The Cradle Ship by Edith Howes (1930)

A charming vintage children’s story filled with imagination and classic illustrations

Vintage Fair Condition – visible wear to the cloth boards with marks on the back cover and age-toning and spotting visible on some pages.

Win and Twin come home from holiday to find that they have a lovely surprise. A new baby has arrived, but when Win asks where babies come from, her grandmother accuses her of being “rude”. She and her brother Twin decide to ask their mother, who then decides that it was time to show them where babies come from. She reveals that she is a fairy and her whole family go to Babyland where they learn from the fairies and the plants, animals where their babies come from. However, there is trouble in Babyland and only the twins’ mother, the mother fairy, can stop it.
The Cradle Ship addresses the popular question, “Where do babies come from?” using a very magical and whimsical setting: Babyland. The book is filled with incredible details about animal behaviour surrounding birth, babies and mothering. Although it is not very explicit, The Cradle Ship is a good starting place for 7-9 year-olds to learn the answer to that age-old question in the gentlest of ways.