100 First Words for Little Gym Rats

100 First Words

by Andrea Veenker, Patrick Gray (Illustrator)

There’s protein powder in the pantry and a yoga mat in the living room. We meal prep and take #flexFriday selfies. We're living the fit life and proud of it! But is there nothing for baby?  Introducing 100 First Words for Little Gym Rats , a health and fitness primer for kids learning their first words! Forget apple and dog . Little gym rats are ready to move from ABCs to BCAAs and other important exercise-related words like hypertrophy , deadlift , and Arnold . Packed with hilarious illustrations and 100 words every active baby should know (before any others, of course), 100 First Words for Little Gym Rats  is the perfect board book for fit families everywhere. The best way to introduce your child to what Mommy or Daddy does at the gym and to teach the importance of health and fitness from the very beginning!

Genres: Picture Books

20 pages, Board Book

Published January 19, 2021

Reviews

[Kailey (Luminous Libro) · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the mommies and daddies who love the gym, now you can teach your toddler about getting healthy and fit! Each page of this board book has four or five words and illustrations about the gym. It covers exercise equipment, types of squats and crunches, the names of major muscles, and even nutrition and supplements.

I think this is such a fun way to introduce little kids to the importance of having a strong and healthy body! The illustrations are bright and colorful, drawing in your attention. Some of the characters in the illustrations have a funny expression, making it enjoyable and fun to read.

However, some of the words included seemed odd to me. For instance, there are several famous bodybuilders or fitness instructors named like Jane Fonda, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Rock, and Richard Simmons, and a whole bunch of other people that I didn't recognize. I could have done without them in there. I guess they were included for inspiration or something?

And "spray tanning" is included in the book. I don't know what that has to do with being fit and healthy. Awkward.
And some things would just be way over a little kid's head. Like "micronutrients" and "BCAAs". And why would a kid need to know about "protein powder"? What little kid is going to take protein powder? Weird.
Maybe I'm just being picky.

But I still think it's a cute book with some great introductions to fitness and strength training. I loved the parts about yoga and swimming and rock climbing, in addition to the weight lifting and cardio.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.

[Marta · Rating 1 out of 5]

Promoting Toxic Gym Culture - Very Problematic
As a mama who loves Olympic lifting I was excited to read this book to my daughter. I was disappointed to see words and images promoting the very type of toxic gym culture I work hard to avoid. All of the images of heavy lifting are of men and almost all of the cardio images are women. The most problematic parts, to me, are the two men arm wrestling with the caption "gym bros", the woman on the treadmill with the caption "gym bunny", and the very muscular man sledgehammering a tire while a much leaner man walks by, visibly uncomfortable, with the caption "gymtimidation". If this book was made for adults I might find it slightly humorous. But as a children's board book, this is not the type of stuff I want to be glorifying for my daughter. We've worked hard to make gyms, weight lifting in particular, more accessible and welcoming for all people, especially women. This book could have been great but instead is firmly in the cringe category for me.

[Mehmet Kır · Rating 4 out of 5]

the illustrations in the book are very good.