Well well well, what can I say? I mean seriously,this is a childrens’ book about achieving confidence and positive body image through dieting. Although the character in the book is 14 years old, the target audience for this book is 4-6 year olds.
Some people may be thinking, well what is wrong with this, given the problem of childhood obesity, and larger children likely to be bullied for being overweight etc. Well, from where I am standing, immediately the title is sending out a wrong message by focusing on dieting, and not really thinking about healthy eating, exercise, and fun through sport as a better way of sending the message to young children. This book does not consider how a child will interpret going on a diet>instantly they associate losing weight with being popular, thin athletic,pretty etc. Valuing people for superficial attributes and not not who they are. Shame, this body image, thin obsessed, culture is spreading to our kids earlier and earlier. Makes me sad.What makes me mad is that the media attention that this is receiving will obviously be lining the authors pockets. Ugh.
Couldn’t agree with you more. Children learn through picture books and stories;it is a proven method of teaching rules and ‘norms’ (what ever those are), to children with communication difficulties. So why would we be even considering the title, let alone the content of this book to be published?! We all know children take away their own understanding of the book (often the complete opposite of the authors’ attempt). I believe the publisher and author may have backfired here.