ANITA! The Woman Behind the Body Shop

by Jules Older ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1998

Anita Perella Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, has led a very colorful life, and while that becomes evident in this slim biography, such niceties as source notes do not. Anita was born in Littlehampton, England, and her Italian mother ran a cafÆ’. (There is no mention of a father, and readers know that her mother is Italian because she stirs a spaghetti pot, sings ""That's Amore,"" and has a broad accent.) Anita's wild ideas and exuberance are clear from her early days, when she played a crazy person in a school pageant and used beet juice to color her lips. She founded the first Body Shop in Brighton, where green paint hid the mold and strawberry oil scented the front walk. The illustrations, full of verve, squiggle, and color, stabilize a text that can be a bit precious, with references to the city of ""New Yawk"" and a flight in ""last class."" Anita's hints on looking good and on taking care of the environment are included, as is a Body Shop timeline and a few family photos, but if the biography is buoyant, it also nearly floats giddily away. Readers who want to anchor the anecdotes here to a little weightier treatment of Roddick's life will have to go to her autobiography or, more likely, the periodical desk.

Pub Date: July 1, 1998

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Charlesbridge

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1998

Categories: CHILDREN'S