Maggie Goes on a Diet

So I was flipping through a copy of People at the gym today, the one with Kim Kardashian on the cover (over her), when I came across a review of the following book: Maggie Goes on a Diet by Paul Kramer. It targets children, and it's about a 14 year-old girl who is overweight. She gets made fun of at school, she goes on a diet, she loses weight...and gets popular. I was all for this book until I came to the "lose weight, get popular" message. Is this really a message we need to be sending to our children? That you can only be "popular" if you look a certain way? Shouldn't we be teaching our children that it's not about looks, but that it is about living healthy and eating the right things and forgoing the video games for a little physical activity? Check the following:

"...chubby wubby..." 

 

Someone taught that girl to say that, whether or not they realize it. My child is, well...currently unborn and too young to really understand the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle. But as it grows older and comes in contact with this topic, I will teach it to the best of my abilities to make healthy decisions. That healthy is good and fun. And that we shouldn't, under any circumstances, make fun of or judge others because of their own battles with health and well being. 

It's not about how we look. It's not about changing ourselves to be more popular, nor is it about excluding people who don't look or act like us. In an age of bullying, this is evermore important.

Especially when it comes to our children.

 

Needless to say, this is one book that won't be on my kid's bookshelf...although, it could be a very good way to educate them in a way that I don't think this book truly intended: It's important to make healthy decisions, to live healthy which also means to eat healthy, but we do these things not for others...not to be popular...not to be "skinny"...but to simply be healthy. Because only when we're healthy can we truly live a great and wonderful life. And we call come in different packages, so one person's healthy might be different than another person's.

 

Question: Would you read this book to your child?