Something Beautiful by Sharon Dennis Wyeth and                               Illustrated by Chris K. Seontpiet   Published by Bantam Doubleday: New York, 1998

The main character in this strikingly illustrated picture book is a little girl who lives in an urban neighborhood. After her teacher introduces her to the word “beautiful, she begins a journey to find something beautiful in her world.

• Appropriate target audience: Children ages 5-7

• Strengths: The illustrations are rich and detailed.  The message of the book is hopeful as the little girl tries to find her “something beautiful”.  She feels powerful for helping her neighbors and neighborhood.  The love of the mother is also a touching element.

• Weaknesses: Where most of the ugliness in her neighborhood is presented in a child appropriate way, using the word DIE as the graffiti is perhaps too strong.  There is a powerful negative connotation to that word written in a seemingly aggressive way in all  red capital letters.

• Meaningful/creative uses:  1. Have a group of students clean up the community and document the process with photos and video clips of how the students feel about making their community beautiful.  Create a display of the book and photos of the children with a QR code for each child’s video of their experience.                                                                            2. Like Sybil, Rebecca, and Jamal in the book – ask each child, “What is your something beautiful?” Record their answers with a video using the green screen and whatever they have that’s beautiful float the image behind them using TouchCast.  Have a QR code to link the child’s picture with their video.

• Awards:    A Parents Magazine Best Children’s Book of the Year, 1998                                                                           A National Parenting Publication Award Honor Book, Selectors’ Choice
                      Parents Magazine Best Children’s Book of the Year, 1998
                      NCSS-CBC Notable Trade Book in Field of Social Studies, 1998
                      IRA Notable Book for a Global Society, 1998
• Read-a-Likes:   Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman and illustrated by Caroline Binch                                               Published by Dial Books: New York, 1991                     Grace loves to imagine herself as different characters from books. When her school announces the play she wants to be Peter Pan.  The other kids in her class decide that she cannot be Peter Pan because she is a girl and she is black.

The Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena and illustrated                                                         by Christian Robinson  Published by GP Putnams: New York, 2015 CJ and his grandma ride the bus together.  They are in an urban area and CJ wants to know why they do not have things other people do.  He also wants to know why their street is so dirty.  The grandma answers each question in an optimistic way to help CJ see the beauty in his world.