SHADES OF BLACK: A Celebration of Our Children

Written by Sandra L. Pinkney

Photography by Myles C. Pinkney 

(Scholastic, 2000) 

 

After George Floyd’s death on May 25th of this year, there was a resurgence in the Black Lives Matter movement and a sense that America and the world had reached a pivotal point. No longer was it enough to sing about a better future somewhere down the line as in “A Change Is Gonna Come”—a song that was first recorded fifty-six years ago, after all. The time for real change seemed to have finally arrived. World leaders and corporate CEOs were acknowledging “systemic racism” and people who chose to peacefully protest reflected a greater diversity. In the publishing world, some magazines saw changes in editorial boards, recognizing that their composition still looked glaringly White. Books like Caste by Isabel Wilkerson and White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo lingered on the bestseller charts and it seemed like every agent was seeking #ownvoices books with BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) characters. Long time coming. 

Thankfully, the book world had its share of powerful Black writers prior to 2020. Alice Walker. Maya Angelou. Toni Morrison. Langston Hughes. Alex Haley. Zadie Smith. James Baldwin. Roxanne Gay. Terry McMillan. August Wilson. Some of my favorite creators of children’s books include Jacqueline Woodson, Walter Dean Myers, Zetta Elliott, Jason Reynolds and illustrator E.B. Lewis. 

 Still, I’ve often heard people of color talk about how hard it was to find books with characters they could physically identify with when they were growing up. When my local library finally reopened, the first books I checked out were Marita Golden’s Don’t Play in the Sun: One Woman’s Journey through the Color Complex (Doubleday, 2004) and Shades of Black by the husband and wife team of Sandra and Myles Pinkney. I was surprised and heartened to see that Shades of Black is twenty years old. 

Through words and photos, the Pinkneys celebrate the different hues and textures of the skin, hair and eyes of Black children, with each of the three sections beginning with the affirming statement: 

          I am Black 

               I am Unique 

Skin color is compared to different foods, with text such as “I am the midnight blue in a licorice stick” or “I am the radiant brassy yellow in popcorn.” Each accompanying photo depicts a child interacting with the food item that resembles the child’s skin tone, be it the “velvety orange in a peach” or the “gingery brown in a cookie.” 

 The section on hair texture and style compares hair to natural fibers like “stiff ringlets in lambs wool” and “the twisted corkscrew in a rope.” Again, a child with the referenced type of hair is photographed with the natural item. It ends with the proud declaration, “All of my hair is good.” 

Eyes are compared to colorful stones and a Black child appears in each photo to show the similarity of his or her eyes with shiny pieces of unakite, onyx and tiger’s eye. (I learned a few new terms myself!) 

The book ends with the following passage: 

          I am Black 

               I am Unique 

          I come from ancient Kings and Queens. 

          When you look at me, what do you see? 

               I am Black 

          I am proud of me 

Pride and joy arise from the text but are further emboldened in the striking photos of happy, confident Black children. This is a book I can see parents and teachers reading to children over and over again, instilling a positive regard not just as to a child’s own particular skin, hair and eye color, but in the broad range of hair types and skin and eye colors in the Black race. It also can serve to help non-Black children see and celebrate the broad range of appearance in any race. 

Photos of people can often look dated, but Myles Pinkney’s portraits look as current and relatable today as they would have two decades ago. 

A quick internet search shows that the book remains available for purchase on sites like Scholastic, Amazon, Chapters, and Barnes and Noble. You can also fine a read-aloud of the book on YouTube.

THE LEGEND OF ROCK PAPER SCISSORS

Written by Drew Daywalt

Illustrated by Adam Rex

(Balzer + Bray, 2017)

The game Rock, Paper, Scissors has been my go-to to solve so many minor disagreements between kids. Who has first chance at the last swing on the playground? Who’s going to be goalie for soccer? Who gets the last cookie?

Rock, paper, scissors…

Solved!

Kids like the randomness of it. Maybe I’ll be the victor, maybe I won’t. Whatever the result, they know they had a hand in it. Literally. No calls of “Not fair!” No pleas for best two out of three. The rules are all too clear: rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, paper beats rock. Brilliant—even if I’ve always wondered how a sheet of paper really beats a rock. (Wrapping it? Please.)

