It’s time to bare it all about bodies!
We all experience the world in a body, but we don’t usually take the time to explore what it really means to have and live within one. Just as every person has a unique personality, every person has a unique body, and every body tells its own story.
In Body Talk, thirty-seven writers, models, actors, musicians, and artists share essays, lists, comics, and illustrations—about everything from size and shape to scoliosis, from eating disorders to cancer, from sexuality and gender identity to the use of makeup as armor. Together, they contribute a broad variety of perspectives on what it’s like to live in their particular, unique bodies—and how their bodies have helped to inform who they are and how they move through the world.
Come on in, turn the pages, and join the celebration of our unique, diverse, miraculous, beautiful bodies!
Releases August 18, 2020.
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School Library Journal, Starred Review
Gr 7 Up–Jensen has collected personal narratives for a remarkable anthology that tackles various aspects of anatomy. Authors, athletes, celebrities, and other public figures share their experiences of negative self-image and how they came to terms with these feelings. Topics include visible “issues” (being overweight, having noticeable chin hairs, having scoliosis) and invisible ones (dealing with partial blindness, being Deaf, or having Crohn’s disease). These individuals are not afraid to share what they have gone through and how they achieved self-acceptance. As with her previous anthologies, Jensen expertly organizes these stories into chapters on a common theme. The experiences are relayed with equal parts honesty and knowledge. Throughout the book, readers can find “Body Talk FAQs” that fit the section in which they are located. The further reading guide contains nonfiction titles and fictional works where characters contend with those topics. Teens may not find a touchstone in every story but are likely to have experienced insecurity about one or more of the subjects.
Although we often take them for granted, our bodies—no matter what they look like, how we feel about them, or how others feel about them—are inherently political.
This anthology edited by Jensen contains a series of personal essays describing experiences that defined the authors’ relationships with their bodies. Avid young adult readers will recognize popular authors like I.W. Gregorio, who, in her capacity as a urologist, answers frequently asked questions about penises; Anna-Marie McLemore, who writes about struggling to get a diagnosis for their severe dysmenorrhea; Eric Smith, who discusses puberty and facial hair; and Alex Gino and Julie Murphy, who reflect on their evolving relationships with fatness. The book also includes narratives from celebrities like gold-medal–winning gymnast Aly Raisman, model Tyra Banks, musician and free-bleeding marathon runner Kiran/Madame Gandhi, and trans rights activist Gavin Grimm. Each author fully and impressively engages with their intersecting identities and the ways in which these intersections affect the way their bodies are treated by society. Taken together with short FAQ sections that address everything from the difference between body positivity and fat acceptance to respectful terms to use when discussing disability, the anthology is a comprehensive, compulsively readable guide to growing into our bodies in a politically fraught world.
A thoughtful, well-rounded anthology featuring diverse voices speaking out on essential topics. (further reading, contributor bios) (Nonfiction. 14-18)