Get ready to go back to school with this inclusive, empathetic story that will help kids new to the classroom transform from timid caterpillars into beautiful butterflies who love exactly who they are! On Vanessa’s first day of school, her parents tell her it will be easy to make friends. Vanessa isn’t so sure. She wears her fanciest outfit so her new classmates will notice her right away. They notice, but the attention isn’t what she’d hoped for. As the day goes on, she feels more self-conscious. Her clothes are too bright, her feather boa has way too many feathers, and even her name is too hard to write. The next day, she picks out a plain outfit, and tells her mom that her name is too long. She just wants to blend in, with a simple name like the other girls–why couldn’t her parents have named her Megan or Bella? But when her mother tells her the meaning behind her name, it gives her the confidence she needs to introduce her classmates to the real Vanessa. Perfect for readers of Alma and How She Got Her Name and The King of Kindergarten.
Vanessa Brantley-Newton is a self taught illustrator of more than 80 children’s books. She first fell in love with picture books when she was read the Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats as a child. It was the first time Vanessa saw an image of a brown child that looked like her. Diversity is at the very heart of her illustrations and storytelling. She has written and illustrated three of her own books, Let Freedom Sing, Don’t Let Auntie Mabel Bless The Table and Grandma’s Purse. Vanessa wants every child to know the joy she felt when she saw herself in a picture book. “I want every child to know that I see you.” Vanessa is a lover of music and food. When she isn’t creating children’s Books she is cooking or singing somewhere. She lives in NC with her husband of 25 years and her daughter Zoe.
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