At @TchKimPossible's suggestion, backed by a co-sign from @Jess5th, I purchased and read “I Am Every Good Thing.” I had no idea what to expect and, for some reason, the book’s dimensions were larger than I expected. I couldn’t help but smile at the boy’s faces greeting me from

the pages of the inside cover, but there was this one wearing a beanie who stared right at me with an expression that appeared to be longing: for love; understanding, affirmation, security…hope. The dedications jolted me, signaling that this wouldn’t be just “another”

children’s book. Each page reached back and hugged my longing childhood soul, empathizing with me for the things I had been systemically denied as a Black boy in America: a gleeful welcoming into the world as a miracle with greatness; potential and purpose to manifest;

a presumption of playful innocence, a right to be joyful, a safe space to deal with pain, heal and recover, the developmental grace to make mistakes, learn and grow and to not have the melanin in my skin deemed a ticking timebomb for criminality, the freedom to dream and the

liberty to be multidimensional. Perhaps these are the things I recognized in the face of the boy wearing the beanie who stared at me.