– Celebrate Being You –
ABOUT THE BOOK
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Illustrator: Rafael Lopez
Publisher: Penguin Random House, Nancy Paulsen Books (August 2018)
- Genre: Picture Book / Diversity
- Hardcover: 32 pages
- Word Count: 622
A #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!
Featured in its own episode in the Netflix original show Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices!
National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson and two-time Pura Belpré Illustrator Award winner Rafael López have teamed up to create a poignant, yet heartening book about finding courage to connect, even when you feel scared and alone.
There will be times when you walk into a room
and no one there is quite like you.
There are many reasons to feel different. Maybe it’s how you look or talk, or where you’re from; maybe it’s what you eat, or something just as random. It’s not easy to take those first steps into a place where nobody really knows you yet, but somehow you do it.
Jacqueline Woodson’s lyrical text and Rafael López’s dazzling art reminds us that we all feel like outsiders sometimes-and how brave it is that we go forth anyway. And that sometimes, when we reach out and begin to share our stories, others will be happy to meet us halfway.
(This book is also available in Spanish, as El DÃa En Que Descubres Quién Eres!)
While this book feels more about the challenges of Angelina, a girl with large curly hair, the content branches out and applies to everyone.
The story begins at the start of a new school year where the class is sharing about their vacations. But Angelina feels she doesn’t really fit in because she stayed at home. Since the others have wonderful stories to share, she immediately feels different and out of place.
The Day You Begin is a story of encouragement for kids (and people in general) who feel alone at times and different. The story follows not only Angelina, but three other children who don’t always feel they fit in—Rigoberto, an immigrant from Venezuela; a girl with lunch of kimchi, rice, and meat, perhaps Korean; and a white boy. All don’t feel they are accepted because of some of their differences.
“There will be times when you walk into a room and no one there is quite like you.”
As we all know there are various ways that children can feel different. Perhaps it’s their skin, their hair, their clothes or the language they speak. It can be eating different types of food, feeling excluded on the playground, and the list can go on and on. Sometimes a child has a legitimate concern. But sometimes it is only imagined. In either case it can feel very real.
As a personal example, years ago when I sent my daughter back to kindergarten after having chickenpox, she came home upset that all the kids had turned around and stared at her when she came in the room. And they kept looking at her all day. When I asked why, she pointed to her face where two faded pox marks remained. So a few days later at a parent/teacher meeting I mentioned it to the teacher. She smiled and said maybe my daughter was just feeling a little self-conscious about it. As far as she was concerned nothing noticeable had happened. That truth didn’t change the fact that the uncomfortable feeling was very real to my little kindergartner.
On many levels, this uplifting story offers a beautiful way to open conversations regarding feelings, both real and imagined, and diversity. And I love that it points out that we all hold the power within us to change the direction of our thoughts.
What Concerned Me
Nothing.
What I Liked Most
A wonderful book to introduce diversity and acceptance with children.
The book helps teach a very important fact: The day you speak up is the day you begin to realize you are not the only one who feels like an outsider, and you may even make a new friend.
Click for Teachers Guide
About The Author:
Click for Woodson’s full bio and more fun information.
I can only write with my notebook turned sideways. When I was a kid, I wrote with it turned upside down.
I write, catch, and eat with my right hand. Everything else – batting, shooting a basket, holding a golf club, etc. is done with my left.
I share a birthday with Abraham Lincoln and Judy Blume.
I have a long, long list of foods I don’t like. (I guess this isn’t really a ‘fun’ fact!)
I am very, very neat. Except when I am not.
I know the lyrics to about a thousand bad songs from the 1970s, including songs from tv commercials and television shows.
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