The Day You Begin By Jacqueline Woodson

 

About Book

Title: The Day You Begin
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Illustrator: Rafael Lopez
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Multicultural
Major Book Awards: No major book awards
Recommended Age Range: 5 to 8
Appropriate Grade Levels: Kinder to 3rd grade

Summary

This book talks about how one may feel different based on how they look, where they're from, and the foods they eat. This can be seen through the perspective of a girl named Angelina, as this book centers around her. She begins to feel different from her classmates as they share all the fun things they've did over the summer, since her summer experience wasn’t anything like theirs. This made her wonder that there will be times where you would  feel like an outsider when people don't know what you're eating or you're not able to understand how to play certain games like everyone else. But once you start opening up to people and share your story, then maybe their will be those who can relate to you. And so she did, sharing that she stayed at home to take care of her little sister. Turns out, no one saw her as any different, and instead a student named Rigoberto shared that his sister's name was Angelina too.

Evaluation - Would I Incorporate this book in the classroom?

I really enjoyed reading this book, since I was able to relate immensely. Growing up with a different name and having people ask me what I was eating when I would bring my Vietnamese lunch to school, in a way made me feel different. But as I started opening up to people and sharing my culture, I was able to meet lots of friends who are appreciative and likes me for me. Just like Angelina in the story, I did relate to her some point in my life. And if I was able to relate to the story, I am sure that there are other students out there who can  as well. So, I would definitely use this book in my classroom. I believe that this book is more appropriate for children in kinder to 3rd grade, but teachers can always read this book in higher grade levels, since it has an important message that all kids can learn. I see myself using this book on the first day of school as a read aloud. I think that its best for students to share about one another and get to briefly know about each other's differences and similarities as soon as possible. Something they can do is a find a friend activity. In this activity students will be given a worksheet with a list of things that they may like and will then put a check next to it. Then after a few minutes, they will all interact and find out people who likes the same things and write down their classmates names.