Member Reviews
My Thoughts
I think this book has a great message in general, but is missing one huge component. Here are my pros and cons for Love Your Body:
Pros
1. Encouraging anyone, but girls in particular, to have confidence in themselves in spite of any real or perceived “imperfections” is a good message.
2. The book encouraged girls to support one another.
3. I liked that the book included specific suggestions for girls to try if they are ever having mental health issues.
4. The book encouraged girls to ask for help if they ever felt frustrated or just needed someone to listen to them. There is even information included in the back of the book about organizations that are available to help.
Cons
1. The one gaping hole in this entire book is the need to reinforce physical health!
2. Super repetitive.
3. The font was unusual and I found it a little difficult to read.
Summary
I am all for teaching girls that accepting themselves as they are, flaws and all, goes a long way toward promoting confidence and well-being. However, when we omit the discussion about physical health, I think we are doing girls and women a disservice. We need to be able discuss improving our physical health (when appropriate) along with loving ourselves.
I feel like I can say that because I have spent a large portion of my life telling myself that just because I am fat doesn’t mean I ever should doubt or criticize myself. I told myself that as long as I am happy I shouldn’t have to change just because others don’t like to look at fat people. They are the ones with the problem, not me, right??! I am a strong, confident, educated, and funny person, and if others can’t see past my body, so what! But as I got older, I started to realize that I was using that mantra as a crutch. I didn’t have to be obese. The fact is I was lazy, not eating well, and not taking care of my physical health even if my mental health was just fine. Unfortunately, after years of ignoring my physical health, I became morbidly obese, a pre-diabetic, and suffered from super high blood pressure. I started realizing I was harming myself by “loving myself as I am” and that was not okay. No body confidence in the world was going to help me if I had a massive heart attack and died due to obesity. [Note: This isn’t just about obesity. I used to be friends with a woman that was super thin. She exercised all the time, was super active, and she ate very little. She had a lot of confidence in herself and took pride in how she looked, but in reality she was destroying her organs due to lack of nutrition and was slowly killing herself.]
I guess what I am trying to say here is that body confidence is definitely a good message. I just don’t believe it is a complete message. Yes, we should learn to accept ourselves in all the different forms and abilities that we come in. But, when our “imperfections” can impact our actual lifespan (like being overweight or underweight) we have to talk about steps we can take to be physically healthy, too. Why are we so afraid of encouraging physical health as well as mental health?? We have to be able to discuss both, and in almost every book I read like this one, physical health isn’t openly and specifically addressed. There has to be a balance.
Thank you NetGalley and Frances Lincoln Children’s Books for a free eARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
My Daughter is having confidence issues with her body shape changing, so I was so pleased that @netgalley allowed me to review this one. This is an illustrated book that was just animated slightly so that you were not smacked in the face by nudity. I personally did not like the art but each to their own. We found it very useful and helped us answer some questions and explore other avenues. It helped cover things we had not thought about too. I think this book has taken some of the worry away and hopefully we can restore a little confidence to build on. #netgalley #amazon #kindle #goodreads.
I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. Love Your Body is a nonfiction book for female-identifying children, tweens, and teenagers about self-acceptance and body positivity. This book is a great companion to staples such as The Body Book by American Girl, especially because it is inclusive of girls of many different races, ethnicities, sizes, and abilities. The book is pretty general and doesn't go into the same detail as other puberty books, and would have possibly benefitted from such detail; instead the book functions more as a primer on confidence. I would recommend this book for between ages 8-13, but it would be appropriate for younger and older girls. It would make a great gift book to accompany "the talk," entering middle school, or other milestones during the awkward years of puberty.
I requested and received an e-ARC of this book from NetGalley and Quatro Publishing Group in exchange for my honest review.
I thought this book was great! It teaches young girls to focus on their whole being instead of their body image and their insecurities. This book teaches girls to focus on all the positive things our bodies can do. This book also includes exercises for your brain to help young girls improve their self-image.
I love how positive and encouraging this title is. I can easily see it having a place in elementary, middle, and high school library collections.
Every child and every adult needs this book.
The message is clear, bold and necessary for everyone in the world today. The thoughts are well organized and the illustrations are beautiful and display incredible diversity.
I cannot recommend this book more strongly. It should be in every elementary, middle and high school library. Every family should have a copy and start reading it to their children from birth.
An early copy of this book was made available to me by the publisher through netgalley. This is my honest review.
This book is 40 pages of complete beauty.
The age group is 8-12 years old, however, I am a 23 year old adult, and I think this is a book I needed.
This is a book that is beautifully illustrated, about loving your body. It included bodies of different colours, religion, physical features and disabilities.
There’s one line from this book that really stood out.
‘Your body will become bigger, and it will take up more space, and that’s okay!‘
As someone who developed an eating disorder as a young teen, this is a book I really could have done with and I am so glad it’s out in the world.
I’ve been really struggling again with my body image and reading this made me tear up. It’s a book that is needed by so many, no matter the age.
Although the book is aimed at young girls, the language inside isn’t gendered, and I love that. It could be so useful for people of all genders to have a book like this.
This is the easiest 5-star rating I’ve ever given. This is a beautiful book that deserves to be hyped up and viewed by so many people, no matter age, gender or race.
This is an incredibly important and powerful book that should be shared with young girls far and wide. It shows that we, as women, are more that what we look like and that we should be proud no mater what. It also shows that we all need help sometimes and gives ways to think positively.
Thank you Quarto Publishing Group and NetGalley for this ARC of this "Most Needed" book!
