The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson

 

Title: The Day You Begin 

Genre: Fiction  

Author: Jacqueline Woodson 

Illustrator: Rafael Lopez 

Major Awards: No major awards 

Age group: 5 to 8 years old 

 

Summary: 

This beautiful picture book written by Jacqueline Woodson is about feeling different than everybody else but finding the courage to be yourself and share your story and you will be surprised how alike you might be from others. 

In the book it talks about a little girl named Angeline who is a little intimidated after her classmates talk about all the different places they went over the summer. She’s afraid to share that she just stayed home and took care of her little sister, but she decides to speak up and share what she did over the summer. Nobody saw her differently or made her feel bad because she just stayed home, instead Rigoberto shared that his sister is also named Angelina. 

Evaluation: 

Appropriate grade level would be Kindergarten to 3^rd grade. 

I loved all the colorful colors all throughout this picture book and the way all the illustrations illustrated every detail of the pages. I would definitely use this book in my classroom, especially for the first day of school. First day of school can be a little scary for students and I believe this book would help those nerves just calm down. I would use this as a read aloud and then have my students create some type of artwork where they share details about themselves and how they feel in their first day of school.