Publisher Annotation: There will be times when you walk into a room and no one there is quite like you. There are many reasons to feel different. Maybe it's how you look or talk, or where you're from; maybe it's what you eat, or something just as random. It's not easy to take those first steps into a place where nobody really knows you yet, but somehow you do it. Jacqueline Woodson's lyrical text and Rafael Lopez's dazzling art reminds us that we...

Abdul loves telling stories but thinks his messy handwriting and spelling mistakes will keep him from becoming an author, until Mr. Muhammad visits and encourages him to persist

Cat, Dog, and Mouse live together contentedly in a cottage by the sea, dividing the work between them, until A. Stranger, Esq., a fox from the Winds of Change company, arrives and stirs up trouble.

Scaredy Squirrel is afraid to sleep at night for fear he will dream of dragons, ghosts, vampire bats, and polka-dot monsters, so he makes an elaborate plan to avoid sleeping.

A group of animals is terrified at the prospect of being sat upon by the imposing Fat Cat, until the mouse comes up with a solution that satisfies everyone.

A little boy offers advice to his cat, which is lost in the city, from taking shortcuts through safe alleys to finding a friend in the park.

"Driving through Ohio in an old Pontiac, a young girl's parents stop suddenly when they spot watercress growing wild in a ditch by the side of the road. Grabbing an old paper bag and some rusty scissors, the whole family wades into the muck to collect as much of the muddy, snail covered watercress as they can. At first, she's embarrassed. Why can't her family get food from the grocery store? But when her mother shares a story of her family's time...

Vashti believes that she cannot draw, but her art teacher's encouragement leads her to change her mind.

Sam, a shy but creative mouse who lives in a library, decides to write and illustrate his own stories which he places on the shelves with the other library books but when children find the tales, they all want to meet the author.