Jacqueline Woodson

Summary: This book is about a girl who starts going to school and she feels like she stands out immensely from the other children. The way she looks, how she dresses, and the food she brings are much different from the other students. This book emphasizes that it is okay to be who you are and you should not feel ashamed for how you live your life and what you look like.
Comments: I really enjoyed this book and how it promotes a message of self acceptance. I understand how it feels to stand out from the other kids and I think this book would be beneficial to children who experience this feeling.… (more)

This book took me back to my childhood when the days started as the screen door slammed and my sisters and I spent the entire day at the local park, playing with the neighborhood friends, making tents from our mother's sheets, jumping into freshly mowed piles of grass, pumping our feet so high on the swings that they met the side of the garage and left a mark.

We roamed the local viaduct and played in the old cars located under it. One of the fields contained a large cement round edifice where colored water ran through. The color of the local mill that made slip covers spilled the color of the day's production through the pipes that deposited the colored water in the cement barrel. Wearing our pf flier sneakers, we ran through the water as it changed the white to the color of the day.

Once again, Jacquline Woodson created a beautiful story of childhood, where children bonded through playing jump rope, ran through water bookbags and all. And, as she writes, "In Brooklyn, in the summer not so long ago," kids were free as air, and sun and summer! Hopscotch was played in the streetacross chalk made boards.

And, as this award-winning author notes, they children played as if they owned the whole wide world!

I recommend this book for those who can still remember the fun days of summer.

Five Stars!… (more)