She Looks Like Me!

A beautiful moment in the library on Tuesday: one of our little African-American students, when she saw the picture of Jerry Pinkney at the end of Little Red Riding Hood, said, "He's Black!" and then as we were discussing the book, she pointed to Little Red Riding Hood and said, "SHE looks like me!" And it was true.  I had been hoping that someone would notice that LRRH is a character of color.  I didn't know if I should've pointed it out to the kids overtly, but if it came up in conversation, we'd talk about it.  This little girl was so excited.  She was touching her hair and look at the cover of the book. 
And then--I could not have scripted this moment any better--a little later the girl shows me the book she's checked out, and what is it? The Little Match Girl, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney.  I don't even know how she found that book.  She's a first grader--certainly she did not know where to look on the shelves?!?! Maybe the book was out on display and she saw the illustrations and the name? I'm just not sure, but I loved the moment.