The Day You Begin

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. It's not easy to take those first steps into a place where nobody really knows you yet, but somehow you do it.

National Book Award winner (and 2018–19 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature) Jacqueline Woodson's lyrical text and two-time Pure Belpré Illustrator Award winner Rafael López's dazzling art remind 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.