We aren't sure, but we do know that this image is a fitting opener for the recently published Library of Congress-Kales Press book, When They Were Young. According to Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Coles, who wrote the accompanying text, this image, called The Newborn, by Suzanne Szasz (1955), "is a reminder, perhaps, that we who have mastered standing were once thoroughly in need of the outstretched arms of others."

This picture was selected from among thousands of images in the Prints and Photographs collections of the Library of Congress. These images of youth capture the experience of childhood as it is connected across time, different cultures and diverse backgrounds. Whether encumbered by poverty or born into privilege, boys and girls look unflinchingly at the lens and toward the future. Their honest gazes reveal who these children are and how they view themselves and their world - with implications of the vast roads that lie ahead.