EVERYBODY HAS A BODY

Ehlert and Tu offer a primer on body neutrality.

In simple, straightforward text, readers are reminded that “Your body is your body. It doesn’t look like anyone else’s. It doesn’t feel like anyone else’s.” Depicting characters who are diverse in terms of race, age, size, ability, and preference, different pages focus on the myriad ways bodies can exist in the world. “Some move in different ways, / some see in different ways,” among them an older dark-skinned person with a cane and a guide dog, a younger Asian-appearing person stimming with headphones on, and another younger dark-skinned person using a fidget toy. The text “Some just got here, / some have been here a long time” is accompanied by a touching image of an elder cradling an infant, both brown-skinned. The illustrations include enough kinds of people, all shown as friendly, rounded, and smiling, that nearly all readers will be able to point at someone and say, “That’s like me!” The plain language belies the profound message that some will be able to pull out; an afterword more fully defines body neutrality, or the idea that readers need not love their bodies but that we should all respect and accept them. “Allow yourself to just feel meh” and “Think of your body as a house” are especially important messages to instill in people just learning how to conceptualize their physical selves. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Honest, loving, and powerful.