I Like Me

I Like Me! Written and Illustrated by Nancy Carlson

Picture book for the beginning reader, ages 4-7

4 out of 5 stars

A lovely young pig describes everything about herself and how she likes each of her characteristics, especially when nobody is around to play with her.

            This picture book is wonderful for young readers in so many ways. First, this book is simply written, which will help the young student is just learning how to read. Second, the pictures are fun and simple, but also complement the text on the page nicely, which aids the new reader in reading based on the context of the picture. Next, this story shows good habits like brushing teeth, eating healthy foods, and keeping clean. Lastly, this book teaches a great lesson on identity and how important it is to love yourself. This is an extremely important lesson for children, especially today’s generation of children, to learn. Stereotypes, the media, and even parents are pushing children to become something great, to become something that they are not. This is not okay. This book teaches children to love themselves for who they are and that they should not let anything or anyone bring them down!

            Due to the simplicity of the story and the early age level of the book, I would only use this book if I were teaching in the primary grade levels. If this does happen, then this story will be definitely something that I implement into my classroom. I would add this book to my own personal library which would be available to my students to read during free read time, or to take home and read as well. More importantly, I would take I Like Me and implement into the social studies curriculum, if appropriate, when talking about identity. As described above, this story teaches a valuable lesson about the importance of knowing who you are as a person and liking that person. The way I would implement this story would be to read the book to the class, then have my students do an activity where they describe their own characteristics and attributes and then write or draw a picture about why they like them. This activity could be taken a step further, where the students in the class would then complement each other on their attributes. Especially in these younger grades, a good lesson on identity is important.

Nancy Carlson's website is fun and interactive, check it out for more informtaion about her and her books!