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Makena: See Me, Hear Me, Know Me

Read by Nicole Lewis
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Makena has a passion for fashion and clothes are a way for her to connect with others—especially when she shares her OOTD (outfit of the day). But some people don’t see Makena for who she is. They only see her as a Black girl and make unfair assumptions. When she experiences a racist incident in her own neighborhood, she decides to use fashion to speak up about injustice. She teams up with her new friends Evette and Maritza to raise awareness about racism and other issue they care about. Can she encourage her community to look beyond color?

The audiobook includes ideas for standing up to racism and a profile of the founder of a fashion organization that supports designers of color.
Denise Lewis Patrick grew up in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Lots of relatives lived nearby, so there was always someone watching out for her and always someone to play with. Every week, Denise and her brother went to the library, where she would read and dream in the children’s room overlooking a wonderful river. She wrote and illustrated her first book when she was ten—she glued yellow cloth to cardboard for the cover and sewed the pages together on her mom’s sewing machine. Today, Denise lives in New Jersey, but she loves returning to her hometown and taking her four sons to all the places she enjoyed as a child.

About

Makena has a passion for fashion and clothes are a way for her to connect with others—especially when she shares her OOTD (outfit of the day). But some people don’t see Makena for who she is. They only see her as a Black girl and make unfair assumptions. When she experiences a racist incident in her own neighborhood, she decides to use fashion to speak up about injustice. She teams up with her new friends Evette and Maritza to raise awareness about racism and other issue they care about. Can she encourage her community to look beyond color?

The audiobook includes ideas for standing up to racism and a profile of the founder of a fashion organization that supports designers of color.

Author

Denise Lewis Patrick grew up in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Lots of relatives lived nearby, so there was always someone watching out for her and always someone to play with. Every week, Denise and her brother went to the library, where she would read and dream in the children’s room overlooking a wonderful river. She wrote and illustrated her first book when she was ten—she glued yellow cloth to cardboard for the cover and sewed the pages together on her mom’s sewing machine. Today, Denise lives in New Jersey, but she loves returning to her hometown and taking her four sons to all the places she enjoyed as a child.

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