I love me!

"I love me from the tip of my nose / all the way down to my ticklish toes." Using simple rhyming text with the title as a refrain, this book proclaims various assertions of body positivity. Though there's a hint at inner worth ("how I share my heart within"), physical features are the main focus here. The text calls out the beauty of many parts of the body, while a diverse ever changing cast of characters with wide, bright smiles perform various activities. The illustrations include many physical types and conditions, a mix of racial appearances, and unspecified gender presentations. Sometimes a depiction seems particularly intentional if also exclusionary, such as when a black child with a prosthetic arm appears accompanying text that reads "I love the way my arms bend and fold"--but nowhere else. The same goes for an arm displaying vitiligo included on the spread for "I love the color of my skin." Such inclusions on these specific pages directly promote self-love for attributes often erased from certain categories, a distinct positive, but it is a shame they are not included in other areas as well. The message is certain and consistent, with nary a contention or doubt. Varied shapes make each cast member definitively distinct while bold colors enhance the book's jubilant tone. A celebratory proclamation of ultra-inclusive self-love. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.