Title: Why Can’t That Be Me?
Author: Dr. Robert Roper
Genre: Juvenile Fiction/Emotions & Feelings
Age category: 3 – 8 years
Released: December 10, 2023
ASIN: B0CP6G94SN
From the Back cover:
“Instilling values of self-worth in children in today’s society is often quite challenging.”
This is a Christian picture book which introduces the concept of self-acceptance through the story of a caterpillar and a butterfly (sisters). It also gently introduces the topic of individual uniqueness.
Much like the metamorphosis observed in caterpillars, I watched my younger daughter Gianna, and older, Elliana, navigate life as sisters. This book was inspired by and dedicated to them.
Screenshot from Kindle Version.
My Thoughts
This picture book touched my heart as I read it because we have all felt and thought of ourselves as unattractive, unseen, unheard or overlooked. We’ve felt that the scales are not balanced in our favor, and we figured that the fault must be ours.
That is the case for Lila, who is still a caterpillar and compares herself to her older sister, Mia. She is saddened by all the differences between herself and Mia and can’t seem to find anything good about herself. She dislikes the Lila she sees in the mirror.
The beautiful part comes when she gives up, spins her cocoon, and falls asleep. When she awakens, there has been such a change she does not recognize the person in the mirror. Finally she realizes that she is the beautiful vision reflected in the mirror.
The author makes Lilas’s colors beautiful yet different from Mia’s. This demonstrates that we don’t have to be a mirror image of someone else to be beautiful. Our beauty is in being unique because God created us that way.
What I Liked
- The artwork is adorable
- The delicate and not overdone rhyming of the story
- That the topic of self-esteem is addressed with the life-cycle of a butterfly
- That the book teaches on two levels
- The science of the butterfly
- The lesson that we are all uniquely created by God
- The questions at the end of the book that helps the parent know if the child understood the concept
What I Would Have Liked
- As a Christian picture book I would have liked more references to God.
My Recommendation
I highly recommend this book to parents or teachers who are seeking a way to work on the self-image of their child or students.
I received a free copy of Why Can’t That Be Me? Via BookSirens and purchased a copy of the Kindle Version. I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Dr. Robert Roper has been a physician for almost 16 years, a husband and a father of one child. The combination of his love for family, poetry, and the birth of his inquisitive daughters, Elliana and Gianna inspired the words etched within.
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