An affirming, purposeful picture book is told through dialogue between a mother and child, who asks, “What’s special about me, Mama?” For each thing the mother names—amazing eyes, beautiful skin, springy hair, joyful laugh, helpful hands, and more—the child counters with a reason why he doesn’t think it makes him special. His skin, for example, is just like Daddy’s. His hair is just like Grammy’s. And his helpful hands are “too little to use the stove. I can only mix.” He even thinks the hugs and kisses his mother finds so wonderful are only little things. But, she points out, they are “two of God’s greatest gifts.” Finally, she notes, “What makes you special, Love, is that you are loved more than anybody in the whole wide world—by me!” Kristina Evans’s warm narrative is set against Javaka Steptoe’s joyful images of a dark-skinned mother and a freckled, light-skinned African American boy. (Ages 3–8)