Freckleface Strawberry

Freckleface Strawberry #1

by Julianne Moore, LeUyen Pham (Illustrator)

If you have freckles, you can try these  1) Make them go away. Unless scrubbing doesn't work. 2) Cover them up. Unless your mom yells at you for using a marker. 3) Disappear. Um, where'd you go?Oh, there you are. There's one other thing you can  4) LIVE WITH THEM!

Because after all, the things that make you different also make you YOU. From acclaimed actress Julianne Moore and award-winning illustrator LeUyen Pham comes a delightful story of a little girl who's different ... just like everybody else.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Banned Books, Realistic Fiction, Storytime, Self Esteem

32 pages, Hardcover

First published October 16, 2007

About the author

Julianne Moore is an American actress.

In October 2007, Moore made her literary debut with the publication of Freckleface Strawberry, a children's book based on her experiences as a child. In April 2009, Moore followed up with a second children's book titled Freckleface Strawberry and the Dodgeball Bully.

Reviews

[Becky R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

You try to ban it, I read it. This is so cute and laughable that anyone would try to ban it. For any child (or adult) that has ever felt bad about something to do with their appearance, they will relate to this book. What a priceless book to open up a conversation about a common lesson we all have to learn.

[Set · Rating 5 out of 5]

They introduce bullying in a nonabrasive way. The story is so cute, it deals with insecurities and growing to love your unique self. Both my grandmothers were redheaded when being redheaded was not very accepted; I wish they had this book when they were little.

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much to my surprise, I really liked this book. It’s a funny and lovely story about how having friends and being yourself is a lot more important than trying to get rid of freckles, or any other distinguishing feature.

I imagine the story is based on the direct experience of the author. When I was a kid I had several friends who were perturbed about their freckles and everything the character thinks and does in this book seemed genuine, well except for going to school with her face completely covered.

I love that in the back inside cover of the book the author’s and illustrator’s photos are of them when they were children. I love that readers/listeners will be able to relate, even if their unique characteristic is something other than freckles.

The illustrations were wonderful and a lot of fun!

[Adriana Scarpin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perseguição fascista nos EUA está atingindo até as crianças ruivas... Explico: na última semana a magnânima @juliannemoore veio a público informar que o primeiro livro da série que ela escreveu sobre a Freckleface Strawberry de base autobiográfica foi banida das escolas pela administração Trump. Presumo que se amar e aceitar as diferenças seja um perigo mesmo para as mulheres, não é mesmo? Bom, o tiro saiu pela culatra e o livro agora vai ganhar uma bem vinda reedição.

[Steffi · Rating 5 out of 5]

In den USA wird gerade an allen Schulen, die dem Verteidigungsministerium unterstehen, dieses Buch von Julianne Moore, einer Überprüfung unterzogen und evtl. dauerhaft entfernt.

Das beweist, dass in den USA Anderssein gerade nicht gut ankommt. Es geht in dem Buch um nichts anderes, als dass sich ein Mädchen für seine Sommersprossen schämt und lernt damit umzugehen.

Auch ein Buch von Ruth Bader-Ginsburg steht auf der Prüfliste.

Das ist alles ganz grauenhaft, das Buch ist aber lesenswert. Vielleicht legt ja der Berlin Verlag auch die deutschsprachige Ausgabe wieder auf.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actress Julianne Moore made her authorial debut with this 2007 picture-book - there have been two follow-ups: Freckleface Strawberry and the Dodgeball Bully , and the forthcoming Freckleface Strawberry: Best Friends Forever: Best Friends Forever - which follows the story of a vivacious young girl who worries about her freckles, and the way they set her apart from her peers. When her friends' teasing, which includes their use of the nickname "Freckleface Strawberry," finally gets to be too much, she does everything she can to be rid of her "spots," or to hide them.

Although generally not a fan of celebrity-authored children's books - there are notable exceptions, of course, like the picture-books of Jamie Lee Curtis - Freckleface Strawberry got such positive reviews from my online friends that I decided to give it a chance. I'm glad I did! The story is engaging, and sure to be a hit, not just with children who are freckled, but with all young readers who feel different in some way, and the illustrations are energetic and appealing. All in all, a sweet little book, once that exceeded my expectations!

[Tissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute.

[mena ౨ৎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

and this is banned… why, exactly? super precious story about a quirky girl who grows to embrace her freckles and red hair.

