Beautiful as You are! / Brilliant as You Are! by PeTika Tave
My review: ★★★
These two books are very similar, so I am reviewing them together. One is targeting girls while the other targets boys, and the text is very similar. The books are a message of love and acceptance of the child reading them. They’re a reminder that the child is special, and should feel proud of who they are.
If you have a child who has self esteem issues, or has been the target of bullying, these books will help you remind them of their own value. If your child does not have these issues, they may not find the book very compelling. That’s the main reason I didn’t give the books more stars – they serve a very targeted purpose, and are good for that purpose (only). I also personally feel kids will connect more with an actual story of a character who feels bad and is shown their internal good, instead of just platitudes of goodness.
The artwork is very good.
Since the books are quite gender-specific, you would want to focus on the book that matches your target child. The two books could be combined together – alternating genders on different pages – to generically help any child with self esteem issues. But you could argue that since these books are already targeting children who are feeling bad, being gender-targeted as well does help those children see themselves in these pages.
