"BEAUTIFUL. The teacher taught me the word in school. I wrote it in my book. B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. Beautiful! I think it means: something that when you have it, your heart is happy." 

A young girl, living in an area laden with graffiti and trash, goes out looking for "something beautiful".

What she finds is community, the beauty of friendship and the power of hope.

Ages 4-8 (1998)

ORDER: Hardcover

"When I was eight years old, I asked my mother, whose name was Evon, for 'something beautiful.' She gave me one of her wedding gifts: a small white china pitcher with a golden handle and a golden rose embossed on it. I put the pitcher on my windowsill so I wouldn't have to look at the alley outside. I called the pitcher my something beautiful. When Mommy gave me the gift, she cautioned me not to forget that I already had something even more beautiful- the something beautiful I had inside. I still have the little pitcher. I keep it next to my bed. It helps keep alive the memory of childhood and my mother's love."

Sharon Dennis Wyeth has been a family counselor, and actress, and a writer for the children's television show Reading Rainbows. She grew up in the Anacostia section of Washington D.C. and now lives in Monclair, New Jersey with her husband and daughter.