The Best Part Of Me: Children Talk About Their Bodies In Pictures And Words

The Best Part Of Me: Children Talk About Their Bodies In Pictures And Words

An award-winning photographer asked several children "What is the best part of you?", and presents their answers in this sometimes funny, sometimes moving, deeply personal book that includes striking black-and-white photographs taken by the author. Ideal for parents and teacher to use to discuss body image, self-esteem, and diversity with children.From School Library JournalGr 1-3-Third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students offer personal observations about their bodies. Entries look hand lettered and face a black-and-white photo of the body part featured. Camila Villasana likes her hair-"It's wavy like the ocean." Colette Cosner likes her hands "because they turn the pages of a book slowly and magically." Andrew Legge likes his legs because they "carry me a long way." The result is insight into how the children of varied ethnicities see themselves and take pride in their heritage. The book is an outgrowth of the Literacy Through Photography program Ewald originated at Duke University. This example of a successful writing prompt might be used to encourage students to think more about their own bodies and self-images.Mary Elam, Forman Elementary School, Plano, TXCopyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.From BooklistGr. 1-3. Photographer Ewald worked with 15 ethnically diverse North Carolina school-children and their teachers to investigate how kids feel about their bodies. Each child selected a favorite body part and contributed a signed, handwritten paragraph or poem about it. Camila Villasana, who chose her hair, writes, "It comes from my Mexican heritage. Its [sic] wavy like the ocean." Ewald's tightly focused, tenderly realistic black-and-white photographs do the rest. The images mix the mundane and the poetic in equal parts and reflect the children's differences in self-esteem. The writing may not be great, but the book will work very well to inspire similar writing projects.Susan Dove LempkeCopyright