Maggie Goes On A Diet, by Paul M. Kramer, is about an overweight 14-year-old girl who goes on a diet, becomes involved in sports and loses weight. Nothing wrong with that, or so it seems. I am sure Mr. Kramer had good intentions. Statistics show approximately 25% of Canadian children are obese. This is a major health concern which needs to be addressed.
The issue at hand, however, is whether the subject matter of this book is suitable for its target audience. Picture books are intended for children ten-years-old and younger. Children ten and under generally have no control over what they eat. They don’t buy their own food, make their own meals, pack their own snacks or choose what restaurants to frequent. They don’t
arrange their own sports activities. These are the parents’ responsibility. Children in this age range should not be concerned with diet or body image.
Mr. Kramer should have geared a book about childhood obesity to parents, encouraging them to model healthy eating habits, offer healthy foods, limit fatty snacks and provide lots of opportunities for their children to engage in physical activity. This course of action would lead to healthy, happy children who maintain a weight natural for their body type.
Maggie Goes On A Diet implies that you need to be thin to be happy and popular. The illustrations show all the children who are “normal” as skinny. Children come in all shapes and sizes, even when they are not overweight.
I watched the CTV news video regarding Maggie Goes On A Diet : http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20110823/maggie-goes-on-a-diet-110823/ A girl of about ten-years-old was telling a reporter that she feels fat. She wanted to read the book so it would change her life. I wanted to cry. This is frightening. This little girl is not fat. She looks like a normal ten-year-old; she just doesn’t have a “fashionable” body type. If her parent buys her the book she will see all these thin-looking children depicted as “normal” and aspire to that body image. She’ll never get there. It’s not her body type; not at this stage in her life. Will she develop an eating disorder?
The media constantly bombards children with the message that to be beautiful, happy and popular you must be slim. Children are subjected to this message through television shows, movies, advertising and magazines. (Actresses and models are often painfully thin.) This “thin-is-in” message does not need to be reinforced in a children’s book.
The Rose and the Lily (2011) refutes the message that how one looks is the most important aspect of a person. I feel that, since Maggie Goes On A Diet is about to become available to children, it’s important that The Rose and the Lily, a story that teaches children that character is more important than beauty and affects the way you are perceived, comes into the public eye as well. The Rose and the Lily is a humorous fairy tale in which suitors flock to marry beautiful Princess Rose solely because of her good looks. Prince Sterling is just like the other men vying for the pompous princess’s hand in marriage; he wants her for her beauty. However, the prince soon finds out that the gorgeous princess is vain, spoiled and rude. Lily is a commoner the prince meets on his way back to the prickly princess. Lily is homely but she has a heart of gold. The prince’s perception of both women changes as the story progresses. Lily’s inner beauty comes shining through and she becomes more beautiful in the eyes of the prince. Conversely, the princess’s prickly personality causes the prince to see her as less and less attractive. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Reviews of this book can be found on: http://www.susanross.ca .
Children need to be appreciated for who they are, not how they look. One never knows what is hidden behind a plain exterior: a special talent, a brilliant mind, a talented artist, a hero, or someone who can make you laugh. Susan Boyle is a prime example. Watch the video of her first performance: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk Everyone giggles and rolls their eyes when she walks on stage. Why? Because she’s frumpy. They cannot accept that someone that is not attractive might have something special to offer the audience. Surprise! (I tear up every time I watch that video. Not so much because of her magnificent voice, but because she rises above the derision she initially encounters.) Why are we so shallow that we are inclined to believe that if a person does not reflect society’s image of beauty, they have no worth? Watch the video of the song “Rusted From the Rain” by Billy Talent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAOnUF8t20w . A grubby, apparently homeless “bum” walks around gathering trash. He turns out to be a creative genius.
No one should feel that they need to conform to society’s image of beauty to be valued and worthy of respect, especially not children. (Standards of beauty are subjective at best. Marilyn Monroe would have been considered fat by today’s criteria.)
Please, please, please do not give Maggie Goes on a Diet to a child you feel is overweight. I can’t think of anything more detrimental to a child’s self-esteem than to receive a book as a message that he/she is fat. Boost your child’s self-esteem, don’t
destroy it. Every child is special.
