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4.59 AVERAGE
4.59 AVERAGE
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Beautifully illustrated, this picture book is all about finding connection and embracing what makes you you.
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This too has pretty and colorful illustrations. The story itself tells us that it is important to teach our children to be courageous. No matter how small the effort is, that is still called an effort. Whether it affected anyone or not, the moment someone started doing something, it meant the beginning of something right?
So, be courageous fellas for this life is too short to be live in fear!
*says the one who is actually scared of everything in her life
So, be courageous fellas for this life is too short to be live in fear!
*says the one who is actually scared of everything in her life
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
A GREAT story to read during the first week of school. Tells about how the ways you will be different in school and how some kids might make fun of you. Then the story turns around to how being different is O.K. and how you can make friends.
This thoughtful tale of wanting to fit in and being true to yourself made me cry.
The Day You Begin is so incredibly beautiful. It took me some time to actually finish that first read-through, just savoring the words and pictures.
A boy named Jonathan holds out a jar
“filled with tiny shells so fragile,
they look like they’ll turn to dust
in your own untraveled hands.”
The Poet she is, Jacqueline Woodson’s latest picture book could withstand a lesser illustrator. Conversely, you could read The Day You Begin without reading a word. Rafael López’s work in this book easily could have withstood a lesser writer. López’s humans, palette, textures…so damn lovely.
Note where López works a ruler into the grain of a door, a table, a tree, and how you won’t find this symbol of measurement later in the book. This is perfect in a book of young people wondering where they belong, if they measure up to others’ standards of beauty, ability, experience…if there is space for them.
Together Woodson and Lopez craft a powerful narrative. “There will be times when no one understands the way words curl from your mouth” (emphasis mine); the “curl” here following the “curl” image/idea on the previous page.
The message is one that emerges from an empathetic voice. You may feel the difference, and you may not feel ready to embrace your difference by putting your name to it, to claim it out loud, but a time will come when you are ready and you’ll find that
all at once, in the room where no one else is quite like you,
the world opens itself up a little wider
to make some space for you.
I appreciate how Woodson and López depict difficult aspects of being different. The girl with her “strange” and “unfamiliar” lunch who huddles behind it in the first scene, finds a humoring smile for her crinkle-nosed friend in the second. Being different is different with a friend rather than a group; for one she still has that friend beside her at the table.
The boy with the book that no one wants to pick for their team is standing at a water’s edge: his reflection filled with joy, book open and the beauty it brings forth is so vastly different from the boy and his sky:
“All that stands beside you is
your own brave self—
steady as steel and ready
even though you don’t yet know
what you’re ready for.”
Every day brings and begins something new along the way of becoming You. It’s a process and we’re all still growing up, together. I really love the movement between the individual and the places that (in)form us: classroom, lunchroom, playground, home. The Day You Begin is mindful of our desire to have a place in community. This is no f* them if they don’t like who You are statement book. It is more optimistic. The girl that opens the book, will find a friend or two by the end of the book,
“where every new friend has something
a little like you—and something else
so fabulously not quite like you
at all.”
The Day You Begin tackles uncertainty by being certain about how beautiful and capable each child is. That each voice, each story (told in so many ways) is precious. As with Angelina, it took time, “your voice / stronger than it was a minute ago,” but once you see what happens…
Recommended for all the libraries, and all the young ones…and even the grown-up ones. An effortless way to diversify your collection. A good start to the school year kind of read. Shelve this one with books like Sanna’s Me and My Fear and Yamada’s What Do You Do with an Idea?
https://contemplatrix.wordpress.com/2018/11/30/begin/
A boy named Jonathan holds out a jar
“filled with tiny shells so fragile,
they look like they’ll turn to dust
in your own untraveled hands.”
The Poet she is, Jacqueline Woodson’s latest picture book could withstand a lesser illustrator. Conversely, you could read The Day You Begin without reading a word. Rafael López’s work in this book easily could have withstood a lesser writer. López’s humans, palette, textures…so damn lovely.
