Family of Secrets: A Beginner’s Book to Body Safety by Alexis & Alyssa Cino

Review by Angie Carlson

Storytelling has long been humanity’s most potent tool for teaching, healing, and inspiring change. Through stories, complex ideas become tangible, and even the heaviest of topics can find a hopeful pathway into the hearts and minds of readers. This truth is perfectly embodied in Family of Secrets: A Beginner’s Book to Body Safety by Alexis and Alyssa Cino, with illustrations by Lisa Blakeborough. The book tackles a sensitive but vital subject: body safety and empowering children to disclose unsafe secrets.

At its heart, Family of Secrets is a valuable resource for all caregivers of children. The authors—a dynamic duo of sisters with deep expertise in child safety—have delicately crafted a story that fosters understanding while empowering children to communicate. Alexis, who works in child exploitation protection, and Alyssa, an elementary school counselor, bring both professional and personal passion to this project, ensuring that every word and illustration resonates with purpose.

The story begins by introducing readers to the Secrets family, where each member represents a type of secret children may encounter. The narrative begins lightheartedly with characters like Surprise, who delights in planning birthday parties, and Trust, who safely guards passwords and the garage code. These “safe secrets” are presented as healthy (and even Mistake helps lay the groundwork for the boundary between safe and unsafe secrets).

Then comes the pivotal moment when Unsafe is introduced. Unlike the others, Unsafe represents a secret that causes feelings of shame, fear, or discomfort. The book gently but firmly explains that these kinds of secrets must be shared with a trusted, “Safe Adult”. In doing so, Family of Secrets bridges the gap between driving awareness and inspiring action.

One of the book’s most striking aspects is its ability to transform fear into empowerment, providing hope to children who may be sitting in sadness with an unsafe secret. Through its rhyming prose and whimsical illustrations, children are shown that telling a Safe Adult about an unsafe secret is not only okay but courageous. The authors carefully navigate the emotional terrain of guilt and shame while emphasizing that what happened is never the child’s fault.

When Unsafe finally frees her secret by telling a trusted adult, she begins healing, and her name changes to “Brave.” The beautiful shift from victim to survivor will further encourage confidence in young readers to trust themselves and their feelings.

The end pages of Family of Secrets include FAQs for readers and resources including websites, hotlines, and prompts for listing Safe Adults. With these added resources, the Cino sisters have created more than a children’s book—they’ve crafted a tool for societal change.

In a world where acknowledgment of child abuse is avoided due to discomfort or disbelief, Family of Secrets: A Beginner’s Book to Body Safety provides a beacon of hope. It opens the door to an important dialogue with compassion, creativity, and purpose.

By normalizing conversations about body safety and empowering safe disclosure, Family of Secrets succeeds in dismantling the culture of silence that so often surrounds child abuse. Alexis and Alyssa Cino have given children a real gift — that is, the tools to begin healing through disclosure and the opportunity to feel seen, safe, and supported.

Follow Alexis and Alyssa on Instagram for helpful content on body safety and empowered disclosure.