This is an amazing read that tells its reader that their body is "amazing"
Beautiful illustrations. All women and young ladies need a copy of this wonderful book.!
Body Shaming is so rooted in our culture that people don't even feel sorry about doing so! This has made a very deepening impact on the human psyche that people tend to have negative thoughts about their own bodies too!
Thus it becomes very important to remind ourselves that no matter what shape, size or colour our body has, WE OUGHT TO LOVE IT!
The book does its job perfectly of making us understand that it's Okay to be different. It's okay not to be fitting in the common frame of Good Body because no matter what we all are Beautiful in our own ways!!
I loved the ways suggested in the book so as to start loving our bodies more. They are easy, helpful and effective! The accompanying illustrations are amazing and unique individuals are beautifully represented.
Overall a Great Reminder for all of us to start loving our bodies more than we do!!
"Bodies are not just to be looked at and admires- our bodies are so much more than that."
Love Your Body is a book for children with an incredible positive message about self-acceptance and self-care. At the heart of it, it is a short, informative and beautifully illustrated book with a empowering message for young girls. I particularly loved the diverse representations of women's bodies in the illustrations. There were bodies of different shapes, sizes, skin tones, heights, styles and abilities- supporting the message that all bodies are wonderful. I wish there were book like this around when I was a child!
This is a very beautiful book celebrating body positivity and self-love. It features ideas for self-care and healthy ways to think about your body. All of the language is neutral, so even though the illustrations only feature girls and the author says this book is "written for girls and those who identify as girls," the text could truly apply to anyone. In fact, I wish the illustrations were more gender-diverse and the that this book was written for everyone-- non-binary readers included. Because the language is so very neutral, the diversity really comes from the illustrations, which features bodies of various sizes, heights, abilities, and colors, as well as bodies in hijab.
I also wish the resources in the back were more extensive, with specifically some fat positivity and LGBTQ+ resources included.
A diverse book promoting self-care and love for your body. I can see this being useful especially with the older children in our school. Great illustrations and great message for girls.
This book is so beautiful. Not only is the artwork stunning, the message within is what every girl needs to read. It’s a little bit educational and a little bit inspirational in just the right amounts of each. Self-care and self-love are explored throughout this picture book with the overall message being self-acceptance of your body, at every stage. I love that this book is targeted to girls, but this book is actually perfect for woman of all ages. Would make a beautiful coffee table book or gift.
I've heard that children as young as 3 can have body issues, so I'm happy that there is a children's picture book that addresses this in a positive way. It shows a variety of body types doing many activities. This book would be perfect for children age 4 and above. It will certainly help spur positive conversations about all the wonderful things our bodies can do!
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC.
This is not only a beautiful but (and mostly) an important book.
"Love your body" includes all types of bodies: big, small, tall, fat, thin, chubby, hairless, full of hair, freckled, disabled, bodies. It includes girls with vitiligo, stretch marks and cellulite, and let me repeat myself and mention disabled once again. It also includes many ethnicities, skin colors, eyes, hairs and ages. And know that it's not only meant for cis girls and those who identify as a girl, but whoever reads it, since (and I quote) "negative body image can affect anyone, regardless of gender, race, or sexual orientation".
This is the kind of book that I'd have loved to read when I was a little girl. Sorry, let me rephrase that-- this is the kind of book that I'd have needed to read when I was a little girl. I think every kid should read this book, learn about their bodies and start loving themselves from a very young age. I also think they should learn about other bodies, not only to realize that their body is perfect the way it is but also to learn that other bodies follow the same rule, even if they're different. It helps with empathy and sisterhood, and makes a better human being in the proccess.
I also want to mention the little messages the author put in this book, that I think are incredible for healing for people like me, a full grown 25 years old woman, and super helpful for little kids: be kind to yourself. Listen to your body. Be kind both to your body and your mental health, because we all are giving the best of us and doing what we can, and that might be more or less of what the world is asking us to do. When it comes to your body and mental health, be mindful and respect its own limits, know yourself, try and follow your own rules to respect them. And if something's not feeling right, if there are negative thoughts that aren't going away, look for help. You're not less brave for doing so: we all need help sometimes.
For all of us that spent our teenage years suffering because we did want to love our bodies but our family, friends, beauty standards and/or society itself made it difficult-- this is the book we deserved. This is the kind of book that'll hopefully mark next generations, that I hope will be full of love for themselves and empowered as hell.
1. I want to hug this book and never let go.
2. Everyone need to have this book on their collection.
Seriously, this book. Can we have more books like this?
As someone who's dealing with body issues growing up, I wish this book was exist back then.
What a wonderful, amazing book. Thank you for writing this book. I sincerely hope this book would be translated to as many languages as possible.
Loved this book! My daughter may still be a bit young to understand all of it but she enjoyed it a lot too. The empowering message about healthy body image, positivity and self esteem is so important and done so well throughout the book. I adored the illustrations so much. Definitely a perfect book for any woman, young or old. Thanks so much for the copy of this wonderful book Jessica Sanders, NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group - Frances Lincoln Children's Books.
An amazing, positive book. I wish I had this when growing up. It’s sends such a positive message of self love and self acceptance and this should be forced down our throats as much as the diet Industry is, I can only hope things continue to change for the better as the existence of this book itself shows things are. Please schools and libraries stock this for young women (and boys need their own version too) Fabulous and thoroughly recommended to all young women and those older of us who need to be reminded we are how we are meant to be and should be proud.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion
A charming, cheerful and crucial celebration of beautiful bodies and all the incredible and impressive things they can do and achieve, Love Your Body is the ultimate feel-good book of 2020!