Note where López works a ruler into the grain of a door, a table, a tree, and how you won’t find this symbol of measurement later in the book. This is perfect in a book of young people wondering where they belong, if they measure up to others’ standards of beauty, ability, experience…if there is space for them.
Together Woodson and Lopez craft a powerful narrative. “There will be times when no one understands the way words curl from your mouth” (emphasis mine); the “curl” here following the “curl” image/idea on the previous page.
The message is one that emerges from an empathetic voice. You may feel the difference, and you may not feel ready to embrace your difference by putting your name to it, to claim it out loud, but a time will come when you are ready and you’ll find that
all at once, in the room where no one else is quite like you,
the world opens itself up a little wider
to make some space for you.
I appreciate how Woodson and López depict difficult aspects of being different. The girl with her “strange” and “unfamiliar” lunch who huddles behind it in the first scene, finds a humoring smile for her crinkle-nosed friend in the second. Being different is different with a friend rather than a group; for one she still has that friend beside her at the table.
The boy with the book that no one wants to pick for their team is standing at a water’s edge: his reflection filled with joy, book open and the beauty it brings forth is so vastly different from the boy and his sky:
“All that stands beside you is
your own brave self—
steady as steel and ready
even though you don’t yet know
what you’re ready for.”
Every day brings and begins something new along the way of becoming You. It’s a process and we’re all still growing up, together. I really love the movement between the individual and the places that (in)form us: classroom, lunchroom, playground, home. The Day You Begin is mindful of our desire to have a place in community. This is no f* them if they don’t like who You are statement book. It is more optimistic. The girl that opens the book, will find a friend or two by the end of the book,
“where every new friend has something
a little like you—and something else
so fabulously not quite like you
at all.”
The Day You Begin tackles uncertainty by being certain about how beautiful and capable each child is. That each voice, each story (told in so many ways) is precious. As with Angelina, it took time, “your voice / stronger than it was a minute ago,” but once you see what happens…
Recommended for all the libraries, and all the young ones…and even the grown-up ones. An effortless way to diversify your collection. A good start to the school year kind of read. Shelve this one with books like Sanna’s Me and My Fear and Yamada’s What Do You Do with an Idea?
https://contemplatrix.wordpress.com/2018/11/30/begin/
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I love that this book does not shy away from acknowledging that kids will feel lonely and left out and like they don't belong. I appreciated that the lesson was not to just "get over it" but to embrace yourself and not alter yourself to fit in, and to find your people. I could see it being a tricky one to introduce to kids though because you wouldn't want to make them feel like they will be sad, but I think it's important to have these sad feelings acknowledged and validated.
The Day You Begin opens with a gentle acknowledgement:
The illustrations are done in soft, bright tones that reinforce a compassion to support us as the text acknowledges the many ways in which we can feel conspicuously different from those around us: skin color, clothes, language, economics, cultural traditions, etc. We watch through the words and pictures in the book as children summon the courage to share small pieces of themselves with their peers. We see their delight in discoveries of both the familiar things they have in common and the colorful, interesting ways in which they are different.
The Day You Begin is an extraordinarily beautiful book about the courage it takes to be yourself and how sharing who we are deepens our relationships with and appreciation for each other. The Day You Begin is a perfect read-aloud at home or in the classroom with all kinds of opportunities to discuss similarities and differences and how wonderful it is to have both in our lives.
There will be times when you walk into a room and no one is quite like you.
The illustrations are done in soft, bright tones that reinforce a compassion to support us as the text acknowledges the many ways in which we can feel conspicuously different from those around us: skin color, clothes, language, economics, cultural traditions, etc. We watch through the words and pictures in the book as children summon the courage to share small pieces of themselves with their peers. We see their delight in discoveries of both the familiar things they have in common and the colorful, interesting ways in which they are different.
And all at once, in a room where no one else is quite like you, the world opens itself up a little wider to make some space for you.
The Day You Begin is an extraordinarily beautiful book about the courage it takes to be yourself and how sharing who we are deepens our relationships with and appreciation for each other. The Day You Begin is a perfect read-aloud at home or in the classroom with all kinds of opportunities to discuss similarities and differences and how wonderful it is to have both in our lives.