The Best Part of Me: Children Talk about Their Bodies in Pictures and Words

The images mix the mundane and the poetic in equal parts and reflect the children's differences in self-esteem.

The results are lyrical and funny, touching and telling, and they should achieve Ewald's aim: to encourage kids to "talk about their bodies and share their candid sense of themselves with adults."

Gr 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, TX Copyright 2001 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.