Book Bundles: Our Bodies, Our Selves

(3) K-3 "Lanky bodies, squat bodies, / Tall, short, wide or narrow bodies, / Somewhere-in-the-middle bodies, / Bodies are cool!" Feder's rhyming text and double-page spreads filled with all kinds of people celebrate the variety of our physical attributes. The joy-filled cartoon illustrations pack a lot of bodies into the settings (e.g., subway car, pool, backyard barbecue) and offer plenty to consider. Each scene highlights one feature: physique, skin color, hair ("lots of hair or no hair"; "leg hair, armpit hair"), eyes ("monolids and round eyes"), tummies, legs ("roll-up-to-the-table legs"), scars ("marks-that-tell-a-story scars"), and more. The titular refrain keeps the book's message front and center.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Michael Emberley. This fifth edition of the classic sex-ed compendium for tweens and young teens updates the 2014 edition, most notably revising the text throughout to use more gender-inclusive language and less binary thinking. Harris lays the groundwork in the first chapter, e.g., providing definitions for sex and gender and acknowledging that for some people the labels assigned at birth "do not describe who they are." Many pages have been redesigned to accommodate added text and reconfigured chapters. The addition of new illustrations better reflects diversity in all its forms. A welcome--and welcoming--edition.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 1995

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Anne Passchier. Ari's uncle Lior uses they/them pronouns; neighbor Anna "had a different name and used different pronouns. But now she goes by Anna and uses she and her..." For Ari, however, "My pronouns are like the weather. They change depending on how I feel." On this particular day, Ari is frustrated by not knowing which pronouns feel right. "She and her feel sharp and crackly"; "Ey and eir feel heavy and bumpy." The stylized cartoon illustrations show the characters with their pronouns and other descriptive words, so neighbor Robin is crowned with "Artistic! Sweet! Kind! Ze/Zir!" If things get a bit convoluted in this purposeful story--"Uncle Lior says hello and tells zir their words too"--the art helps sort things out. This story offers lots of opportunities for exploring beyond the binary.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn