stand up, stand out

I’m taking a much-needed day of silence today, and I’ve got my brand new hot water bottle wedged between my spine and three cushions. I really do try to maintain good posture while I’m writing, but my back is letting me know that something’s still not right. I’m in the process of editing An Angel for Mariqua and this morning I got the first color illustrations from Babs Webb for Fox & Crow: a Christmas Tale. They’re fantastic! I was really proud to be able to offer multiple titles to the book fair attendees; when only one or two participating authors are Black, that usually means the number of books featuring Black children is limited as well. I’ve had the names and faces of the kids I met on my mind: Drew, Navi, Jane, Milo, James, Nyla, Blake, Gus and little sister Sabine, Dimitrios and little sister Persephone! One of the youngest children who visited my table at the book fair on Saturday was a five-year-old Black boy named Gerry. His mom asked him if he was interested in The Last Bunny in Brooklyn and to seal the deal, I opened the book to the final illustration. It was like holding up a mirror and Gerry nodded his head vigorously the next time his mom asked, “Do you want that book?” A bit later a white woman stopped by my table and pointed out that The Last Bunny looked very different than the rest of my books, which I assume meant she thought the others were “about race.” Once again, I opened up to that last illustration and informed her that it was an allegory. I wasn’t offended by her question and if I recall correctly, she came back later to buy a copy but I’d sold out by then. I want to have books that appeal to a range of readers, but I also want my books to be political—to perform a much-needed intervention in the lily-white world of children’s literature. I suppose The Last Bunny won’t stand out so much once Fox & Crow is published next month. I don’t feel the need to prove that I’m not a “one-trick pony,” or that I’m not “obsessed” with race. If I had the means to publish my other 20 manuscripts then readers could see my body of work and know that I write about lots of different things. For now, I’ll have to settle for a baker’s dozen; when An Angel for Mariqua and Fox & Crow are published next month, that will bring my total to 13. With more titles to follow in 2015…