Day You Begin

National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson and two-time Pura Belpr Illustrator Award winner Rafael Lpez 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 its how you look or talk, or where youre from; maybe its what you eat, or something just as random. Its not easy to take those first steps into a place where nobody really knows you yet, but somehow you do it.

Jacqueline Woodsons lyrical text and Rafael Lpezs 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.