Taking young readers on a journey from heads to toes, Your Whole Body manages to be both informative and inclusive. With simple, clear text and softly drawn images of young children, it teaches readers about the various forms, functions, and accurate names of body parts from the hair on heads to the toes on feet, including the parts of the face, limbs, abdomen, genitalia, and more. The book is not gender specific, and depicts children with various skin tones and racial identities, as well as a range of physical abilities.
We learn on the pages about eyes, ears, and legs, for example, that people may use various devices to help them see, hear, or walk. The page about joints shows a child dancing and doing a cartwheel; she happens to have a prosthetic leg, but no special mention is made of it; it’s just part of human variety. (The page on arms leaves out any mention of assistive devices, however.)
While the main text that explains the function of each body part is kept simple, each spread also includes a close-up labeled with additional sub-parts (e.g., eyelid, pupil, sclera, tear duct) for those who want more details. Not all of these details are explained (nor should they be, in a book this length), but we do learn various fun facts on each page. (For example, did you know that the sound your abdomen makes is called “borborygmus”?)
The text is also happily non-gendered. “Some people grow breasts,” it says. “Some people have a PENIS and SCROTUM…. Some people have a VULVA.” Each two-page spread about genitalia includes the image of a gender-ambiguous child, along with a close-up diagram (as with the other body parts), labeling the sub-parts (e.g., glans, foreskin, clitoris, labia majora, etc.)
A few drawings could use some small refinements—the line indicating someone’s “temple” looks like it points to their eye or orbital socket. The close-up drawing of the buttocks, anus, and perineum is so circular and even around the edges that it is hard to know whether the perineum is to the front or to the back. These are minor issues, however, and don’t detract from the usefulness of the book as a whole.
This book builds on the information presented in two other recommended all-gender-inclusive books for young children about bodies, The Bare Naked Book and Bodies Are Cool. The Bare Naked Book mentions major body parts, including genitalia, but doesn’t delve as deeply into function or into the sub-parts like Your Whole Body. Bodies are Cool focuses on the joy of human variation, and doesn’t discuss or depict genitalia. Children who want to know the names and functions of everything may appreciate Your Whole Body’s detail. Both earlier books show people of all ages, including identifiably queer ones, as they celebrate human diversity; Your Whole Body uses only images of children (who may or may not be queer), who may be more relatable for young readers. None of these approaches is better or worse; no book for this age can cover everything. I recommend them all, as they may appeal to children of different interests or to the same children at different times. I’m thrilled that young children today can now choose from so many different, inclusive books about bodies.
With relatable images of children, and just enough information to feel thorough without overwhelming young readers, many young readers (and their grown-ups) should appreciate Your Whole Body.
Also available in Spanish.
