I’m so happy to be kicking off 2019 with #OwnVoices. I am going to focus my blog on #OwnVoices children’s books and in a few months, you’ll know why! Today, I have Anthony Perry as my guest author. He writes as a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and the United States, as well as an immigrant…
The recent family separation of some 14,000 children is not a new policy for the United States. Involuntary assimilation was a policy during the late 19th century when the U.S. and Canadian governments forced nearly 150,000 Native American and Indigenous children into Residential Schools reminiscent of Oliver Twist’s orphanage. In fact, the Residential Schools’ conditions were…
Did you know that picture book authors and illustrators do not communicate until the project is completed? I think it’s to give the illustrator some creative space to bring the words to life. No one likes to be micromanaged by someone else’s vision. My debut picture book, SUMO JOE, with illustrator Nat Iwata is not…
Attending Kweli’s The Color of Children’s Literature Conference brought me to New York City, with just enough time to squeeze in a visit to meet Kandace Coston, my editor at Lee and Low Books for SUMO JOE, illustrated by Nat Iwata. The office building is secured, so I had to have the security guard call me…
As I read all these #OwnVoices books, I noticed that many revolved around the importance of family and food. In fact, they are intertwined together. Family recipes passed down over generations. Grandmother cooking if not grandmother actually cooking. And it’s always love that binds the generations as well as the secret sauce for why the…