You Are Special
Written by: Max Lucado
Illustrated by: Sergio Martinez
Recommended for ages 4 –8.
$26.99

Punchinello is a small wooden person who lives in a village with other wooden people. These people are Wemmicks. All day, every day the Wemmicks go around putting stickers on eachother, either gold stars or gray dots. If you are talented, pretty or have no chips in your paint, then you are given gold stars. If however, your wood is rough, your paint is chipped or you do not have a large vocabulary, you are given gray dots.

Punchinello is covered in gray dots. The harder he tries, the more mistakes he makes and the more gray dots the people of the village give him. One day Punchinello meets a girl named Lucia who has no stickers at all. He asks her how it came to be that she has neither gold stars nor gray dots. She explains to Punchinello that she visits their maker, Eli, everyday to remind her how special she is. She convinces her new friend that he should visit Eli to find out more. Upon meeting Eli, Punchinello discovers that the stickers only stay if you let them. Eli tells him that he is very special to him and he enlightens the frightened, young Punchinello about the power of believing in yourself. As he leaves the workshop, a gray dot falls off the little wooden boy.

This story can be used as a conversation starter for youngsters that are encountering peer pressure at an early age. The moral of the story is loud and clear: do not be influenced by what others think of you, believe in yourself and be strong.

Max Lucado also wrote Because I Love You, You Are Mine and The Crippled Lamb.