A Minisink Valley  graduate is the illustrator of a children’s book celebrating diversity and acceptance.

Jack Golden, a member of the Class of 2017, illustrated Rachel Saar’s recently released book titled: “Beautiful Me.”

The book, featuring Jack’s illustrations and her rhyming text, “offers a creative and fun way to embrace blended families, different races, and many different ethnic backgrounds. Children in the story Beautiful Me are reminded that they are beautiful and that families do not have to match. ‘Beautiful Me’ allows children to see families of mixed race, blended ethnicity, and adoption,” according to Amazon’s description of the book.

An Amazon book review noted: “This is a wonderful book for both children and adults. This book celebrates diversity in many ways. While the book focuses on diversity in skin colors, it also highlights a child with a skin condition and a child who was adopted. There is a little something everyone can relate to in this book. The overall message that we are all beautiful in our own way is stated in a beautifully heartfelt manner.”

The book was published in December 2020.

Jack is currently a teaching assistant at the University of Scranton.