Drew Daywalt—he of mega-popular The Day the Crayons Quit—has teamed up with beloved illustrator Adam Rex (Pssst!;Tree Ring Circus) to bring an origin story of the Rock, Paper, Scissors game.

Yes, once upon a time in separate kingdoms, Rock, Paper and Scissors lived unsatisfying lives, doing battle with unworthy rivals. 

Rock vs. Clothespin.

Paper vs. Trail Mix Bits.

Scissors vs. Roll of Tape.

I always caution a young audience that the pictures post-battle are gruesome—a smooshed apricot (Egad!), severed bits of tape (Yikes!). 

These are hollow victories, indeed. Nothing to celebrate at all.

SPOILER ALERT: It took the coming together of Rock, Paper and Scissors to offer worthy challenges. Even defeat felt rewarding. The stakes of battle proved just right.

This is one of those why-didn’t-I-think-of-it books. A simple concept, but told with kid-friendly humor. The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors is a terrific read-aloud, one that will allow you to test your battle-ready dramatic delivery as these fierce warriors seek and find their respected competitors. Battle on!

I WILL NOT EAT YOU

Written by Adam Lehrhaupt

Illustrated by Scott Magoon

(Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2016)

Two eyes stare out from a dark cave.  These are the eyes of Theodore. Who is this cave-dwelling creature? A bear? A monster? The bogeyman?! Whoever--whatever--it is, it seems primarily focused on eating. Or not eating.

Various creatures--a bird, a wolf, a tiger--approach the cave and each time Theodore shoos them away. "I will not eat you."

But then a silly boy appears, dressed in a cape and bearing a sword and shield. Does the boy dare to taunt Theodore?

"Don't bother me, pesky boy," he bellowed, "or I will eat you.

But the boy does not heed Theodore's warning. He does not back down.

Finally, we see who Theodore is. Without spoiling the story, I'll just say that the interaction is surprising in a way that still leaves the reader to wonder how things may play out after the story's end.

Lehrhaupt, the author of the delightful Warning: Do Not Open This Book, has a knack for amusing the reader. There's such a quick flow to the story that it's over before I wanted it to be. Perhaps there will be a sequel involving Theodore and the boy. There is a fun, quirky, slightly uncertain relationship here that deserves another tale.

FARM

By Elisha Cooper

(Orchard Books, 2010)

I'm a big admirer of Elisha Cooper's books. I've previously blogged about his wonderful Building and Ice Cream. Here again, Cooper matches crisp language with gorgeous watercolor artwork to create a cohesive book on a single topic.

What boy doesn't love the farm? The machines and the animals captivate young imaginations. Cooper has clearly studied farm life to offer a clear idea of what it's like in this setting.

Take a farmer, another farmer, a boy, a girl. 
Add a house, two barns, four silos, some sheds, three tractors, some trucks, a few farmhands, and plenty of equipment.
Then cattle, chickens, countless cats, a dog.
Put them together and you get...a farm.

A young reader is instantly hooked. As always, Cooper adds precious details to make things realistic.

Inside the tractor, the farmer drinks coffee and listens to weather reports on the radio. Every once in a while, he turns in his seat to check the tiller.

Cooper packs so much in short sentences.

It starts to rain. The tractor stops again. March is a mud month and weather must be dry for tilling. The framer will have to wait. Weather can't be fixed.


Some pages have a single scene, but Cooper typically includes several smaller illustrations to show action. Against white and soft blue backgrounds, the red images pop, just like the red barns we see when driving in the countryside. As an adult reads, a child has so much to see, so much to imagine.

Cooper takes the reader through a year on the farm, from early spring tractor preparation to the fall harvest and the time when "cattle are sent to market." (Wisely, he does not elaborate.)

In all, this is another feast for the eyes and ears as children and adults can enjoy the interplay between text and pictures. It's another book worth tracking down!

