A Girl Like Me

Empower young readers to embrace their individuality, reject societal limitations, and follow their dreams. This inspiring picture book brings together a poem by acclaimed author Angela Johnson and Nina Crews's distinctive photocollage illustrations to celebrate girls of color.

Horn Book Best Books of the Year Great Reads from Great Places Rise: A Feminist Book Project List Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) Choices The Black Caucus of the ALA Best of the Best Booklist New York Public Library Best Books for Kids 2020 Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books

“"Poet Johnson (Heaven) bridges fanciful aspirations and attainable goals in this inclusive portrait of girlhood. 'I always dream' opens the airy, free-verse narrative. In collages superimposing crisp photos against swirling abstract backdrops, Crews (Seeing into Tomorrow) portrays a girl flying through the air in a red cape, another walking atop skyscrapers, and a third swimming in the ocean, becoming 'part of the waves,' while onshore onlookers holler, 'A girl like you needs to/ stay out of the water/ and be dry,/ like everyone else.' The collaborators bring the tone down to earth as the kids react to unseen naysayers who discourage their dreams. In affirmations of their spirit of curiosity and adventure, the girls don vibrant clothing and funky hats as they skip down city streets and frolic by the ocean, always 'thinking/ way up/ high/ and making/ everything/ better than/ the dream.' The book concludes with a roundup of the subjects and personal statements about their personalities, favorite things, and ambitions, inviting readers' own self-reflections. A blithe celebration of individuality, guts, and sisterhood."--Publishers Weekly”

"[A] rallying cry for girls to reject limitations others might place on them and their dreams."—starred, The Horn Book Magazine

"An excellent addition for all collections."—School Library Journal

"A book to inspire the next diverse generation of girls to keep working toward breaking glass ceilings . . ."—Kirkus Reviews

"[A] celebration of individuality, guts, and sisterhood."—Publishers Weekly

Angela Johnson is an award-winning poet and children's author with more than forty books to her credit. She began her writing career in 1989 with the publication of a picture book called Tell Me a Story, Mama, which won the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award. She has won three Coretta Scott King Awards, the Michael L. Printz Award, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature. In recognition of her outstanding talent, Angela was named a 2003 MacArthur Fellow. She lives in Kent, Ohio. Author and illustrator, Nina Crews uses collage to create distinctive picture books. Her first book, One Hot Summer Day, was published in 1995 and is still in print today. Her titles include A Girl Like Me, Seeing Into Tomorrow: Haiku by Richard Wright, The Neighborhood Mother Goose, and Below. Her work has been selected by ALA's Notable committee, the Junior Library Guild, NCTE, New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Bank Street College of Education, and others. She is the daughter of children's book authors and illustrators Donald Crews and Ann Jonas. Nina lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and son.

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