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The Day You Begin
CCBC Review:
“There will be times when the world feels like a place that you’re standing all the way outside of.” Maybe no one understands “the way words curl from your mouth” in the language of home. Maybe the experiences you’ve had feel like nothing compared to others’, or the food you love is seen as strange, or “the game isn’t one you can ever really play.” The vivid sense of difference, and isolation, experienced by four children in the opening pages of this picture book invites all readers and listeners to consider the strength of “your own brave self…There will be times when you walk into a room and no one there is quite like you until the day you begin to share your stories … this is the day you begin to find the places inside your laughter and your lunches, your books, your travel and your stories, where every new friend has something a little like you—and something else so fabulously not quite like you at all.” Buoyant mixed-media illustrations lend a celebratory feel to a book in which selfhood is triumphant. Highly Commended, 2019 Charlotte Zolotow Award ©2019 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
Illustrated by Rafael Lopez
CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 4-8
Age Range:
PreK-Early Elementary (Ages 4-7)
Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10)
Format:
Picture book
Subjects:
Affirmation
Difference/Individuality
Loneliness
Self-Esteem and Self-Worth
Diversity subjects:
Black/African
Latine
Multicultural General
Publishers:
Nancy Paulsen Books, Penguin Random House
Publish Year: 2018
Pages: 32
ISBN: 9780399246531
CCBC Location: Picture Book, Woodson
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