Honeysmoke: A Story of Finding Your Color

by Monique Fields, Yesenia Moises (Illustrator)

Overview

A young biracial girl looks around her world for her color. She finally chooses her own, and creates a new word for herself—honeysmoke.

Simone wants a color.

She asks Mama, “Am I black or white?”

“Boo,” Mama says, just like mamas do, “a color is just a word.”

She asks Daddy, “Am I black or white?”

“Well,” Daddy says, just like daddies do, “you’re a little bit of both.”

For multiracial children, and all children everywhere, this picture book offers a universal message that empowers young people to create their own self-identity.

Simone knows her color—she is honeysmoke.

An Imprint Book

"This will appeal to so many biracial kids looking for a way to embrace every part of themselves." —NBCNews.com

"A terrific addition to the WeNeedDiverseBooks canon, where it joins such books as Selina Alko's I’m Your Peanut Butter Big Brother and Taye Diggs' Mixed Me!." —Booklist

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250115829
Publisher:	Imprint
Publication date:	01/08/2019
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	361,735
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Monique Fields is an award-winning journalist. Her essays about race and identity have appeared on air, in print, and online, including NPR’s All Things Considered, Ebony magazine, and TheRoot.com. She is the founder and editor of Honeysmoke.com, a site for parents raising multiracial children, and she is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Monique lives in Alabama with her husband and their two daughters. She is the author of Honeysmoke: A Story of Finding Your Color.

Yesenia Moises is an Afro-Latina illustrator and designer with a specialty in product design. When she’s not making toys for kids, her pastimes include indulging in really silly dating sims and playing with her wildly photogenic dog Divo. Yesenia is the illustrator of Honeysmoke: A Story of Finding Your Color.

Editorial Reviews

"Fields’ extensive experience writing about race and identity translates with beautiful simplicity here for younger readers, and Moises paints Simone with great tenderness... A terrific addition to the WeNeedDiverseBooks canon, where it joins such books as Selina Alko's I’m Your Peanut Butter Big Brother and Taye Diggs' Mixed Me!." —Booklist

"My daughter, who is also multiracial, was asking about her own color word after reading the book. Monique Fields has multiracial kids herself... and this book serves as a kid-friendly way to start that conversation." —Geek Dad

"Honeysmoke is so beautiful and true that it made me burst into tears of gratitude for what [Monique Fields] has given to us all. Honeysmoke should be in every library and gathering place of young children."
—Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab's Wife, Four Spirits, and Abundance

From the Publisher

2018-10-28

A biracial girl tries to describe herself in terms of color.

Simone, whose mother is depicted as black and whose father is depicted as white in the digital illustrations with manga-style influences, asks her parents, "Am I black or white?" Both seem a bit dismissive. Mama says, "Boo…a color is just a word." Daddy tells her, "you're a little bit of both." She then asks a diverse group of friends, "What color am I?" They respond in ways that individually align her with them. A black girl says she's black. A white boy says she's white. A girl of color whose race isn't named says "You could be one or the other." Simone then searches for colors. She's not black like the tire swing that "stains her hands and clothes" (a line that may give readers pause). Nor is she white like the classroom glue that drips on her skin. But truly, no one is those colors, and the text shifts to present Simone reflecting that her black mother has skin that "reminds her of the honey from the beehives at Grandma's house." Unfortunately, she likens her father's skin color to "the smoke that billows from Grandpa's train," which is quite a stretch, and even Moises doesn't seem to try to make the smoke resemble Daddy's pinkish skin tone. Simone combines these words to proudly call herself "honeysmoke," and readers are invited to create their own color words, too. There is a need for books in which biracial children explore their mixed identities, but this simplistic tale goes only skin deep.

Color-conscious—but that's where it stops. (Picture book. 4-6)

Kirkus Reviews