[Madeline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too woke 🤮 just let the children read Marx

[Rohan Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

taught me how to love myself and that there are schools run by the department of defense

[Frances Krumholtz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forever grateful this was read to me so I could learn I didn't have to be so hot all the time 🫶

[Kristina Whitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freckleface Strawberry (2007) is a realistic fiction book about a seven year old little girl who is fed up with her freckles. She is tired of the other students and some adults making comments and asking silly questions about them. She decided that she is going to wear a face mask to cover them up, but finds the mask uncomfortable. She finally meets an adult that had freckles as a child, who tries to comfort the little girl and tells her they disappeared as she got older. Freckleface Strawberry is then bombarded by fellow students who have missed her (in the time that she was wearing a facemask to school). She decided that freckles were not all that important and goes to play with her classmates. The story ends with her growing older and having a family of her own, freckles and all.

This book is a fantastic read for any children who have freckles or other self-imagined imperfections. Freckleface goes through an assortment of ways that she thinks are ways to deal with her freckles, many students could make text-to-self connections if they have been in similar situations. This book would be great for discussing how commenting on others appearance might hurt others feelings, what is on the outside isn't as important as what is on the inside, self-esteem, and dealing with your imperfections. This book would be a great interactive read aloud and would work well with emergent to early readers. There are few words per page and the pictures are well illustrated and connect well to the text.

Some questions you could ask students:
1. Have you ever felt like Freckleface Strawberry?
2. Do you know anyone who has freckles?
3. Do you think the other children really cared about her freckles?
4. If Freckleface Strawberry was one of your friends, what would you tell her about her freckles?

[Shannon K]

The first thing that strikes me about the illustrations in this book is the color pallet that is used. There are a lot of pinks, reds, yellows, and greens, they aren’t put together in a way that you see every often so it makes this book unique and very fun to look at. I also love how the main characters skin was left uncolored so that the red freckles all over here body are that much more prevalent. Another aspect that I really like and that I think adds character is how the narrative text is one font and set apart from the text that is spoken by the characters, that text is a different font and are all placed in different colored text boxes by the people who are saying it. The last artistic element that I really enjoy is the sizes of the images are all different on each page. Some of the most important images take up the whole page while others have several small images on one page, I like how it works with the story and makes the most important parts pop out.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! Cute illustrations and a fun story. I guess having freckles myself (and having thought similarly before--wow, I'd really be tan if these darn freckles covered by WHOLE face!) and talking to my also-freckled sister about how funny freckles really are (we've decided you can't look at them for too long or you'd really start to get weirded out about how funky they actually look), I can relate personally to this book. Luckily my husband loves my freckles, so that's nice! Anyways, really enjoyed the book and am glad I bought it, when all I had seen was the cute picture on the cover and decided to order it from a book order.

[Aaron · Rating 1 out of 5]

Puts idea into kids heads that something is wrong with you if you have freckles. Kids didn’t otherwise think about it but now they do. Message isn’t nearly strong enough to then combat that idea.

[Allyson Kilpatrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This iconic book was a positive influence on me as someone who has a lot of freckles and as someone who CONSTANTLY fights back when ppl accuse me of redheadedness, even though, deep down I know there is some red in my hair. This beloved children’s book was a STAPLE in my childhood collection. I have a dear college friend that called me freckle face strawberry after realizing the resemblance. Truly formative for me through all stages of development. And what a fun and effective way to cover big topics like bullying and self acceptance y’all! The lessons learned in this book gave me the language to embrace who I truly am, or rather; who I’ve always been. Wizards and witchcraft, sure. FRECKLES AND FRUIT?!?! Enough is enough with the banned books! I must take a stand for all of the Freckle Faced Strawberries of the next generation #fightforfreckles #fearthefreckle #thefutureisfreckled 🍓

Xoxo, a sassy sarcastic strawberry & feisty freckled friend

[Villain E · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little girl is insecure about her freckles. Complaining, trying to cover them, eventual acceptance, the usual. Done pretty well. I picked this up because I like LeUyen Pham's artwork. I completely missed that the writer is someone whose name I should know. The story is handled well, but "Freckleface Strawberry" is a lot of syllables, so repeating it multiple times on a page hinders the flow when trying to read this out loud.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute. Inexplicably banned because of anti DEI sentiment in the present US government.

[Alvana · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who was teased for having freckles, this is wonderful!

[Lauren Paravate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: The story begins by a little girl hating her freckles and all the comments that come from others about them. She tries everything that she can do to cover them up and hide from them, but it never works. At the end of the story she realizes that she should love her freckles and all her friends love her for who she is.

