Books like I Am Able to Shine
By Korey Watari
For the child who sometimes feels overlooked or misunderstood, this book says plainly: you are beautiful, you belong, and what you do matters. Tender, affirming, and quietly hopeful.
A confident Black boy affirms everything he is — creative, funny, brave, sometimes afraid, always resilient — celebrating his own worth in a string of joyful, declarative statements.
A boy settles into the barber's chair for a fresh cut, and with every snip of the clippers feels himself transform into something sharper, prouder, and more sure of who he is.
A picture book celebrates girls being fully themselves — splashing in mud, running science experiments, reading under flashlight beams with friends — and redefines beautiful as brave, smart, and strong.
A child notices that black isn't in the rainbow, then traces the color through everyday things and through the history, culture, and legacy of Black people and community.
A rap-inspired tribute moves through the stories of Indigenous heroes past and present — Tecumseh, Sacagawea, Crazy Horse, astronaut John Herrington, NHL goalie Carey Price — all building to one message: we are people who matter.
A celebration told through many young voices, each one honoring the beauty of their own brown skin and finding themselves reflected in the natural world around them.
A girl who loves acting out every story she hears sets her heart on playing Peter Pan in the school play, then hears a classmate say she can't — because she's a girl, and because she's Black.
An original poem celebrates girls and girlhood in all their forms, honoring how girls have shaped history while calling them to stand together and march boldly into the future.
In a world where girls only wear dresses and boys only wear pants, a determined young girl named Mary decides she'll simply wear whatever she wants.
A lyrical picture book celebrates self-worth, kindness, and respect for others, reminding every child who reads it that they have purpose and are already enough.
A warm, direct address to a girl reader, moving through everyday moments — muddy puddles, freckled faces, tabletop dances — to remind her she's powerful, valued, and worthy of love just as she is.
A young Asian girl notices her eyes look different from her friends' — then realizes her eyes match her mother's, grandmother's, and little sister's, and learns to see them as beautiful.
