This Is Me: Facing Physical Challenges

No one is perfect, but each of us is individually our perfect self. Life is stocked with challenges, and often those battles are physical. But winning those battles and accepting yourself for each unique aspect-whether it's glasses, a weight issue, or a learning disability-helps you embrace life and become your strong, beautiful self. Letting people know you're okay with you is a great way to get them okay with you too!

No one is perfect, but each of us is individually our perfect self. Life is stocked with challenges, and often those battles are physical. But winning those battles and accepting yourself for each unique aspect-whether it's glasses, a weight issue, or a learning disability-helps you embrace life and become your strong, beautiful self. Letting people know you're okay with you is a great way to get them okay with you too!

School Library Journal

Gr 5–8—These titles combine "true-to-life" stories with advice from a child and adolescent development specialist. Harris discusses using cell phones, instant messaging, and gaming and social-networking sites in a safe and responsible manner. Is This Really My Body? discusses the physical changes that occur during puberty, while This Is Me focuses on physical challenges such as weight issues, using a wheelchair, and vision problems. Tourville's Out of the Dark contains strategies for coping with emotional challenges like divorce, loss of a relative, death of a pet, and moving. Some of the stories are a bit melodramatic but do represent the trials and tribulations that many adolescent girls go through. Though earnest and well-intentioned, the expert advice and author comments come across like platitudes. The stock photographs are unimpressive, but the overall design is uncluttered and orderly. These hi/lo titles could be used as starting points for discussions.—Elaine Baran Black, Georgia Public Library Service, Atlanta

STEPHANIE WATSON is an independent scholar who has written and contributed to numerous works, including World of Genetics and Science and Its Times. She is the author of The Urinary System, and coauthor of The Endocrine System, both in Greenwood's Human Body Systems series.