The message of this book is that we are all different, yet so much more alike. I started out drawing the main character, April, with vitiligo (loss of pigment) but realized that then only people with vitiligo would get the book, and they already know all of this. We wanted the message to reach everyone, so we ended up trying to make April as generic as possible so as many kids could relate to her as possible. Throughout the story April sees different people but realizes they are doing just what she’s doing. If kids can relate to her and see that they are like her, they are more likely to see that they are also like all the different people in the book and in real life, including people with vitiligo.
On the cover April looks like she might have vitiligo. I did this on purpose for all her friends with vitiligo. If you didn’t know about vitiligo you might just think it was light and shadow on her face. There’s also a woman at the train station with vitiligo on her elbow.
In the book, April can’t stop thinking about the trip she’ll take to visit her grandmother—a week seems too long to wait! But the days pass quickly as April encounters all sorts of different, interesting people until she is at her grandmother’s house admiring the beautiful flower garden. By the time April returns home, she has discovered something important: people—like the flowers—have different needs and come in many colors, shapes, and sizes. But when you look past those differences, you begin to see they really are all very similar.