Saturday Review: “Stories of Self-Acceptance,” a review by Mark I. West of Vanessa Brantley-Newton’s Becoming Vanessa (2021) and Maya Myers’s Not Perfect (2024), in NCLR Online Spring 2026
Admired children’s literature professor, author, and reviewer Mark I. West has provided several reviews to NCLR, highlighting the best qualities of each story, and adds to his list this spring with Vanessa Brantley-Newton’s debut picture book Becoming Vanessa and Maya Myers’s Not Perfect.
Becoming Vanessa was named an ALSC Notable Children’s Book in 2022. The story follows Vanessa’s first day of school and her idea to stand out to make friends. West highlights the author and illustrator’s choice to show Vanessa’s outfit “in all its zany and colorful glory.” He remarks that her classmates’ response “is not what she expected.”
Myers’s Not Perfect tells the story of a young girl striving for perfection as she “constantly compares herself to the other members of her family,” and through the process of making mistakes learns that “perfectionism is not nearly as important as friendship.”
West concludes that in a short span of pages, “these picture books show how perfectionism and putting on airs can undercut children’s ability to make friends and succeed in school.” By using the perspectives of children, both Brantley-Newton and Myers create stories that resonate with adults and children to help them understand the importance of self-acceptance.
Read the entire review and buy a copy of Becoming Vanessa and Not Perfect!