Customer Reviews

What Do You Use To Help Your Body?: Maggie Explores the World of Disabilities

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What is the best way to help children understand disabilities and the assistive devices that people use to help them with their disabilities? Maggie and her mother are going on a walk, and Maggie asks, "What will I learn about on today's walk?" Here's what she finds out. Liz, who sells fresh flowers on the street, is hearing impaired and needs a hearing aid. David, who is a paraplegic, uses a wheelchair. Justin, who teaches a hip-hop dance class, has an artificial leg. Mrs. Ali, who writes poetry, needs a walker. Yan, who paints in the park, can't speak clearly and has a communication board. Dr. Sharma uses a cane to help him stay balanced. Todd is blind and has a trained guide dog. Katrina, who works as a crossing guard, needs an arm brace to keep the pain away. Maggie herself has an eye problem. What assistive device do you think she uses to strengthen her eyesight?
Parents want their children to be sensitive to people with disabilities. Furthermore, parents of children with disabilities want those children to have hope. Author Jewel Kats, who also wrote Reena's Bollywood Dream: A Story About Sexual Abuse and Cinderella's Magical Wheelchair, uses this charming fictional story to teach youngsters that disabilities occur in every culture to people from different backgrounds and that working with a disability is a very real possibility for many people. With the colorful, full-page illustrations by Richa Kinra, kids can satisfy their curiosity about various disability aids and how they work in a non-imposing manor. In addition, the book can be used as a motivational tool for youngsters who have disabilities. At the end, Maggie says, "Now, I can ask grownups about their `assistive devices' all the time." But when Momma says that not all people are comfortable talking about their disabilities, Maggie decides, "I'll be respectful like you taught me." What Do You Use to Help Your Body? is a wonderful resource to introduce preschoolers or young elementary age children to disabilities and accommodations.

Having worked with children and adults with disabilities, I am always interested in books that feature ways for children to learn more about other people's disabilities. This book proved to be one of those books. It allows for parents to open up a discussion on being different.

Maggie goes out on a walk with her mom, who has made it a special walk because she has arranged for Maggie to meet people who use different things to help their bodies. My children thought it was interesting because they learned about assistive devices, such as hearing aids, prosthesis, guide dogs and communication boards--something my children thought was cool. In addition to meeting people with various disabilities, they are from different cultures, too, adding realism to the story. We began to talk about people we knew who used assistive devices such as my children's Grandma who wears a hearing aid.

Children have a natural curiosity about devices but sometimes seeing a person very different from them may be scary. I remember working in a school with a boy who had an artificial leg he shlepped to school every day and put on so he could learn to walk without his wheelchair. The kids in his class avoided him simply because that leg freaked them out until the day we got the whole class to sit in a circle and listen to the boy explain all about his leg. Then suddenly it was the coolest thing! The kids now wanted to touch it and see how it worked.

I wish I had had this book to introduce those kids to assistive devices because I think it's a good resource for educators, especially those who have disabled kids integrated in their classrooms. It is simple to read, shows insight on the feelings of disabled people, and serves as an educational tool as well. Older kids would need a book with more depth but this one is ideal for the 4-8 year-old target audience.

What do you use to help your body?
By Jewel Kats
Illustrations by Richa Kinra

Exploring what makes some people different than others is a good way for kids to learn about disabilities and the way to adapt a lifestyle to accommodate those disabilities. Noticing a difference and learning how they deal with it is not the same thing. Lucky for Maggie that her momma has an idea about how to help her understand more. Walking down the street they encounter several individuals that have had something that makes them different. Something they have had to deal with, overcome or work around. Realizing that a hearing loss doesn't mean they can't hear anything, the loss of a leg, or the use of both legs does not keep them inside. Even finding ways to be understood if they can't talk make Maggie understand that her own eye patch was helpful to her.

The concept of this book is one that needs to be explored more (in my opinion) with kids today. While the main point of "What do you use to help your body?" is to understand how things can help, it does briefly touch on the sensitivities of the disabled. Even for such a young age group as this one is targeted for, there could have been more. I have had to explain disabilities of a relative to my kids several times in past. The best part of books like this is that it opens up the topic to discussion and hopefully reduces discrimination while promoting acceptance. This was a good introduction to special needs of people around us.

What Do You Use To Help Your Body? is a juvenile fiction dealing with social issues and special needs.

Maggie loves going for walks with her Momma, her Momma knows so much, that every walk is interesting. This time her Momma has arranged to have her meet different people in her neighbourhood who use assistive devices to help their bodies.

Each time Maggie meets another member of her community, she asks them what they use to help them out. Each member shares with Maggie their special need, such as Yan, who uses a communication board to speak or Todd, who uses a seeing eye dog.

At the end of their walk, Maggie and her Momma recap their outing and Maggie is reminded that you should never be rude or impolite about someone's special need. She agrees to always be respectful when inquiring about each individuals assistive devices!

I found this to be a very thoughtful and informing book for young people. I thought it was a well-explained and illustrated young reader. The pictures are done quite colourfully and with an airbrush quality to them that will be sure to engage any young reader.

I think this book is a great way to explain to young people the differences between those who require assistive devices and those who do not. It is explained in a gentle and approaching way that will sure to benefit those questions we often don't always have the answer to give.