Chocolate Me!

The protagonist of this debut picture-book from actor Taye Diggs finds himself the object of ridicule and bullying because of the dark brown color of his skin. The things his peers say - comparing his skin to dirt, commenting on the texture of his hair, and the width of his nose - are very distressing, and begin to make him doubt his self worth. Fortunately his mother is there to give him a better way of looking at the matter: he has skin like chocolate, and to her he is every bit as sweet.

Although fully in agreement with the goal here, to reinforce positive self image in darker-skinned children, especially those who have experienced racist bullying or comments, I have to confess that I didn't find Chocolate Me! particularly show more well-written, or that textually engaging. I tend to avoid children's books penned by celebrities, but we had this one at work, and I found the cover artwork by Shane W. Evans quite appealing. All in all, I would say that this is one that might be helpful for some children, if they are experiencing harassment similar to the main character, but I would understand perfectly if parents decided that its tone was too harsh for their children, especially if they have not yet had the misfortune to become aware of these issues. show less

Our main character in this story wants to be like his friends; he hates being dark skinned and having poofy hair and having a wide nose and having an unusual name and bright white teeth. His mom compares his hair to fudge frosting and his hair to cotton candy and the boy starts to take pride in his beautiful features. He grows to love being Chocolate Me!

“And then my moms said,
‘Wait one minute, my sweet! Can’t you see?
You have skin like velvet fudge frosting mixed in a bowl.
(You can lick the spoon.)
Cotton candy hair soft to the touch of my fingertips or braided like rows of corn with a twist.
And your smile,’ she says, ‘makes me so happy I could cry.
No amount of money could buy how it makes me feel.
For real!
It’s perfect.’”

This story is about a young African-American boy is teased for having really curly hair, dark skin, etc., but boys who are white. The boys brought his self-esteem down, and made him feel belittled. After coming home and talking to his mom, his mother made him realize how amazing he was.
I really liked the descriptive words that Diggs used, such as "skin like velvet fudge frosting" or "cotton candy hair soft to the touch". After all the negative comments and bullying the three boys did, those descriptive and positive words really uplifted this story. Overall, this is an amazing book about embracing who you are.

This book wants readers to understand that it is okay to embrace your color and your features. The little boy in the book does not like anything about himself, not even his name. He wants to be like, and look like the other kids on his block. When his mom finally comes to him and compares his skin to chocolate fudge, everything goes out the window and he is happy with the skin he is in. When his confidence grew he know longer wanted to be like anyone except for himself. It's important for kids to embrace the skin they are in and not change for anyone.

A good tool for broaching discussion about diversity and self-esteem with children, although I wish the ending was more decisive about his new self-acceptance.

I am torn on this book. I like this book because I feel like it is a great book for African American children who are being teased about things like the color of their skin and the size of their nose or hair. The book does teach children that everyone is different and that they should love themselves and others no matter what.

On the other hand, I think that this book could be considered racist by some people. The fact that the main character is called a "chocolate" boy could be taken out of context. As mentioned before this book is good for children that are experiencing bullying based on what they look like, but if a child is not facing that particular situation, or children who do not feel the way that the main character feels, this show more story could cause problems, by putting the idea in children's heads that people are different because of their skin color.

Overall, I did like this book because African American children are asked these questions at some point in their lives and this could be a valuable read for them show less

Chocolate Me delves into the life of a little boy who is criticized for his appearance. He learns to accept himself with his mother's assistance. This book teaches children of all walks of life to love the skin that they're in and to understand that everyone's different.