THE HOLE

By Oyvind Torseter

(Enchanted Lion Books, 2013)

I want to start by saying I love this book, but then I can say that about almost every book I blog. This one, however, is simply brilliant, all because of a pencil-sized hole that cuts through the middle of the book. Opening the book, we see a simply drawn guy moving into a new apartment. Inside his apartment is a hole in the wall right beside the door. At first, it's not a problem. The guy hasn't noticed it. He unboxes a few items and makes a fried egg for a meal. As he sits on another box to eat, he looks up and finally sees the hole, eight pages into the story.

"What's this?" he says as he leaps up to examine the hole in the wall. He walks through the door to look at the hole from the other side; however, the hole seems to be gone. In the new illustration, the hole now  represents the window of the washing machine. He returns to the first room. By drawing the first room from a slightly different perspective, the hole moves from the wall to the floor. The guy trips. This hole is a hazard! It continues to move on each page as the guy makes his way through different parts of the apartment. Egad!

He calls a science lab. "Yes, hello...I've found a hole...in my apartment...Yes, no...It keeps moving...Yes...Could you come and have a look?"

Alas they can't. They want him to bring the hole to them. The guy must trap this moving hole in a box and take it to the lab. As he travels with his boxed hole, the hole on the page becomes part of a traffic light, the tire of a vehicle, a nostril of a child.

Kids shout out, "Eww!" when it gets to the nostril page. But they are hooked. They examine the always-present hole in the center of the page and marvel at how it forms a different item in each illustration.

Fortunately, the scientists take the hole from the guy who returns home, relieved that the hole is out of his hands. But, of course, we know the hole remains on the page. It's only a matter of time until the guy is distressed once again.

This is a truly novel picture book, with very few words. (The text was originally published in Norwegian.) It's one that kids will want to look at again right after the first viewing, spending more time paying attention to how the hole seems to move and how it takes on different forms due to Torseter's creative design. It's a book that's well worth the extra effort of tracking it down.  

THE GRUMPY DOODLE BOOK

By Taro Gomi

(Chronicle Books, 2012)

I just love the concept of this book. It begins with:

I don't know what you're grumpy about, but why don't you try doodling? Doodle anything you like. See? Aren't you starting to feel better?

And the likely answer from a truly grumpy person will be, "NO!"

But that's okay. Taro Gomi provides ample space for grumpy doodles. Gomi draws a simple shell of a house and invites the doodler to "draw a person being very cranky inside this house." The doodler next gets to make a teapot angry and create a crabby train.

It gets more absurd. "What do grouchy mountains look like?" Draw the clothes you would wear when feeling mad. Make a "furious clock".

After about fifty pages of angry doodles, Gomi says:

Well, well! You don't look grumpy anymore. What does your face look like now? Now that you're feeling better, turn the page for more doodling.

Here's where I expect a typical doodler to resist, not due to still being grumpy, but simply to have fun. There are pages and pages left for the user to draw angry blobs and squiggles. Or not. Maybe a smiley face will creep in. Ultimately, I have a strong hunch that the budding artist will find amusement in free-form doodling, regardless of whatever emotion he or she feels in the moment. Art is indeed a form of expression.

PLEASE, MR. PANDA

By Steve Antony

(Scholastic Press, 2014)

When I began to read this book for the first time, I was alarmed. A doughnut-carrying panda seemed to be a not-too-distant cousin of Grumpy Cat.

Panda:     Would you like a doughnut?
Penguin:  Give me the pink one.
Panda:     No, you cannot have a doughnut.
                 I have changed my mind.

Oh, dear.

One by one, black and white critters--a skunk, an orca whale--are offered and then denied doughnuts. As an educator, I wondered why in the world anyone saw fit to publish this book. This gruff panda is not a proper role model. Bring back cutesy pandas!

But, of course, my shock was for naught. Perhaps I've become too accustomed to people who fail to practice good manners. As the book goes on, we see that panda is not a doughnut hog who lacks the ability to share; instead, panda is taking a stand for good manners. Of course! How lovely.

When I read the story aloud to a group of students, I can see them go through the same thoughts as I experienced: mean panda, greedy panda,...ah, but no. A principled panda! As students catch on, there is an implied wink shared between us.

Turns out this book is a delightful way to remind children of the power of "please".