Your Body Belongs to You

As a therapist, this is my go-to book to teach children that they can say no to unwanted touches and to also tell an adult immediately if someone is crossing that boundary.

Since our 3.5 year old son attends a preschool with lots of different adults taking care of him I wanted to find a way to start talking to him about appropriate touching. I had no idea how to do this with a 3.5 year old so I looked through book reviews and decided on this book. It's a very mild approach to telling children about their bodies. It starts off focusing on hugging and how it's mostly a nice thing but you can tell someone if you don't want to be hugged etc.. It also discusses private areas covered by your bathing suit and telling mom if anyone were to ever touch those private areas. It's a good tool to use in teaching very young children about a very tricky subject.

The note to parents is excellent in that it encourages you to teach your children, among other things, that they don't have to give hugs & kisses (even to grandparents) if they don't want to. Sometimes they don't feel like it so is very important not to "make" them give goodbye kisses if they don't want to. I think this is a very important message to parents (& grandparents as well).About 12 pages, one or two sentences a page, colorful illustrations, though not as vibrant as a Dr. Seuss book. Short, simple, which is what makes it good for preschoolers (I'd say 3 to 5). Much more than that, you'll lose them.There is nothing in this book that would make it uncomfortable to read to my 4 yr old grandson, which is who I bought it for.

I think every parent struggles with explaining appropriate vs inappropriate touching to preschoolers, and here is a short, simple book that does just that. It also has an introduction for parents and teachers that I personally found helpful. We have several of Ms. Spelman's books and I've found them to be a tremendous resource for explaining a variety of feelings - both good and bad - and teaching young children how to appropriately deal with those feelings. The one thing that bothered me about this particular book, however, is that it was written in the second person instead of first person like all the others. Perhaps there was a reason for this that is lost on me, but it seems to me that it would be more empowering to children to hear "my body belongs to me" rather than "your body belongs to you." Still, the book is excellent and age-appropriate for preschoolers and I definitely would recommend it to parents of young children.

I bought this to teach my 4 and 2 year old about this important subject. The pictures are bright and non-threatening, and we have read it together several times. I like that it says that sometimes you don't want to be hugged or touched, and that's ok. The picture shows an adult woman, perhaps a grandma or aunt, arriving with her suitcase, and kneeling with her arms outstretched for a hug. The toddler looks bashful and is hanging back, out of reach. On the next page the two are sitting together happily enjoying a book, and the book says that sometimes you do want a hug, and that's ok. All of our relatives live very far away, and only visit about once a year, so there is always an adjustment period for the kids when they come to visit.

I got this book for my four year old recently and it was exactly what I was looking for. It explains that private parts are private and that they should never be touched by others accept during a checkup with the doctor or by parents while helping the child wash themselves. It also explains that children have a right to say no to a hug or other touching even from the people they love most, like their parents, and that it does not hurt their parents' feelings. I think it is important for children to be empowered in this way because it gives them the building blocks for setting boundaries and teaching them that they have complete control over their own body and no one, even adults, do not have a right to force them to comply with unwanted physical contact.

It's a good little starter book for little ones. You can use it from the beginning, no need to wait until the child is 4 or 5. The book does a great job of not offending parents. But parents need to support the message of the book, which is that the child's body does in fact belong to them. Kids are pressured to give up hugs and kisses long before preschool. Molesters often begin with "give me a kiss," or "how about a hug?" and parents will stand right there and urge their reluctant child to give up that hug or kiss because they don't want to hurt the other adult's feelings, or because they don't want their child to be rude. "Your Body Belongs to You" is a nice tool, read it often, leave it out for toddlers to look at on their own time. But the book alone won't empower kids. Parents can easily negate the book's message by not letting a child decide WHO they want touching them, anywhere.

I was hesitant to purchase this book at first, my 4.5 year old is a bit of a worrier and I didn't want to add any fears to her life. It is great, not scary at all and my daughter loves it. Recently there was an incident at preschool with a little inappropriate touching between kids. My daughter chose this book that night to read and then was able to tell me about what happened at school while reading the book. I am so thankful we had it and that she could use it to open up a dialogue on this sensitive subject. I will recommend a book like this to everyone with preschoolers because it helped us so much!