Something Beautiful by Sharon Dennis Wyeth

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Wyeth, Sharon Dennis, and Chris K. Soentpiet. Something Beautiful. New York: Doubleday Books for Young Readers, 1998.

Something Beautiful by Sharon Dennis Wyeth is the second book I have chosen for my text set on the issue of poverty.

This picture book is written in first person. The individual speaking is a young girl who appears to be in elementary school. She is African American and lives in a neighborhood where she encounters broken bottles, trash, graffiti, and homelessness yet she is in search of something beautiful. One the first page the young girl looks out her window and sees the trash and broken bottles, she compares them to fallen stars. Along with the trash we can also notice that there are bars over windows and wood boarding up a door which is connected to the building in which she lives. “DIE” is written on the front door of her building. She walks past a lady who is home is a cardboard box and she is using plastic as a blanket. The lady has no shoes on and is sleeping. The young girl appears sad when looking at the lady. She appears scared as she runs past a dark alley which is also covered in trash and has a chain-link fence. Yet she continues to wonder, her mother has told her that everyone has something beautiful in their lives and she has yet to find something. Her facial expression appears scared and fearful. School is shown and the students in the classroom are learning about the word that is written across the board, “BEAUTIFUL”. The teacher is a smiling African American male. The students in the class are mostly African American, one is a Caucasian girl. The speaker defines beautiful, “something that when you have it, your heart is happy.” Then it seems that although poverty is around her, beautiful things are around her as well. Miss Delphine at the Diner serves her what she believes is beautiful, a fried fish sandwich. The young girl then travels outside where she sees three of her friends, a young African American boy, and two girls, one Caucasian and one African American. She asks them what they have that is beautiful and they all have different responses, their jump rope, beads, and shoes. It appears that everyone has a different idea of what is beautiful to them but everyone is able to think of something. Other friends even tell her that their moves and sounds are beautiful. An older gentlemen sitting on his steps finds a smooth stone beautiful. Her aunt allows her to hold her baby boy, she tells that the baby’s laugh is beautiful. She travels back home to her stoop where she is again surrounded by the graffiti one her door and the trash that is on the ground. She then decides to clean up the trash and scrub off the graffiti. She has the power to change her surroundings, at least some of them. Her mother comes home and when asked what something beautiful she has, she says her daughter. Both mother and daughter are smiling at one another. Amongst the poverty that we are shown throughout the book, each individual can find something beautiful and in the end the speaker is something beautiful to her mother.
I thought this book was a great way to show poverty to a class. Graffiti especially can be seen in many neighborhoods, on train cars, trash cans, or even street signs. It is something that many individuals can relate to. I thought the book did a good job portraying a neighborhood where there were homeless individuals but there were also individuals like Miss Delphine who were successful. Although this young girl struggled to find something beautiful in her neighborhood, it was her mother who gave her the idea that “everyone should have something beautiful in their life.” By doing this her mother is giving her hope and encouragement and allowing her to believe that everyone can have that something that makes them smile and that they find beautiful. This thread of family, finding hope from her mother, as well as in the end realizing that she was the something beautiful that her mother had helps readers to understand that beauty is dependent upon the person. This book did not ever use the term poverty but it allowed the reader to have a window into a neighborhood which appeared to be in poverty, with barred windows, boarded up doors, homeless people sleeping near the buildings in which people lived, and graffiti written on this young girls building door. Through the illustrations we see though that although there is trash in the courtyard, the sun is still shining. And in the classroom, the teacher appears to be excited to be teaching about beauty and there are colorful paintings which decorate the walls. Her friends are smiling and even the older individuals that live in her neighborhood all can offer her insights into their idea of beauty. I believe this book is not stereotypical displaying both African American and Caucasian individuals. There are individuals in the book who appear to be successful as well as individuals in the book who appear to be struggling but all are a part of this neighborhood. This book promotes a positive message about beauty and allows readers to look for the good in any situation. It would also allow teachers to talk about different lifestyles and neighborhoods in the community and how although they all may be different, there is beauty in each of them. This book will definitely be a part of my classroom library as it shares many values in which I would like to promote in my classroom.
This book is a good example of a diverse piece of literature and was written by Sharon Dennis Wyeth. She is African American and speaks from her own childhood experiences, as readers can gather from the front flap of the book. She “reminds us that there is strength in community and that our greatest treasure is our children.” In the back of the book the author’s note also describes that when she was first married she received a small pitcher from her mother, that was her something beautiful. She placed it on her windowsill so she wouldn’t have to look at the alley outside. Therefore her idea of the book came from a direct memory from her mother and how her mother’s love inspired the story. The illustrator of the book is Chris K. Soentpiet who was born in South Korea, according to the back flap of the book, but was adopted along with his sister when he was eight years old. He does a wonderful job with color, allowing the reader to gather information through the images that he has created that tie in with the text.