The color of my difference

key selling points

• a boy has to contend with feeling othered by the mostly white students at his new school, and tries to reconcile his pride in his haitian heritage with the racism he faces. ultimately, he decides to stand up for who he is and embrace his skin color and background as his greatest strength.
• written by mc knoell alexis, inspired by his own experiences, and featuring an author's note from him, talking about how important it is to acknowledge and share your pain (and be truly heard).
• written in free verse, which gives a stream-of-consciousness feel and immediacy to the narration, allows the author to encompass so much with spare, accessible text.
• uses typographical treatment, like concrete poetry, to bring extra meaning to the words and could be a good springboard for discussions about poetry and the intersection of type layout and text meaning.
• the second orca book from the unik series from héritage jeunesse, after like a hurricane. the french version of this title, la couleur de ma différence, was shortlisted for the td canadian children's literature award in 2024.