Vanessa Brantley-Newton

Anyiaka admires her beautiful, smart family, but feels different than her mother, sister, and grandmother because of her darker skin tone: "How can I fit in with a family like this? They are good at everything. They have glamourous hair and golden brown skin. I stick out like a sore thumb." Anyiaka paints over the smallest, darkest nesting doll in her grandmother's set, but her grandmother tells her, "All of us different, but I am in you and you are in me....Our family has been workin' to make oonuh for years and years." Anyiaka understands, and the four women in the family share an embrace.

Corel and Photoshop illustrations showcase fabric patterns, prints, and textures, as well as art supplies and family photographs. There is an end note about the Gullah Geechee People.

See also: Sulwe by Lupita Nyong'o… (more)