Life Lessons for Little Ones: You Are Enough (Jess Sanders, illus by Ocean Hughes, Affirm)
You are Enough is the first title in a new series, ‘Life Lessons for Little Ones’, that pairs the award-winning author of Love Your Body and Be Your Own Man, social worker Jess Sanders, and illustrator Ocean Hughes. For children from age three (and their grown-up), this is a reassuring, colourful guide to embracing self-love—reflecting children with various strengths, interests, abilities, social status and appearance. Conversing directly with the reader, the guide opens with the affirmation: ‘You are not too little, and you are not too much. You are, actually, exactly enough.’ Reminders of our worth and our humanness are scattered throughout, as we do make mistakes, we are not always first, or popular, or the best at a skill (without practice). We need to find our joys and remember, although we might forget, we are here, we are human, and we are exactly enough. The text facilitates thought and discussion, combined with uplifting illustrations of line and digital art in soft, warm natural tones of oranges, browns, greens and bright yellows. Buoyed with movement and life, You are Enough puts the breath in our hearts with its encouraging message of positive thinking and accepting every part of our being.
Romi Sharp is a picture book writer and digital marketer for children’s authors and publishers.
