I have been a lover of words and books from an early age. I know the power that books have to influence identity formation and build bridges between seemingly different cultural worlds. My experience as a young reader was steeped, almost entirely, in American and British literature. This opened my eyes to parts of the world that I did not know yet. However, it also made me question the worth of my culture, and my identity. Why is it that people who looked and lived like me could not be found on the pages of the books I read? Through this work, I hope that fewer children will have to ask themselves the questions that I did. It is my secondary hope, that other children in other parts of the world, can learn about children who do not look like them, or live like them.