(2) K-3 Illustrated by Chris Raschka. Hooks and Raschka's collaboration encourages readers to look beyond appearances. Raschka's illustrations are well matched with hooks's flowing refrains, showing children of varied ethnicities in broad strokes that get smaller as hooks invites readers to "be with me inside the me of me." A poetic picture book that will be relevant to a diverse range of children.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2004; November, 2017

(3) PS Illustrated by Chris Raschka. Bold, expressionistic watercolors capture the misery of a child overtaken by negative emotions. The "bad mood" is depicted as a monster that eventually dissolves into a swirl of colors when the child is able to "just let those feelings be / just let them pass." Raschka's visualization of anger and frustration, all thick black outlines and inchoate shapes, is extremely effective.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Chris Raschka. The creators of Happy to Be Nappy collaborate here on a celebration of humanity rather than ethnicity. In a text that flows and dances and weaves, the phrase "The skin I'm in is just a covering" repeats several times. "If you want to know who I am you have got to come inside." Raschka uses a recurring motif of snakes and multilayered onions and hearts, echoing the call for peeling back layers to get inside.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2004

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Chris Raschka. Hooks celebrates boyhood here with a text so generalized ("I be boy running. / I be boy jumping. / Boy sitting down") that girls might as well sit down for the self-esteem message as well. While more consistently on message than the author's Homemade Love, the book suffers from a similar lack of distinction and direction. Raschka's minimally lined portraits of African-American boys are stylish but don't have enough to do.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Chris Raschka. In this response to Carolivia Herron's Nappy Hair, "naps" are even more a source of pride. The simple, spare text ("Hair for hands to touch and play! Hair to take the gloom away") may not appeal to many post-preschoolers, but anyone can appreciate the stellar illustrations: energetic black zigzags and coils represent hair; the watercolor background panels evoke Matisse.

Reviewer: Nell Beram