Evaluation: This story was really funny and a great read. I enjoyed the connection that the author made with others when taking about freckles, especially some of the comments she had students in the story saying, I had actually heard of them before.

Teaching Idea: For this story I would have my students identify what the central message of the story was and what the author wanted us to feel and relate to when reading the text. I would have the students explain what they could relate too and how the author made them feel by supporting their reasoning with key details.

[Charlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Freckleface Strawberry, is a book about a young girl that doesn't like some of her features and feels different from others, she is teased by her friends and makes attempts to disguise her freckles. This resulted in her isolated herself and not being ignored because her friends did not realise it was her. She then accepts the way she looks, her friends had missed her and is proud to still have them as an adult.

I liked this book because it makes it apparent to children that we are all different and that we may have flaws or things we don't like about ourselves. However we should develop confidence in our own skin and accept our differences.

I would recommend this book for KS1 years 1 and 2, I think that many children could find a familiarity with the book and to help them develop good citizenship and well as self-confidence.

I believe this book would be suitable for a PSHE lesson, to address matters of bullying and insecurities. I think this is a good book for children to be guided through and to explain what is happening. Whilst reading this with year 2 pupils they found the name calling amusing, this gives a perfect opportunity to address that it is not a nice thing to do and that the little girl in the story was hurt by this. The book carries a negative tone about the girl’s freckles throughout giving a reader hope that there will be some sort of solution to it, yet the book ends saying that Freckleface Strawberry grew up and nothing changed and she was happy and beautiful the way she was. This allows children to have an underlying expectation and to be surprised that it is ok to be just the way you are, which I think is a beautiful moral to the story.

[Acey Bee]

Freckleface Strawberry, is a book about a young girl that doesn't like some of her features and feels different from others, she is teased by her friends and makes attempts to disguise her freckles. This resulted in her isolated herself and not being ignored because her friends did not realise it was her. She then accepts the way she looks, her friends had missed her and is proud to still have them as an adult.

I liked this book because it makes it apparent to children that we are all different and that we may have flaws or things we don't like about ourselves. However we should develop confidence in our own skin and accept our differences.

I would recommend this book for KS1 years 1 and 2, I think that many children could find a familiarity with the book and to help them develop good citizenship and well as self-confidence.

I believe this book would be suitable for a PSHE lesson, to address matters of bullying and insecurities. I think this is a good book for children to be guided through and to explain what is happening. Whilst reading this with year 2 pupils they found the name calling amusing, this gives a perfect opportunity to address that it is not a nice thing to do and that the little girl in the story was hurt by this. The book carries a negative tone about the girl’s freckles throughout giving a reader hope that there will be some sort of solution to it, yet the book ends saying that Freckleface Strawberry grew up and nothing changed and she was happy and beautiful the way she was. This allows children to have an underlying expectation and to be surprised that it is ok to be just the way you are, which I think is a beautiful moral to the story.

[♥♣Mary♦♠ If She So Pleases · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very clever and cute story time book read for beginning readers.

[Vera · Rating 3 out of 5]

I needed to read a book written by a celebrity and I absolutely love Julianne Moore, so it was clear I would pick one of hers. This is the first in her Freckleface Strawberry books. It's about a girl who has lots, lots of freckles and cannot live with them. It seems she is being bullied, because the other children call the girl Freckleface Strawberry. But it isn't meant mean, even though it makes the girl want her freckles to disappear. She tries to scrub them off, cover them with color and ultimately with a mask. But when she puts off her masks and a lady tells her she used to have freckles as well, which disappeared when she grew older, she realizes the other kids miss her and are her friends despite those freckles. So she decides she can just as well learn to live with them. Having friends is much more important than having freckles!

It's a lovely little story with really nice drawings by LeUyen Pham, but still I feel there is something missing. Some better clue or so for the girl's change of mind. It may sound stupid in a children's book review, but I didn't find the sudden mind change realistic. Also I didn't see why she would have a problem with her freckles in the first place since the other kids clearly aren't mean to her. Well maybe because she is just sick of all the stupid questions, I don't know, but a clear message in that case is also what I missed.

[Baby Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review was originally written for The Baby Bookworm. Visit us for new picture books reviews daily!

Hello everyone! Our book today is Freckleface Strawberry, written by Julianne Moore and illustrated by LeUyen Pham, the story of a little girl learning to love her freckles.

