Reducing issues and problems to generalities is often necessary, but it’s important to remember everyone’s story is unique and individual. Woodson tells the story of her childhood, first in Ohio, then in South Carolina, and finally in Brooklyn in the 1960s, in verse. Readers quickly fall into the comforting lilt of beautiful language as Woodson recalls her life in the segregated South, then describes her new home in Brooklyn with a mixture of sadness and affection. Through struggle and pain, life goes on, and no one should be defined solely by their struggles, a lesson Woodson’s brilliant words bring home powerfully.

Throughout the art form’s history, principal ballet dancers have primarily been white. Enter Misty Copeland, the first African American principal ballerina at the American Ballet Theater and now an icon in the world of dance. From her tumultuous childhood as part of a mixed-race family through her training as an elite dancer and her eventual emancipation from her mother, Copeland emerges as a singularly driven, talented woman, who is aware of the significance of her achievement, while wearing it lightly.