February 24, 2021 | Picture Book Review

The Day You Begin

Woodson, Jacqueline
López, Rafael - illustrator

2018, Nancy Paulsen Books

Fiction

Grades: K - 3; Lexile: AD980L

Print copy and audio-enabled book available through interlibrary loan; eBook and eAudiobook available through Libby and Boundless

​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 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 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.

Read a review by Gennifer King:

the_day_you_begin_by_jacqueline_woodson.pdf
File Size:	312 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

---