From the bookshelf

Author Sheila Hamanaka looks beyond sugar and spice to see what little girls are made of. In I Look Like a Girl, there aren't any princesses. Girls run wild and romp, imagining themselves as animals: "I look like a girl, but I'm really a tiger, with a rumble, a roar, and a leap!"

While not overtly religious, Hamanaka's book has a positive message that daughters and their mothers will appreciate. With a lively lyrical text, this book affirms girls, encouraging them to use their imagination and dream. Hamanaka reinforces that girls have gifts, talents and spirit: "I just need the forest, the mesa, the jungle, the stars dreaming over the sea, to free what is wild, in the heart of a child--so I can be me, just me."

Hamanaka sets the book's tone with her lively artwork. The large illustrations have vivid colors.

I Look Like a Girl (Morrow Books, 1999; ISBN: 0688146252).