Picture Book Review – I Love Me!
I LOVE ME!
Written by LaRonda Gardner Middlemiss
Illustrated by Beth Hughes
(Beaming Books; $17.99, Ages 3-5)
Written by LaRonda Gardner Middlemiss and illustrated by Beth Hughes, the picture book I Love Me! honors self-love and the beauty of difference.
Textual and visual body positive images permeate throughout the book. Readers will enjoy a decidedly inclusive group of children distinct in body shape and varying shades of eye, hair, and skin color, including vitiligo. Varieties in head coverings also nod to different faith traditions. There’s an emphasis, too, in loving ALL of ourselves from the “tip of [our] nose all the way down to [our] ticklish toes” and from our “mouth and chin all the way down to [our] knees and shins.”
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The physical body is celebrated as a whole and each part, specifically, for its function in each and every way that function presents itself. Each kind is worthy and embraced. From one page to the next, children from a broad range of abilities (those who use crutches, prosthetic limbs, hearing aids, and wheelchairs and those who don’t) are depicted enjoying the same activities like swinging, dancing, or playing dress up in ways that feel right to them. Hughes’ vibrant patterns and textures combined with horizontal lines add movement and excitement to every child-centered page. Surely, the book’s wholehearted, loving message will provide every little reader the opportunity to see themselves in these pages.
The book’s upbeat rhythm and rhyming text make it a great read-aloud for little ones who need to know just how beautifully and wonderfully they are made.
- Reviewed by Armineh Manookian
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Click here to order a copy of I Love Me! or visit your local indie bookstore.
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