This Is Me: A Story of Who We Are and Where We Came From

Frequent collaborators Curtis and Cornell ask kids to contemplate what they would bring if they had to move to another country. “How would you know/ in this case what to pack/ and that once you had left/ there’d be no coming back,” a teacher says to her students, who list what they would include in their suitcases. Curtis keeps the story current (but also dates it) with references to items like prized Katy Perry tickets and a Nintendo DS; while the meter is solid enough, the rhymes can be somewhat forced (“Great work, Elena,/ for the time that you took./ This suitcase is like/ your own history book”). Cornell’s cheery ink-and-watercolor images create a friendly, diverse cast of kids, and a pop-up suitcase invites readers to consider what objects best represent them. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)