The Day You Begin

 

                                                                 

                                                                                        The Day You Begin 

                                                                               Review by Lilyanna Jauregui 

Synopsis: 

The Day You Begin explores the isolated feelings of a diverse group of students. These students, such as Rigoberto who is from Venezuela and Angelina who spent her summer taking care of her younger sister, experience uncertainty at school because of their feelings of difference. However, they are able to overcome their precariousness when they gain the strength to share about themselves and their lives. The Day You Begin serves as a mirror into the lives of many children as differing races, ethnicities, skin color, hair type, and much more are represented in the illustrations of the book. The children of these differing identities serve as main characters and their feelings of discomfort are openly noted. 

Anti-Bias Elements: 

• Genuine & Reflective Illustrations: Illustrator, Rafael López, creates images that contain a diverse array of children and their distinctive features. The skin color of the students differs from each student, as no two students have the same skin color. As well as their skin, the students each have different colors and textures of hair. Some students have curly hair while others have straight hair or wavy hair, this can be seen visibly.  Each hair is styled differently as some students wear their hair down with a headband or a clip, while other students have shorter cuts. As well, many images represent students who are from diverse backgrounds all playing and interacting with one another. This presents a mirror for children to see illustrations that have similar skin color, eye color, or hair texture to them represented in a book. 

• Self and Social Identity Visibility: As the story follows multiple different students, all with different backgrounds, it is able to showcase their feelings of inadequacy, alienation, and ostracism from their peers in their class. These feelings are brought into their lives because of their differences. For example, one of the students feels as though she is not understood when her peers question her lunch, which is made up of meat, kimchi, and rice. While reading this book, students are able to see themselves represented in these characters based off of their experiences and feelings. They may even relate to the cultural element of feeling that their culture is different from everyone else. Their identity is represented and their feelings are made visible. 

• Standing up for Social Justice: Significantly, at the end of the book Angelina is able to share her story, something that makes her unique, which is how she spent her summer. "The day you begin" is the day that the students in the book are able to share who they are and be proud of it. The book promotes the act of young children, of all different backgrounds and identities, sharing about themselves and not being ashamed. It exemplifies the idea that all stories are important and that young children have the strength within them to be able to share about their differences and even find some similarities within them.