#candice lopez

Hello, my name is Candice Lopez, head of the SSB Affairs Weekly. I'm the person who actually runs the blog and edits the articles written by our reporters.

Kierce Sherman, our former head reporter, has in fact been demoted for misconduct and hasn't written an article since the "Everett Marriage Experience" article last month.

Maybe Something Beautiful by F. Isabel Campoy and Theresa Howell, Illustrated by Rafael Lopez

Disclaimer: I am yet to find art from Rafael Lopez that I don’t immediately love and identify with on a visceral level. He paints my heart. I’m so biased. 

Beginning with the end papers, readers are taken to a drab city with one bright window. On the first page of this story, we see Mira in the bright window taking inspiration from the city around her and extrapolating it into something more beautiful. She sees things as they can be, not necessarily how they are. As she passes out her pictures, she leaves a few splotches of color in her wake, brightening in her trail, but not actually changing anything. She hangs up the picture of the sun in the alley and finally, someone sees what Mira is seeing. He literally flips her world around and takes her message and spreads it as wide as he can. 

As the artist encourages Mira to do what she does, color begins to creep in through the sides. The town joins in and soon everyone is an artist. The back endpapers show the amazing color their city now shows.