R. Watson: Hello my name is Renée Watson and I'm the author of Piecing Me Together. I'm going to tell you a bit about how I came to write this book and then I'll share an excerpt with you. I relate to Jade in so many ways. Like Jade, I grew up in Portland, Oregon, and I've had mentors come into my life to offer support and guidance. I also share with Jade that feeling she has of being home with her family and feeling beautiful and capable and loved, but then going out into the world and feeling broken when she experiences racism and sexism. The book is about Jade finding a way to feel whole and the women in her life, her Mom, her best friend, and her mentor, help her find inspiration to piece together her life. Here's a scene from the book.

Sabrina ends the night with a talk about following her dreams and believing in ourselves. You have to believe that you are worthy of love, of happiness, that you are worthy of your wildest dreams coming true. When she said this, so many thoughts rushed through my mind. I was thinking about how Mom had plenty of dreams and EJ is not short on self-confidence, and Lili has known she wants to be a poet since we were in middle school. So it can't just be about believing and dreaming.

My neighborhood is full of big dreamers, but I know that doesn't mean that those dreams will come true. I know something happens between the time our mothers and fathers and teachers and mentors send us out into the world telling us the world is yours, and you are beautiful, and you can be anything, and the time you return to them. Something happens when people tell me I have a pretty face, ignoring me from the neck down. When I watch the news and see unarmed black men and women shot dead over and over, it's kind of hard to believe this world is mine. Sometimes it feels like I leave home a whole person, sent off with kisses from mom, who's hanging her every hope on my future.

By the time I get home, I feel like my soul has been shattered into a million pieces. Mom's love repairs me. Whenever mom is cooking and her food is simmering on the stove and EJ's music is filling every inch of the house and I am making my art, I believe everything this woman is saying about being worthy of good things. Those are the times I feel secure, feel just fine. I look in the mirror and I see my dad's eyes looking back at me, my mom's thick hair, thick everything. And that's when I believe that this dark skin isn't a curse, that my lips and hips, hair and nose don't need fixing, that my dream of being an artist and traveling the world isn't foolish. Listening to these mentors, I feel like I can prove negative stereotypes about girls like me wrong.

But when I leave, it happens again, the shattering. And this makes me wonder if a black girl's life is only about being stitched together and coming undone, being stitched together and coming undone. I wonder if there's ever a way for a girl like me to feel whole. Wonder if any of these women can answer that.