The Night Eater

Reach for this book when your child expresses insecurity about their appearance or begins comparing their body to others. Through a surreal, dreamlike fable, this story addresses the heavy pressure of body image standards and the dangerous desire to change oneself to fit an arbitrary ideal. The Night Eater is a magical creature who gobbles up the darkness to bring the dawn, but when he decides he is too fat and stops eating, the world is plunged into an endless, cold night. The story uses high-fantasy imagery to explain that our unique traits, even the ones we might feel self-conscious about, are often the very things that allow the world to function beautifully. It is a gentle but profound tool for normalizing conversations about self-worth and the physical toll of self-rejection, suitable for children ages 4 to 8 who are beginning to navigate social comparisons.