Body Image and Self Perception Month

Body Image and Self Perception Month (BI&SP) is a month-long event hosted by Jo at Once Upon a Bookcase during the month of July. The point of the month is to focus on how issues like eating disorders, obesity, being overweight, disabilities, disfigurement, and low self-esteem are represented in YA fiction. The month will include several bloggers reading and reviewing books, authors giving interviews and writing guest posts, and other special posts about the topics.

When I heard about this month, I was very excited to get involved. I think that there are a lot of issues that teenagers (and adults) have to deal with and focusing on the problems and discussing them is so much better than ignoring them. I’ll be reading and reviewing several books for BISP month, I’ll have a few guest posts from authors, an interview with an author, and I’m looking into a feature on body image in the media.

My plan is to read and review these books:
Shark Girl by Kelly L. Bingham
Out of the Fire by Deborah Froese
Beastly by Alex Flinn
Jane in Bloom by Deborah A. Lytton
Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have: a novel by Allen Zadoff
Second Star to the Right by Deborah Hautzig
Skinny by Ibi Kaslik
Jumping to Confusions by Liz Rettig
Model: a memoir by Cheryl Diamond
Every Crooked Pot by Renee Rose

*short and snappy*
who: Jo at Once Upon a Bookcase is the sponsor – for other bloggers and authors who are participating, check here
what: a month-long event that will include
* reviews of novels that talk about self-esteem, self confidence, eating disorders, obesity, physical disabilities, disfigurement, (and more)
* discussions of the same topics
* author interviews and guest posts
when: the whole month of July
where: Once Upon a Bookcase and other sites listed here
why: Jo says, “There are too many teens out there that have such low self-esteem and self-confidence, and the media - as well as bullies and peer pressure - don't help.”
And I agree. Rather than ignore the many issues that teenagers (and adults) have to deal with in terms of body image today, we'll talk about them openly.
miscellaneous: If you would like to participate in BISP month, visit Once Upon a Bookcase for more details.