Common Sense Media Review
By Barbara Saunders
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Ambitious exploration of the power of self-love.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
In THE BODY IS NOT AN APOLOGY, poet/workshop leader Sonya Renee Taylor expands on the ideas expressed in her poem of the same name. The line that introduced the book's title phrase went viral, along with a social media post of Taylor in a corset. She now curates an online community, promotes a movement, and operates a speaking and training business to empower people around accepting their bodies and others'. This book explains her concepts of "body shame" and "body terrorism" and their antidote, "radical self-love."
Is It Any Good?
The techniques that make Taylor's poetry intriguing don't all translate well to prose in The Body Is Not an Apology. The poem consists of a series of metaphors for broken or devalued things that the body is not. Here, this multitude of metaphors isn't as effective. For example, body-shame is both "a fog" and "an assassination." Trying to reframe thoughts about your body is both "trying on a new coat" and "free diving despite feeling fear."
In addition, the book's primary point of view is "we." While that's meant to be inclusive, it often feels presumptuous, imprecise, or both. Sometimes the "we" encompasses discrete groups of people, including both people who say things like "I don't see color" and people of color who feel erased by that language. And at other times, Taylor writes "we" when seemingly describing a personal experience of her own or a specific belief or experience that readers may or may not share. Still, the book's exercises and inquiries are interesting and can be useful for starting conversations about self-love and the acceptance of others.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how The Body Is Not an Apology defines radical self-love and how that concept differs from self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-acceptance.
What does the author mean by "apology"?
"The body is not an apology" began as a poem. What can a poem do that prose can't? What can prose do that a poem can't?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Body Awareness
- Topics : Activism
- Book type : Non-Fiction
- Publisher : Berrett-Koehler
- Publication date : July 17, 2020
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 14 - 18
- Number of pages : 137
- Available on : Paperback, Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Apple Books, Kindle
- Last updated : September 29, 2025
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