Belinda's best friend Daniel, and Daniel's two mothers, help her to accept her body shape.

When Belinda Buttercup becomes trapped in a water lily on the Blossom Land Stream, the swift-moving current carries her away. Belinda’s family and friends hurry to save the tiny Blossom child before she reaches the Loud Waters, where crashing waves destroy anything in their path. Even more dangerous are the Big People, who are destroying the Blossom Land Forest and building huge dens to live in. The little people of Blossom Land and their forest friends vow to do whatever it takes to stop the Big People from destroying their beloved home─but first, they must save Belinda.

A compelling and empowering book, written to help children cope with size-discrimination, raise their self-esteem, and learn to accept themselves and others as they are.Though written primarily for ages 5-12, this book can be enjoyed by all ages, imparting valuable lessons in an all too fat-phobic society.Includes: "Resource Guide for Big Kids" at the end, with dozens of sources of plus-size related clothing, books, magazines, organizations, and more. There are even Coloring Pages for children!

Canadian public schools have long been entrusted with the mandate of socializing children. Yet this duty can rest uneasily alongside religious diversity questions. Grounding its analysis in three seminal Supreme Court cases involving religion in schools, Religious Diversity in Canadian Public Schools reveals legal processes that are unduly linear, compressing multidimensional conversations into an oppositional format and stripping away the voices of children themselves. Dia Dabby contends that schools are in fact microsystems worthy of their own consideration, and with the power to construct their own rules and relationships. This compelling work connects many of the themes that have animated public discourse since multiculturalism was officially enacted in Canada. Situating its analysis in relation to concepts of nation, education, and diversity, Religious Diversity in Canadian Public Schools encourages a deeper conversation about how religion is mediated through public schools and invites a critical reassessment of the role of law in education.

In The Transformative Potential of LGBTQ+ Children’s Picture Books, Jennifer Miller identifies an archive of over 150 English-language children’s picture books that explicitly represent LGBTQ+ identities, expressions, and issues. This archive is then analyzed to explore the evolution of LGBTQ+ characters and content from the 1970s to the present. Miller describes dominant tropes that emerge in the field to analyze historical shifts in representational practices, which she suggests parallel larger sociocultural shifts in the visibility of LGBTQ+ identities. Additionally, Miller considers material constraints and possibilities affecting the production, distribution, and consumption of LGBTQ+ children’s picture books from the 1970s to the present. This foundational work defines the field of LGBTQ+ children’s picture books thoroughly, yet accessibly. In addition to laying the groundwork for further research, The Transformative Potential of LGBTQ+ Children’s Picture Books presents a reading lens, critical optimism, used to analyze the transformative potential of LGBTQ+ children’s picture books. Many texts remain attached to heteronormative family forms and raced and classed models of success. However, by considering what these books put into the world, as well as problematic aspects of the world reproduced within them, Miller argues that LGBTQ+ children’s picture books are an essential world-making project and seek to usher in a transformed world as well as a significant historical archive that reflects material and representational shifts in dominant and subcultural understandings of gender and sexuality.

With a foreword by Nancy Garden, the highly acclaimed author of Young Adult Fiction, this thoughtfully written annotated bibliography reviews picture books, young adult fiction, short stories nonfiction works and biographies for young readers. Entries specify the age level appropriateness of each work as well as literary awards received for the work. Each annotation is followed by a list of topics in the work which the user will find cross-referenced in the topic index. With additional recommendations on books for librarians, educators and parents, and a set of suggested guidelines for evaluating books, this user-friendly guide is valuable as both a reader resource and as collection development tool. The guide also provides author profiles of selected writers who have made outstanding contributions to this field of literature. This information is complemented by inspiring author quotes, photographs, and lists of their books categorized by age level appropriateness. The up-to-date information on helpful resources for teens and their families found here along with a select bibliography and additional indices make this comprehensive guide a powerful and important reference tool for helping young gay and lesbian readers.