Freckleface Strawberry is a girl who is just like everyone else, except for her red hair and freckles, the latter of which she is rather self-conscious, as people comment on them all the time. She tries to hide her freckles, to varying degrees of success, until she finds she can cover up all her freckles at once… by wearing a ski mask! However, this keeps her friends from recognizing her. Can she ever accept her freckles as part of who she is?

This was such a sweet book. I think Freckleface’s embarrassment of her appearance is something that most adult readers can identify with, and I love that this book teaches younger readers to be confident in their bodies (even in its unique qualities), and know that it is much more important to accept yourself for who you are, and to surround yourself with people who do the same. Furthermore, the book is funny, and the text is enjoyable to read. It’s a fine length for baby bookworms, and the illustrations by Pham (who also drew one of our favorites, Grace For President), are adorable. Overall, a great book for littles that teaches them to embrace the skin they’re in. Baby Bookworm approved!

Be sure to check out The Baby Bookworm for more reviews!

[Jerrica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It shows kids that you should be afraid to be yourself. If you were to be born different, embrace it. Because "those who matter wont mind, and those who mind wont matter." This book had a great plot showing that every single person was born with different features and you just have to live with whatever God gives us.In the beginning of the book, it showed that the main character was so happy. After the other kids started to tease her about her freckles, then she realized that something was wrong with her. Her friends started to worry about her which made them miss Freckleface Strawberry so much. Later on, they all didnt mind how Freckleface Strawberry looked like.
As i read this book, i noticed that the illustrator used a lot of redish/ pink colors. I think that the illustrator wanted the reader to focus of the main character. I liked how Freckleface Strawberry tried different ways to get rid of her freckles. I think that children will enjoy this book because maybe they have the same situation or something similar that they hate about themselves. This book will help kids realize that it's okay to be different.

[Livvie Esslinger]

This book is about a girl with red hair and freckles who is very self-conscious about herself. She feels like everyone always has something to say about her freckles, and tries everything she can think of to get rid of them. While wearing a mask to school everyday to cover them, her friends didn't realize she was there. She was kind of left out. After a woman tells her that she may grow out of them one day, she takes off her mask. To her shock, all of her friends were so happy to see her again and had missed her very much! She decided then that they weren't so bad. The story ends with her as a very happy freckle-faced mother.

I am so glad I picked this book! I loved the dialogue of the friends.

This story is super relatable to kids this age. They are often made fun of, unfortunately, and this can cause insecurity. I think this story will show kids that they are not alone in this feeling, or in the idea of having drastic ideas to take care of their problems. It is also a healthy reminder that true friendships aren't based on outward appearance, and that in the end, those things won't matter.

[Jennifer Velez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reminds me a lot about my mom, because when she was little she had a lot of freckles. This book is about a little girl that had freckles and at school they would make fun of her and they would call her Freckleface Strawberry. She wanted to get rid of her freckles, so they wouldn't make fun of her. She tried scrubbing them away, she tried putting lemon juice on them, she even tried covering them with marker, but nothing worked. She hid her freckles by putting on a type of hat/mask on her face, and this did work. Since she had her face covered the other kids didn't know who she was, and when she took off the mask/hat her friends told her they had missed her. She wasn't so worried about her freckles anymore, she thought that maybe when she grew up they would go away. But they didn't. I think I could use this book in the classroom to teach students about the different types of punctuation marks. This book contains a lot of commas,periods, exclamation marks and even a semi colon. It could also be helpful to teach the students about contractions.

[Bridget R. Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A charming little girl tries valiantly to get rid of her freckles. She tries to bleach them away. She tries to disguise them with markers. Finally, she goes into hiding. Meeting a baby who thinks freckles are hilarious helps Freckleface Strawberry accept her freckles. In accepting them, she discovers that she does have friends. Her freckles don't make her different.

What I Thought: I keep reading books about unique little girls. Freckleface Strawberry brings to mind Pennypacker's Clementine, Cleary's Ramona, Lindgren's Pippi, and even Montgomery's Anne. Freckleface Strawberry has an endearing quality. As my best friend is a freckled red-head, I can sympathize with this little girl's efforts to rid herself of her freckles.

[Krissy Yunker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was wonderful! I am COVERED in freckles, and I went through the same thing as a child. I thought I would look better without them, and fit better into my family. I prayed to God everynight, to make my freckles go away. They never did! I won't say that I love my freckles, and that i'm fine with them... but I don't worry about them so much anymore... I know that it doesn't matter if I have freckles or not, if i'm white or brown, and if I have short or long hair. My friends and family still love me for me, and I'm happy with what God made me look like! :) Kuddos to Julianne Moore, and I hope she writes more books!