The award-winning children’s book I Like Myself! written by Karen Beaumont and illustrated by David Catrow, teaches the lesson of self love and respect; something that children of all ages should learn.

As stated above, the theme of this book is to like yourself, no matter what people say or think, including the bad things that you may think about yourself. This is a tragic thing to watch, especially in children, to watch them dislike a piece of themselves, or even all of them. Especially with the unrealistic images and thoughts that our society and social media is bombarding us with, it is important to tell our students that they are worthy and loved and good enough just the way they are. It is very difficult to talk to and teach a student who believes they are unintelligent. With that being said, I strongly recommend this book to children as young as kindergarten and pre-school, and even being reread to older students in third and fourth grade, though it might seem a bit silly to them.

Self love, self respect, and self care is essential to living a happy and successful life and this book explains this in a way for children to understand. The illustrations add to the joyful mood of this book, with a bright purple background and children jumping up and down, so filled with unconditional love for themselves.

I will certainly be placing this book in my future classroom library for my students to read as much as they’d like or need to. I believe this book is an essential piece to every elementary, especially early elementary, classroom.