Books like My Body! What I Say Goes!
By Jayneen Sanders
My Body! What I Say Goes! gets kids saying the line out loud, that strong, clear voice claiming their own body. It uses the real names for private parts and never once feels scary about it, just calm and matter-of-fact. If that direct, no-flinching approach is what you want more of, the books below take the same path.
Same author, same calm approach, but Some Secrets Should Never Be Kept by Jayneen Sanders zeroes in on the one skill of telling instead of keeping quiet.
Shorter and rhyming, so it lands softer than My Body Belongs to Me by Jill Starishevsky while teaching the exact same tell-a-safe-adult message.
A gentle guide explains that children get to decide who touches their body, even a loving relative asking for a hug, and that it's always right to tell if someone touches their private parts.
A girl with fluffy curls tries to escape the curious hands that keep reaching for her hair — on the street, under the sea, in the jungle, even in space — until she finally speaks up.
A friendly guide to the brain shows kids how mistakes and challenges actually help their brain grow stronger, introducing real parts like neurons and the prefrontal cortex along the way.
Grab Miles Is the Boss of His Body by Samantha Kurtzman-Counter for a kid who's fine with strangers but hates being tickled and hugged too hard by family.
Less about touch, more about being seen. If the seed builds the vocabulary, I Am Able to Shine by Korey Watari builds the voice that uses it.
Same author again, but Let's Talk About Body Boundaries, Consent and Respect by Jayneen Sanders zooms out from private parts to personal space in general, with everyday scenarios to talk through.
A princess who has no interest in marrying gives her royal suitors impossible tasks to scare them off, until one persistent prince manages to pass every test.
Try this one when your kid needs the confident voice from I Am!: Affirmations for Resilience by Bela Barbosa but in a board book they can grab themselves.
A child gets an idea — strange, exciting, and a little scary — and has to decide whether to protect it, ignore it, or give it room to grow.
An original poem celebrates girls and girlhood in all their forms, honoring how girls have shaped history while calling them to stand together and march boldly into the future.
