Summary: A young African-American girl wishes for something beautiful as she looks around her neighborhood filled with trash and graffiti. As she walks home from school she meets many people and asks them what their “something beautiful” is, and gets many different responses: Sybil’s jump rope, old Mr. Sim’s smooth stone, and Aunt Carolyn’s baby’s laugh. When she gets back to her apartment, she cleans up the graffiti, picks up the trash, and tells herself that she will help make her neighborhood into something beautiful. In the end the she finds that in her mother’s eyes, she is that something beautiful.

For Parents: This book will definitely capture your child's attention. The illustrations are vivid and realistic which draws your young reader into the story. This is a great way to open their eyes to see other communities in another perspective.

For Teachers: This story is told in the child’s voice, which makes the story that much more personal for the reader to understand the thoughts and feelings going on in this child's mind. The rich, realistic paintings help depict the reality of this poor inner-city neighborhood. Although the pictures are dark and spooky in the beginning, it ends with pictures of hope and change in the neighborhood because the girl's initiative to be that change. This story is perfect for classrooms with students from the inner city or to expose students to it.

Personal Note: Growing up in a low-income neighborhood, I could readily relate to the images that this little girl sees in her little community. Because students will be coming from a variety of backgrounds, this is a wonderful way to invite them into someone else's world.