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…
There has been a lot of tweets lately about #OwnVoices and who is writing diversity in children’s books after a controversial TedTalk by Nora Raleigh Baskin. I found this article by The Good Men Project that puts everything into perspective. In this post: I will lay out why racism is the foundation for #OwnVoices controversy…
I wanted to share a robust conversation that I had with two middle grade authors recently after posting this video that compared their two characters — both half-Filipino. One author is #OwnVoices and one is not. I have been tracking Filipino-American children’s books because I’m shocked and dismayed how few there are. This is especially…