A wearable board book with die-cut holes invites the reader to try out the six bearded masks.

Lily likes to wear the cat mask that her father bought for her, but she isn't allowed to wear it in school until her class has a costume party, where she makes a new friend.

Masks are objects that demonstrate creative skills of many different periods and cultures. Masks are a nearly universal phenomenon, but their uses and meanings are strikingly different across cultures. In this book, eight leading experts explore the stories of masks across ancient and modern civilizations in a survey of their meaning and power.

Key Selling Points Author and illustrator Marla Lesage is a registered nurse and the mother of two young children learning to adjust to wearing masks in public. This book features different types of masks, including one with a clear panel being used by characters who rely on reading lips to communicate. Mandatory mask-wearing laws are spreading across Canada and the United States as science supports the practice to reduce the spread of germs. Normalizing mask-wearing as the economy reopens requires a behavioral and cultural shift; what we teach our children is imperative to this shift. Marla Lesage is also the author and illustrator of Pirate Year Round (2019).

"John Emigh and Lesley K. Ferris explore the role of masks in theater, whose roots lie in ritual performance. Cara McCarty looks at the ways in which masks are featured in the medium of film as well. But these artistic examples are not the only masks found in industrial societies. McCarty also discusses the proliferation of masks for physical protection, in areas such as military combat, sports competitions, and space exploration."--BOOK JACKET.

"Inspired by the childhood of the artist Jacob Lawrence in 1930s Harlem"--Front jacket flap.