Magnificent Homespun Brown: A Celebration

by Samara Cole Doyon, Kaylani Juanita (Illustrator)

Overview

Coretta Scott King 2021 Honoree

A CBC Recommended Book • A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

A New York Public Library Best Picture Book of 2020

Kirkus Starred Review

PW Starred Review

School Library Journal Starred Review

Told by a succession of exuberant young narrators, Magnificent Homespun Brown is a story — a song, a poem, a celebration — about feeling at home in one’s own beloved skin.

With vivid illustrations by Kaylani Juanita, Samara Cole Doyon sings a carol for the plenitude that surrounds us and the self each of us is meant to inhabit.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780884487975
Publisher:	Tilbury House Publishers
Publication date:	01/07/2020
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	55,866
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	6 - 8 Years

About the Author

Samara Cole Doyon is both a second-generation Haitian American and a deeply rooted Mainer, with half of the roots of her family tree reaching generations deep into the soil of the Pine Tree State. She is a freelance writer, teacher, wife, and mother. She has been a regular contributor at Black Girl In Maine Media and has been featured in the “Deep Water” poetry column of the Portland Press Herald.

Kaylani Juanita’s mission as an artist is to support the stories of the underrepresented and create new ways for people to imagine themselves. Her work has appeared at the Society of Illustrators and the BBC website, and she is the illustrator of the picture books Ta-Da! and winner of the ALA Stonewall Book Award for When Aidan Became a Brother. She lives in the Bay Area in California. Look for her online at kaylanijuanita.com and @kaylanijuanita on Twitter and Instagram.

Editorial Reviews

"Whether this delightful book is a mirror or a window for a child, it is a must-read for its celebration of love for oneself and one’s family. Starred Review"

Clara Hendricks

"Magnificent Homespun Brown is my absolute most cannot-stop-talking-about-it, cannot-stop-recommending-it book this year."

PragmaticMom

"This book is stunning, the definition of Brown Joy. I’m completely obsessed already and read the book twice immediately after opening it. The story itself has a handful of narrators, and is written in lyrical prose much like I Am Brown and From Tan to Tamarind.  The narrators fully embody happiness and comfortability in their own skin, exuberantly taking on a multitude of situations throughout the story. And can we just talk about these illustrations for a moment?? Kaylani Juanita illustrated one of my favorite books, When Aidan Became a Brother, and has possibly outdone herself with her work between these book covers. You can practically hear the giggles tumbling out of the characters mouths and flowing off of the pages into the air entirely. The representation is exquisite. A father and his daughter going on a hike, but she has both a cane and a service dog. A pair of siblings at a fair, a family at the beach. But nothing is point out about mobility devices or hearing aids, they purely exist as representation of the beautiful world we live in. THESE are the normalizations in stories that we need, unadulterated Black and Brown joy full of self-esteem and confidence being explained with SAT-worthy vocabulary. I truly love this book, it’s described on the cover as a celebration but it’s so much more than that. The conviviality conveyed in this picture book draws on the strength of family, ancestors, friendship, and finding the everyday jubilance in our lives."

Corrie Locke-Hardy - thetinyactivist.com

★ 01/01/2020

PreS-Gr 3—This book is a joyful ode to the color brown. Several brown girls are presented across the pages as they share how the hue is featured in their lives. In a repeating pattern, Doyon first describes each kind of brown (feathery, amber, radiant, cozy, thundering, etc.) with descriptions of time spent with family and friends, from cocoa-sipping winter days to peaceful hikes in the woods. Then she presents a simple simile: "Radiant brown…like my skin." The text itself is a poem which dances playfully on the tongue when read aloud, featuring just the right amount of alliteration, a wide range of unusual vocabulary, and vibrant imagery. Juanita's illustrations are a celebration of these girls, using all shades of brown and many warm colors on a light yellow background. She gives particular care to the details that make the girls seem very real: fun hair clips, bandage-adorned skin, and patterns on clothes. They are an active bunch, leaping into piles of leaves and pirouetting on roller blades. While all characters are brown, there is a diverse cast, including a family member who uses a wheelchair and several characters wearing hijab. VERDICT Whether this delightful book is a mirror or a window for a child, it is a must-read for its celebration of love for oneself and one's family.—Clara Hendricks, Cambridge Public Library, MA

School Library Journal

★ 2019-10-27
A series of young brown girls admire the many different browns in their environments and in their own images in this poetic celebration of self and nature.

"Deep secret brown. / Like the subtly churning river currents / playfully beckoning me / through my grandmother's kitchen window…." A girl gazes, smiling, out the window at a scene of the natural world. On the next spread, a close-up of a bespectacled girl's face is accompanied by the line, "Deep secret brown…like my eyes." Another girl admires the "feathery brown" of tree shadows on a hike with her daddy and then the "feathery brown" of her eyelashes. Still another tastes the "amber brown" of honey from her aunt's hive and admires the "amber brown" of her own hair. Each girl is featured with family members or friends, relating to nature, and on her own having fun or in a reflective moment. The text of the poem is delightfully filled with rich imagery and luscious language, complex enough to grow into but familiar enough to enjoy at any age. Juanita's earth-toned illustrations are joyful and remarkably inclusive. The girls and their friends and family wear a variety of hairstyles; there are characters in hijabs, one with vitiligo, a child in a wheelchair, and an adult without a hand. Readers may find themselves wondering whether this is the same girl in many aspects or many—and then contemplating their own multifaceted natures.

This "celebration" makes magic out of the everyday joys of being in the world. (Picture book. 6-12)

Kirkus Reviews

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