Everybelly

Written and illustrated by Thao Lam

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-764-3

40 pp.

Ages 3-6

April 2025 

 

When did we learn to judge people based on how they look? When do we learn that bellies are not seen as beautiful or that because someone is different that they don't belong? Young children are often accepting of everyone, until or unless they are taught otherwise. For this child, the people whom she sees at their local pool are a rich mosaic of professions, preferences, and looks, and she appreciates all of them.

From Everybelly, written and illustrated by Thao Lam

Maddie and her mama go down to the community pool to swim. Everybody is there, from Stan and Dan who bake cookies, Vibhuti who is in a band, and Mr. Mendoza who talks to his daughter in Argentina on Sundays. There are artists and shopkeepers, students and the elderly. There are those with a walker or a prosthetic leg, or using a pool lift to move them from their wheelchair into the water. Everyone is there and enjoying the pool in their own way. Some float on inflatables, while others swim, and some just relax poolside. They are different and they are beautiful.

From Everybelly, written and illustrated by Thao Lam

It's obvious that Maddie notes everything and everyone. Whether it be how bellies can be used as tables for phones or drinks, or that bellies can stretch bigger and bigger until they pop like her friend's mom's who's giving her another brother. (Uma wanted a dog.) Maddie knows that there are some who work hard to keep their bellies flat though she likes when her belly is full because her mother works hard to keep them fed. (Maddie thinks about all the foods she would fill her belly with, from jelly beans and gimbap, to gỏi cuốn, and fried chicken.) Every belly is different, supported by bodies that vary in their abilities, their challenges, their attributes, and their clothing and adornments that include scars and tattoos. With all these people, Maddie's world is richer and more colourful.

From Everybelly, written and illustrated by Thao Lam

Everybelly is a tribute to the diversity of people that make our lives fuller. By seeing all the people whom she knows and even those she doesn't, Maddie is learning empathy and an appreciation for a wide variety of cultures, bodies, preferences, and more. She may notice what they look like, such as the size of their bellies, and what they are doing, like breastfeeding, but she accepts them as part of her community. Thao Lam, who both wrote the text and illustrated Everybelly, gives us the words to help see the innocence and openness of Maddie's perspective–like her claim that Mr. Popov was keeping time with his broom on the ceiling as she tap-danced (!)–and her acceptance of her world as full and vibrant. For her, this is the norm, and she relishes it.

From Everybelly, written and illustrated by Thao Lam

But beyond Maddie's words and thoughts, Thao Lam has given the child and her community exuberance via the artwork. Thao Lam's cut-paper collage as seen in earlier books like One Giant Leap and The Paper Boat is even bolder and splashier, giving greater depth and texture to a setting that is basically a pool and poolside. But that setting is all the richer for the people that inhabit the space, even if only temporarily. There are so many different bathing suits, hats, towels, and sandals. They are colourful and patterned. Some like burkinis hide more than others and some leave it all out to be seen. I could spend hours poring through the book, finding details that intrigue, like the heart surgery scar on one gentleman, the pigeons eating spilled popcorn, or the imprint of sunglasses left on a sunburned belly. Thao Lam lets us see this community in all its glorious bodies and lives to appreciate a mother-daughter relationship and a communal appreciation for diversity.

The Bare Naked Book

Written by Kathy Stinson

Illustrated by Melissa Cho

Annick Press

978-1-77321-472-6

36 pp.

Ages 3-5

March 2021

We are all different and we are all the same, and this new edition of Kathy Stinson's classic body book reminds us of this. It celebrates how we are all similar in our body parts of hair, eyes, ears, noses, arms, teeth, tongues, bums, genitals, navels, toes and more and yet our differences in these similarities make us all naturally unique. The Bare Naked Book uncovers, i.e., lays bare (!), all the body facts to help little ones understand their bodies' bits and pieces and accept themselves as they are.

From The Bare Naked Book by Kathy Stinson, illus. by Melissa Cho

With a wonderful parade of bodies, Kathy Stinson starts her picture book with the declaration that...

Bodies, bodies!

Big and small,

short and tall,

young and old–

Every BODY is different!

Her sentiment is reflected in Melissa Cho's illustrations of people of all ages, colours, abilities and sizes who undoubtedly are as different on the inside as they are on the outside. (Aren't we all?)

From The Bare Naked Book by Kathy Stinson, illus. by Melissa Cho

Then Kathy Stinson looks at different body parts and how they may be different or what they can do, whether it be seeing or not seeing eyes that can cry or wink, or hands "Washing, holding, clapping, folding, dining, signing."

From The Bare Naked Book by Kathy Stinson, illus. by Melissa Cho

With each body part comes a question to help young children, primarily toddlers and preschoolers, locate their own for themselves. This reinforces their understanding and begins the discussion about how we are the same but different. There are additional lessons in Kathy Stinson's subtle statements like "Whatever you call whatever you have, your genitals belong to you" and a reminder after using your bum for a toilet break to "Remember please to wipe–and wash your hands!"

 

Kathy Stinson's original The Bare Naked Book (Annick Press, 1986), illustrated by Heather Collins, garnered much attention for its unabashed naming of human body parts but its honesty has won legions of fans. This new edition uses some of the original text but there is much that has been revised, providing a contemporary outlook of our world. Enhanced with illustrations by animator and designer Melissa Cho, The Bare Naked Book now reflects fully the diversity of our population. There are individuals of all shapes and colours and abilities, healthy and not so healthy, decorated and scarred, and all wonderfully uncommon and common. Melissa Cho makes our bodies a celebration of boldness, in colour and shape, and helps to ensure that every child will see themselves and those important to them in The Bare Naked Book. I was impressed by the diversity of physical traits and implied attributes of religion, culture, gender expression and relationships rarely seen in children's books but integral in our beautifully-varied world. These include a woman in a burka, several persons with amputated limbs including one with a blade prosthetic, someone with vitiligo, and another with mastectomy scars. It's as Kathy Stinson culminates her book...

Bodies, bodies

To love and to 

celebrate.

So many 

wonderful 

bodies!

From The Bare Naked Book by Kathy Stinson, illus. by Melissa Cho