I recognize that as parents one of the last things we ever want to think about when it comes to our children is someone touching them inappropriately, or worse. As a former counselor in a program for children and teen sexual abuse survivors, I remember the horror well. Jill Starishevsky, a mother and former prosecutor for victims of child abuse and sex crimes has published a children’s book, “My Body Belongs to Me” that allows us parents to have an age-appropriate conversation with our children about their bodies, boundaries and what to do when someone violates them (heaven forbid) – tell! In my experience, this is one of those subjects that we don’t want to think about, which means we often avoid talking about it and giving our children a clear message that this is wrong and should not be kept a secret. If ever there was a must-have book for our children, this would seem to be it. It is written for youngsters ages 3-10.
Pattie Fitzgerald, founder of Safely Ever After, a safety program for parents and kids, proclaims, “I have been teaching child safety classes for nearly ten years, and this is the first children’s book I’ve seen that really addresses the issues in a way that kids can understand and that doesn’t seem scary or heavy-handed.”