The Day You Begin

I usually don't write reviews but I found myself tearing up reading this book to my two girls. The message of acceptance and love and strength in our differences really touched me! I love the subtle hints that we are all different but all have things in common. Absolutely beautiful boom!

Absolutely beautiful book about finding connection when you feel at your lowest ebb. Although this is written for children to help them come to terms with their uniqueness in a multicultural society there are doubtless a few adults who may also find comfort in this book. We have all felt alone and looked for comfort from the people around us. This is a warming book about connection and self-confidence. Beautiful and should be on every child’s bookshelf. And it’s beautifully illustrated!

Brilliant book for a school starter yo understand the anxieties of starting school but also appreciating and celebrating different cultures. Beautiful illustrations.

I bought this after it was recommended. I wanted to buy a range of books for my classroom and the children have enjoyed reading this.

We read this with our four year old. I personally loved the message of the book, and I think some pages caught our child’s attention. However, it is definitely written from the perspective of a child who is from a different country. I think the book is most likely to connect with a child who is starting school in a new country/place. The language puts the reader in place of the character eg “you feel X”, which was hard to reconcile when our child isn’t experiencing those particular differences at school. It is a valuable book for building empathy, but it didn’t have quite the impact which I hoped. Illustrations are lovely.

The message is lovely, but utterly lost on my daughter (4). She’s pretty quick to pick up messages in stories but there IS no story here so she wasn’t engaged enough to follow it. Maybe when she’s older it might work but she’ll have actually started school by then so it wouldn’t serve the purpose I bought it for. Humour and a story go a long way to communicate with a child and this has neither

Beautifully made and written!

Nice book for kids. My kid is loving it

Amazing book with an excellent message. We love it

A wonderful book for kids to learn about the similarities in our differences.

Wonderful book for beginning of school year, especially if you have a diverse classroom. My fifth graders loved it!