 Happy Black History Month Babies. It is so good to see you all out there. Thank you for having me today. My name is Cynthia Brayboy and I am a social worker. I get to work with mamas and papas and grandmas and grandmas. I also get to work with people who are really sick in the city of Long Beach. I love my job, but guess what else? I love reading too. And today, I brought my little friend, Primi. Can you say hi, Primi? Primi says he is so happy to be here today and he loves to hear stories. What was that? Oh, and today I'm gonna read one of his favorite stories and it is called, I'm a Pretty Little Black Girl. And the author of this book, the one who writes the book, her name is Betty K. Bynum and the person who makes the little pictures for this book, her name is Claire Armstrong Parade. So let's meet Mia. Mia is a little girl just like many of you and she wakes up in the morning and we're gonna follow her through her journey today. Again, I'm a pretty little black girl. Mia says, I look in the mirror and on some days my hair is just a going, every witch away. And when I see myself in the mirror, I twirl a pretty little black girl to dance cause nobody's looking. I dance like crazy. It's the smell of something cooking. I eat, grab my school books and I start right out the door. But before I leave to see myself from head to floor, I laugh and spin again with a great big dizzy twirl and say, yes, I'm a pretty little black girl. I walk with friends to school. Our noisy steps are clucks and clattered. Do many of you, I bet you do. Other friends are waiting there as we all chirp and chatter. At our secret meeting place, the flowers by the wall. I glance at each girl's happy face. Do you see all those pretty little girls just like you? My friend Kia is tall and my friend Keisha is the color of a pecan. My best friend Charlotte is like milk and coffee. Dina Rose-Marie is the color of toffee. Imani in my class is like sweet dark chocolate cream. Mmm. Her magical smile glows like she was kissed by me. Active Anna's hair is red with twists and creakly spun. She is just about almost color of spickling cinnamon. When Ruby sings, so her braids just sway and swag. Her dark eyes shine like marbles in a brown paper bag. Tracy is the color of Buttercup Daisy. Ooh, that drives bees crazy. You see all those bees chasing little Tracy. Blended into one makes us pretty black girls. And we have our fun. We all join hands like a chain no one can break. We might skip and laugh, play jack jack rocks, jump rope or roller skate. If one of us falls, the other one picks her up. If one of us cries, the other uses her dress hem to dry the tears up. That's what friends do. We come in all shapes and sizes, skinny, short or round. And like a special rainbow, we're all different shades of brown. We say please, that's how we spread love around. I think of what pretty is and this is what I find. Pretty also means to show good manners all the time. When we are still and quiet, I just think of all of us and hope that we will always be good friends that never roll their eyes or hate or fight or Buttercup Daisy or sweet dark chocolate cream or anything in between. We're gonna grow up to show the world some brilliance it ain't never seen. Look at all those little girls in everything they can be. I see a fire person. I see a doctor and dancers and singers and astronaut little girls. See you all tomorrow. Right before I go to bed, all my friends smiling faces start to flash inside my head. My legs then start to fidget like they're too happy to sleep. So I jump up out of bed because now the happy's in my feet. I dance and twirl again as if all my friends were there. My going every which a ways, fluffy, curly, bouncy, twisty, springly, happy hair. Does your hair fluff and curly and twisty and springly? Then I stop a while, take a breath and slow my pace. I take a long, long look at my nutmeg colored face. For a moment then, I stare, I think and make a frown. My clothes all crazy round my waist. My socks all falling. Then I laugh out loud myself, stretch out my arms and make a bigger twirl. Black History Month. Be well.