Chocolate Me!

I think there would have been a much better way to get the message out that one should be comfortable in their own skin and that dark skin is beautiful. The child in the book is teased because his skin is dark. The insults are repeated: "your skin is like dirt, etc." Not a good idea. I think the author has some colorism issues which are quite common in the Black community. We're taking this book out of the rotation. Everyone is not qualified to speak into our children. Just because they are a celebrity doesn't mean we need to give them the platform. Then the child wins everyone over with chocolate. Because his skin is like chocolate. No. His skin is like skin! Disappointing.

I thought it would be about a boy celebrating his blackness. But instead he feels inferior to his white friends and they make fun of his color.

This book has a cute title and colorful pages, but it is not appropriate for certain younger audiences. As an African-American woman, I found the language to be too harsh for reading aloud at an ethnically diverse library storytime. However, at home, my 6-year old daughter enjoyed the book because issues of skin color and hair texture have already come up.

I bought the book because of the title and cute cover. When I brought it home and read it to my daughter, she said that she wanted me to read it for storytime at the library. She REALLY felt proud and excited and said, "I'm chocolate too!" (although she's more like chocolate with a lot of cream--or more like mocha) However, I think that the catchy title and repetitive phrase, "chocolate me," brown-skinned face and the warm, feel-good ending pulled her in more than the beginning of the story.

When it came to reading the book aloud, although we are taught not to edit, I had to so that it wouldn't be so shocking. This is clearly a book written by a grown man who had childhood issues with his color. However, it is not appropriate for all children. Some kids haven't been exposed to this horrific reality of skin color discrimination yet. Once you talk about it, they become conscious of it. If my daughter hadn't started talking about these issues, I would never bring it up. I would want to shield her from this as long as possible.

The parts in there comparing his skin color to dirt and assessing his wide nose, I just couldn't read out loud to an audience of children ages 0-8. This book is targeting children who don't even need to think about those topics at their age. When my daughter and I were at home, the book was just okay, but I still felt guilty about bringing negative attention to physical characteristics that she hasn't yet noticed. When I got to the library I felt even more uncomfortable and sped through the book and didn't linger on the horrible beginning. I hope I didn't turn off the parents by reading this book to their children. In comparison to the other books I read, the kids sat in complete silence with a glazed yet bewildered look on their faces.

I'm glad the libraries don't give in to hip hop hype of popular culture and celebrity. While the trendiness of urban media has attracted thousands of jockers and brown nosers, Facebook reviews, likes and retweets will make authentic and honest critiques look like "hating." I quietly complained and thought about writing a review on the illustrator's FB page, but I came across this website and thought that this was a better arena. In this case, I erroneously judged a book by the cover.

While this is the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, you still need to edit the content when teaching this subject to certain age groups. Everything is not appropriate to share with children of a certain age. The story is probably based on real events that happened when he was a young boy, but that still doesn't make the language and actions of these children appropriate to share in a picture book targeting toddlers to first graders. This book could just be the victim of bad illustrating. Perhaps the childish simplistic artistic style of the illustrations are just incompatible with the story content and harsh language.

What is ironic about the author is that he had this childhood issue with skin color and has now become a rich sex symbol because of it, but is rumored to have only exclusively dated light-skinned or white women--and "exclusively" is the key term. You love your skin, color, and nose, yet you repeatedly find beauty in only women who have antithetical physical characteristics? The same skin color discrimination he faced as a child, he is criticized as to have perpetuated as an adult. The only dark chocolate women that have garnered national attention for being the lead role in a feature film played the roles of a maid (Hattie McDaniels) and a slave (Lupita Nyong'o), neither of which are revered as sexy, beautiful or physically apealing. So his narcissistic rant and retelling of a story of being taunted by some bad little white kid bullies (by the way, he didn't have any black friends who were his color?) is just odd, to say the least.

In essence, this is a self-esteem book for dark-skinned black males and is a testament to what fame and money can do for you without training or preparation or skills (e.g. write a book, brand the character, create a website, get t-shirts made, get rave reviews by fans).

This book has a cute title and colorful pages, but it is not appropriate for certain younger audiences. As an African-American woman, I found the language to be too harsh for reading aloud at an ethnically diverse library storytime. However, at home, my 6-year old daughter enjoyed the book because issues of skin color and hair texture have already come up.

I bought the book because of the title and cute cover. When I brought it home and read it to my daughter, she said that she wanted me to read it for storytime at the library. She REALLY felt proud and excited and said, "I'm chocolate too!" (although she's more like chocolate with a lot of cream--or more like mocha) However, I think that the catchy title and repetitive phrase, "chocolate me," brown-skinned face and the warm, feel-good ending pulled her in more than the beginning of the story.

