An incredible collection of diverse stories, something for all readers, in Today I Am: 10 Stories of Belonging edited by Jael Richardson and featuring authors Marty Chan, Rosena Fung, Michael Hutchinson, Chad Lucas, Angela Misri, Mahtab Narsimhan, Danny Ramadan, Jael Richardson, Liselle Sambury and Brandon Witt.

Within the pages of this new middle grade collection, readers are able to explore many different ways of belonging through a variety of stories in different genres and formats. 

Jael Richardson shares a beautiful note to readers in the introduction and lays the landscape for this book. It’s a collection of short stories for anyone who has ever felt out of place, who has felt like they haven’t belonged. It’s also a book for those who maybe haven’t had those feelings to understand what it can look like, sound like, feel like to be out of place.

I love how this book compiles stories by some of my favourite Canadian authors and offers so much variety to readers. There are stories set in the real word, stories set in new imagined places and stories that involve a little bit of magic. Within the pages there is also a graphic story, a story within a story and a story in verse, feeding the reading hunger of individual readers. There is a story in here that is accessible to just about every reader making it a beautifully inclusive volume.

My personal favourite was the story of the family reunion. That story by Chad Lucas just made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I love the idea of a secret cousin and getting to know estranged family members a little bit better. I also loved the story within the story by Jael Richardson and how the main character was navigating bullying through their writing.

Today I Am is a collection that should feature heavily in classrooms and libraries so that readers know that there is a story for them out in the world. I would hope to see this collection on awards lists in the near future.