I Can Play It Safe

Here’s help for all adults who want to talk to young children about personal safety. Written by an expert in child safety, this full-color picture book teaches kids (and helps adults reinforce) seven important rules to personal safety in a nonthreatening way. It covers topics like safe versus harmful secrets, safe versus harmful touches, and the importance of having a community of trusted adults to turn to for help. Emphasizing the “check-in” rule and teaching kids to trust their gut instincts, this book gives children the knowledge and confidence they need to make smart choices about their personal safety every day.

Children's Literature

The purpose of this picture book is to share seven rules for personal safety with children and their adult reading partners. It is to be used as a springboard for conversations about issues regarding safety so that children can make good personal safety choices. Safety rules that appear on these pages include get permission to go anywhere with anyone, do not keep secrets from parents and caregivers, and know you are special and need to be safe. The message of this text is written in a very child-friendly way and the illustrations on each page enhance the comprehension of each concept. The settings for the text are very familiar to young children, including playing in the snow, playing at a park, and going to a birthday party. This book would be a wonderful addition to preschool or elementary school libraries or the collection of books in an elementary school nurse's office. It would also be a good book to be shared with a parent or caretaker. Reviewer: Susan Borges

Alison Feigh was the youth safety specialist at the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center. Influenced at an early age by the abduction of classmate Jacob Wetterling, she became an avid spokesperson on issues of personal safety. Alison has been tackling the problem of missing and exploited children for over a decade—providing education and support to families and communities.