Wow! This was one of my favorite books of the year so far. It had a great mix of well researched information and practical strategies for talking to your child. I'll be recommending this to everyone!

Yet again I am reading a book that I wish I had written! Sole-Smith has written a much -needed addition to the collection of fat liberation and anti diet-culture books that is sensitive yet challenges parents to have the hard conversations with all of their kids—whether they are fat or not. Through extensive research and reporting, she has given us a useful and moving book that I am preordering!

This is a phenomenal book. It strikes the perfect balance between offering thoroughly researched factual information and practical suggestions for parents and caregivers trying to relate to food in a different way with children.

Once you know diets don’t work and can have many detrimental impacts on both children and adults, it can feel like you’re adrift on an ice float, not sure if you’re handling things in accordance with your anti-diet culture values. Virginia’s book is the perfect companion for both divesting ourselves of diet culture and plotting a new course for our children and future generations. I’m so grateful to have this as a reference going forward.

This is the book I've been looking for! I love following Virginia Sole-Smith on Instagram, so when I saw that she had written a book about parenting from an anti-diet perspective, I knew I had to read it. It is very important to me to raise my kids in a way so they love and appreciate all bodies, and I've been able to find a lot of resources to help myself shift my mindset, but have been looking for resources and advices specifically for raising kids. Virginia Sole-Smith is incredibly knowledgeable, and this book includes all that knowledge, as well as specific stories from parents and children. I will be recommending this to all parents who want to be aware of diet culture's affect on their children as they grow up.

I'd like to buy about a thousand copies of this very thoroughly researched book and hand them out to anyone I meet that either works with children in any capacity, or has children, or knows someone who has children, or was ever a fat child themselves. Basically, I'd like to force everyone on the planet to read this book. As a fat adult still untangling the physical and emotional damage done to me by a parent obsessed with making my body smaller, it was hard not to cry when reading some of the parts about parents and children that Virginia Sole-Smith interviewed for this book -- especially when so many of those parents are my age, and had childhood experiences so much like my own, and who are working so hard to parent their children differently. This is a vital book not only for parents of children, adolescent healthcare specialists, and educators, but also for anyone having to reparent themselves after a fat childhood. Thank you, Virginia Sole-Smith. Thank you.

This book was much more scientific than I expected, however, I agree with what the author says. I also understood the science she gave. She also gave great examples.

Virginia Sole-Smith's "Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture" is a deep dive into the psychological and physical effects of diet culture on young people. Sole-Smith provides a comprehensive look at what each person in a child's life can do to improve or harm children's self-perception and sense of self worth. Sole-Smith provides interesting research to support, though I do think it was perhaps a bit too anecdotal at times for my liking. It was also quite repetitive; I think it could have been condensed by a few chapters. All together a good read, particularly if you work with young people.

This book is a deeply researched and often emotionally fraught treatise on how diet culture hurts all of us. The mix of science and narrative provides a solid base of knowledge while not overwhelming already concerned parents with too much jargon. After all, medical professionals using scare quotes to threaten anyone outside of a randomly assigned height-weight ratio with imminent demise is how we got into so much of this mess! Offering guides on how to avoid the common pitfalls of diet culture, including how it slips in the corners no matter how hard we try, this book provides realistic and accessible support to parents looking to break the cycle for our children.

Personal note: the chapter on dealing with extended family (specifically how to combat the boomers who comprise a significant portion of the grandparent population) was especially helpful. As someone raised in the standard issue white-boomer-fatphobia* of the 90s and early 00s, my spouse and I are working hard to deconstruct that behavior before it damages another generation. Many of my parenting and age cohorts will genuinely appreciate feeling seen on this issue.

Overall, I wish I could have every parent, teacher and healthcare provider read this book and implement a weight-neutral approach to raising healthy and happy children.

*And here I use “phobia” intentionally, the genuine terror of not performing feminine thinness correctly cannot be overstated as a issue in my formative years

What an important book to read as a parent. It’s a book I wish my mom read when I was young. The author has done years of research and puts a wonderful and easy to comprehend book together.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy for the purpose of this review.

Moving, illuminating, and meticulously researched. A must-read for any parent invested in fighting fatphobia.