Picture Book: The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson

Illustrated by Rafael Lopez

2018 Nancy Paulsen, Penguin Random House

HC $18.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.52 - 3920 ratings 

My rating:  5
Endpapers: Lovely, simple growing things on a delicate light jade jade green background.

1^st line/s:  "There will be times when  you walk into a room and no one there is quite like you."

My comments:SO BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED! And with a great message, to boot.  Not a "story" persay, but a collection of thoughts about being different, understanding that difference, and in a way, being the same.  Lovely.

Goodreads: National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson and two-time Pura Belpre Illustrator Award winner Rafael Lopez have teamed up to create a poignant, yet heartening book about finding courage to connect, even when you feel scared and alone.
          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 Lopez'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.
          Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature