In Different Like Coco, first-time author/illustrator Elizabeth Matthews tells the rags to riches story of the designer Coco Chanel with a charming picture book for young readers.  

Orphaned at 12, Coco and her sisters were sent to live in an orphanage/convent. It was there that Coco learned to sew and create outfits that suited her figure, as she was too skinny for the fashions of the day. She later went on to Notre Dame as a charity case. Coco never let the way other people treated her bring her down, though. Instead she learned how to carry herself like the rich girls that attend her school.  

Coco designed fashions for herself and scandalized the ladies of the day as she walked about Paris in pants and in her other slim, simple fashions. When a rich boyfriend bought her a shop of her own, the women of Paris came to buy the clothes they had thought so odd before. Now Coco dictated fashion!    

Coco Chanel dreamed of becoming rich like the girls at Notre Dame and finding acceptance. By always believing in herself, she found a way to do it by using her intelligence and her talent. She didn't fit the standard of beauty of the day, so she changed fashion to suit herself. In doing so, she changed the standard of beauty and created fashion sensation.     

I loved this book! First of all, I’m a big Coco Chanel fan. I've always loved those clothes and that vintage Chanel look. Of course, being a curvy Latina, I’d never fit in her vintage stuff. What I really loved about this book was that it told about a young, poor girl wanting more, striving for it, dreaming of it and making it happen. I loved that Coco changed fashion to suit her instead of changing herself to suit fashion. Different Like Coco is a fantastic little picture book with some important lessons.  

We live in a society that is very focused on the perception of beauty and are pretty darn obsessed with it. I hate that. It drives me crazy. I loath the fact that we're encouraged to all fit the same mold. I worry about my granddaughters and their self-image and try to turn them away from all that stuff.