents might not want their kids knowing about yet, it could be a great addition to a library's parent shelf. Highly recomend.

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I received a copy of this book through Netgalley. This is my honest review.

This is a story about a young girl who learns about how she was conceived in a non-traditional way. Because she has two mother's it was necessary for them to find a sperm donor and her parents are very willing to share that information with her. The language for those descriptions is simple while avoiding euphemisms so anything retained will be scientifically accurate while also being understandable for younger children.

The illustrations were colorful and creative. They used blueprints and building blocks, things that Maisie understands, to show some of the ideas of how conception works, again, in a way that will make sense to young minds.

The book also included some information at the end for families who conceive using a donor and ways to explain things like donor privacy to a child who has been conceived through the help of a donor.

This is not a book that I would ever need to read more than once to my children as they were both conceived without doctor assistance, but I feel like it's one if there was reason for me to read it to my children, I'd be okay reading it a few times because I imagine it would be helpful to help the child understand how they came to be. Overall I give this book 4.67 out of 5 stars.

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