Beautiful

July 15, 2016
McAnulty and Lew-Vriethoff shatter the cultural definition of "beauty" by showing young girls of all races and abilities studying nature, dressing up as pirates, experimenting in chemistry, and more.Many folks are socially conditioned to immediately praise a little girl based on her looks or dress. It can be difficult to not squeal over ruffles or ringlet curls. Coupled with the endless fascination with princesses, sparkles, and jewels of many a young child, the world can distinctly narrow what "beautiful" means. With a text that sounds like it could have been directly lifted from a charm school handbook, McAnulty and Lew-Vriethoff upend the norm. Each phrase is paired with illustrations that show an alternative meaning. "Beautiful girls move gracefully" portrays girls playing football, soccer, baseball, and basketball (in wheelchairs). "Beautiful girls smell like flowers" is paired with young tots digging in dirt, planting a garden, and getting messy. "Beautiful girls smile sweetly" shows gleeful friends, one with uneven teeth and the other with braces, biting into juicy orange slices. Bright, bold illustrations certainly can't show every single girl, but many will find themselves in these pages. Celebrated here for their particularity and their diversity, girls are given the space to find beauty in all kinds of ways. (Picture book. 4-8)

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November 1, 2016

PreS-Gr 1-This picture book is filled with wit and musings on what it means for a young girl to be beautiful. The illustrations evoke a feeling of uniqueness, independence, and strength, defining beauty through diversity, talents, and passions. Girls are playing football, eating messy oranges, digging in the mud, laughing at themselves, and flying like birds on swings. Drawings, vignettes, and square panels provide balance to the text. Simple sentences and phrases stir the imagination. Bold line drawings and rich colors bring a sense of wonder and personality to each girl. The wordplay is clever: "Beautiful girls know all about makeup," as the girls dress up as pirates with fake beards and mustaches. Each wears a pirate hat, carries a sword, and navigates her own boat on the high seas. "Beautiful girls...have a smart style" refers not to fashion sense but to a sense of discovery and exploration, as each page shows a young woman investigating bugs and plants and other girls building a robotic car or creating a science experiment. VERDICT This simple yet empowering story, best suited for one-on-one and small group sharing, is infused with examples of how beauty is defined in many ways.-Melissa Smith, Royal Oak Public Library, MI

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