I Gotta Be Me! Mixed Me by Taye Diggs

SOMETIMES WHEN WE'RE TOGETHER,

PEOPLE STARE AT WHATEVER.

"YOUR MOM AND DAD DON'T MATCH," THEY SAY. PEOPLE SEE US AND THEY LOOK AT US FUNNY.

SEE, MY DAD IS DEEP BROWN AND MY MOM'S A RICH CREAM AND HONEY.

MY MOM AND DAD SAY I'M BLENDED ... JUST RIGHT.

Being an in-between shade is not all that unusual these days, although this kid tops it off with bright red curly hair that is pretty unique. but Mixed Mike just makes a joke out of the combination.

"I'M A COMBO PLATE."

Taye Diggs' Mixed Me! (Feiwel and Friends, 2015) celebrates the combo plate that is our population, with humor, rhythm, and rhyme that makes the message go down like tutti-frutti ice cream, sweet and colorful. If we look at ourselves scientifically, we're all mutts, even if we're of pure white British Isles ancestry, because deep in our DNA (unless we are 100% African), we definitely have those genes from a whole other species of human, the Neanderthals, and probably those others, the Denisovans.

Says the New York Times reviewer, "[Illustrator] Evans' effervescent collages are an ideal match for the riffing, self-possessed voice Diggs gives Mike."