Woodson (Brown Girl Dreaming) imagines being 'an only' in the classroom what it's like to be the only one with an accent ('No one understands the way words curl from your mouth'), the only one who stayed home during summer vacation ('What good is this/ when other students were flying/ and sailing'), the only one whose lunch box is filled with food 'too strange or too unfamiliar for others to love as you do.' Without prescribing sympathy, Woodson's poetic lines give power to each child's experience. (This book is also available in Spanish, as El Día En Que Descubres Quién Eres!) And that sometimes, when we reach out and begin to share our stories, others will be happy to meet us halfway. 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.

It's not easy to take those first steps into a place where nobody really knows you yet, but somehow you do it. Maybe it's how you look or talk, or where you're from maybe it's what you eat, or something just as random. There are many reasons to feel different. There will be times when you walk into a room

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. Featured in its own episode in the Netflix original show Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices!

The book the day you begin