The skin I'm in is just a covering. It cannot tell my story. The skin I'm in is just a covering. If you want to know who I am, you have got to come inside and open your heart way wide. Celebrating all that makes us unique and different, [this book] offers new ways to talk about race and identity. Race matters, but only so much-- what's most important is who we are on the inside. Looking beyond skin, going straight to the heart, we find in each other the treasures stored down deep. Learning to cherish those treasures, to be all we imagine ourselves to be, makes us free.

bell hooks is a world-renowned cultural critic, feminist theorist, and distinguished author and professor of English at Berea College. She has written several acclaimed children's books including Be Boy Buzz, Skin Again, and Happy to Be Nappy, all illustrated by Chris Raschka.

Chris Raschka is the Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator of The Hello, Goodbye Window and A Ball for Daisy. He also received a Caldecott Honor for Yo! Yes? and has written and illustrated numerous books for children, including several titles by bell hooks: Happy to Be Nappy, Skin Again, and Be Boy Buzz. A 2012 nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, he lives in New York City.