When it came to reading the book aloud, although we are taught not to edit, I had to so that it wouldn't be so shocking. This is clearly a book written by a grown man who had childhood issues with his color. However, it is not appropriate for all children. Some kids haven't been exposed to this horrific reality of skin color discrimination yet. Once you talk about it, they become conscious of it. If my daughter hadn't started talking about these issues, I would never bring it up. I would want to shield her from this as long as possible.

The parts in there comparing his skin color to dirt and assessing his wide nose, I just couldn't read out loud to an audience of children ages 0-8. This book is targeting children who don't even need to think about those topics at their age. When my daughter and I were at home, the book was just okay, but I still felt guilty about bringing negative attention to physical characteristics that she hasn't yet noticed. When I got to the library I felt even more uncomfortable and sped through the book and didn't linger on the horrible beginning. I hope I didn't turn off the parents by reading this book to their children. In comparison to the other books I read, the kids sat in complete silence with a glazed yet bewildered look on their faces.

I'm glad the libraries don't give in to hip hop hype of popular culture and celebrity. While the trendiness of urban media has attracted thousands of jockers and brown nosers, Facebook reviews, likes and retweets will make authentic and honest critiques look like "hating." I quietly complained and thought about writing a review on the illustrator's FB page, but I came across this website and thought that this was a better arena. In this case, I erroneously judged a book by the cover.

While this is the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, you still need to edit the content when teaching this subject to certain age groups. Everything is not appropriate to share with children of a certain age. The story is probably based on real events that happened when he was a young boy, but that still doesn't make the language and actions of these children appropriate to share in a picture book targeting toddlers to first graders. This book could just be the victim of bad illustrating. Perhaps the childish simplistic artistic style of the illustrations are just incompatible with the story content and harsh language.

What is ironic about the author is that he had this childhood issue with skin color and has now become a rich sex symbol because of it, but is rumored to have only exclusively dated light-skinned or white women--and "exclusively" is the key term. You love your skin, color, and nose, yet you repeatedly find beauty in only women who have antithetical physical characteristics? The same skin color discrimination he faced as a child, he is criticized as to have perpetuated as an adult. The only dark chocolate women that have garnered national attention for being the lead role in a feature film played the roles of a maid (Hattie McDaniels) and a slave (Lupita Nyong'o), neither of which are revered as sexy, beautiful or physically apealing. So his narcissistic rant and retelling of a story of being taunted by some bad little white kid bullies (by the way, he didn't have any black friends who were his color?) is just odd, to say the least.

In essence, this is a self-esteem book for dark-skinned black males and is a testament to what fame and money can do for you without training or preparation or skills (e.g. write a book, brand the character, create a website, get t-shirts made, get rave reviews by fans).

This is truly a book for all families. A great read-aloud, with a wonderful message that kids can relate to (adults too). The art is gorgeous; inspired. Made my family smile, and talk about the story, the main character. So relevant for what kids are dealing with when they feel left out or different.

Very Disapointed! I had to stop reading my daughter this book because I was embarrassed by the prejudice innuendo's. There is nothing wrong with Loving your Heritage and discussing diversity. However, the author should have remembered the age of his audience. I wouldn't recommend this book at all.

Absolutely horrible. If I didn't have any insecurities about myself after reading this book I did.

I agree with many of the other reviewers that this book is not empowering at all. I think that Mr. Diggs' intent was to empower black children with dark skin, but I found the language too negative and too harsh and I actually felt uncomfortable reading the words. I could see this book giving a child a complex when that complex never existed. I see it on lists of the most empowering books to read black children and I actually feel like vomiting. Please do not buy this book.

I have not purchased this book, nor do I intend to. In fact, I find it deplorable that the same man that has gone on record and said that he does not like black women,is now appealing to them to buy this book for their children to teach them 'Self-Love'. Please. When Diggs learns exhibit this for himself, then I MIGHT consider taking a morsel or two from his Food for Thought platter. Until then, I don't give my money to hypocrites, nor do I let their rhetoric near my youth.

I looked forward to ordering this book before it was even released. I loved the title, and after watching an interview with Taye Diggs on Oprah, I was really excited to read this to my son. Unfortunately, the book is a better fit for older children. It does celebrate dark skin (which I love!), but the way it is presented requires some mature ears. This is merely my opinion, but I will probably wait a couple years before actually reading this book aloud. The illustrations are beautiful, though, and the content is definitely relevant.