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PRESCHOOL
Srinivasan, Divya

What I Am

40 pp. | Viking | August, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-0-59320-401-6 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-59320-403-0 $10.99
(3) PS After a child with brown skin is asked a mystifying question--"What are you?"--the spare text and childlike illustrations cleverly posit the many (often opposing) whats she is. "I am dark. I am pale" appears over three small (differently melanized) hands reaching into a huddle-circle; the opposite page shows one set of bare tan-lined feet: "In summer I am many colors." The girl is also, for example, a "scaredy-cat" (mid-thunderstorm) then "brave" (catching bugs), and "not mischievous / (most of the time)." A note from the Indian American author explains the dehumanizing nature of the question and expands on the themes of dialectical self-images and identities.
Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen

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