Commemorating Their Contribution

If any individual's story ends in triumph, should we not cheer outwardly, or at the very least, inwardly for them?  Are we not glad for their success, whether they are known to us or not?  They might be someone from the past or present who spent or are spending time on this planet.  They might exist because of someone's imagination.  And if this individual is one of a group, a group bound together by history, culture, and resilience, we should exalt their accomplishments.

Each time All Because You Matter (Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., October 6, 2020) written by Tami Charles with illustrations by Bryan Collier is read, you find yourself saying in your heart of hearts, "Yes! Yes! Yes!"  You repeat that word of affirmation because of the truth and power in the words you've read and in the artwork you've seen.  This same collaborative team released the second book, We Are Here (Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., January 3, 2023), in this trio as our new calendar year started.  It is as compelling and eloquent as its predecessor.  

The journey of who we are

stretches beyond

   rivers,

      roads,

mountains high-fiving

blue skies.

This sentence is followed with a reminder that this is the way it has always been and always will be.  This unseen narrator speaks with joy and purpose.  They say as seeds our roots go deep, pulsing with potential.  That potential has been realized repeatedly in the achievements of others.

Their marks have been made in space exploration, building and music made with instruments and voices.  Those voices rang out on stages, steps, and in stadiums.  They still do.

This journey being taken is reflected in the array of food prepared, seasoned, and eaten.  Those walking on the path break barriers, heads held high at points around the world.  They are understood by all, talking in a universal language.  They march placing one foot in front of the other so no one is forgotten.  As long as your story is told, you will be remembered.

Even a condition that swept around the world, bringing everything to a standstill, did not stop these courageous people.  This child is told by this narrator that these courageous people did not stop because 

we have always been heroes.

Hold tight to your promise regardless of what others might say.  You are remarkable in every respect.  

The author's note by Tami Charles begins with this sentence.

For a long time, I have wanted to write something in honor of my daughter, whom I didn't get to meet.

Word by word, each rhythmic phrase builds something beautiful and . . . strong.  The voice in this narrative speaks to this beauty and strength created over time and seen in the determination of a people to be the best of the best.  The imagery fashioned by the words of Tami Charles are something to see with our eyes and hold close regardless of the ups and downs life has and will deliver.  A precious daughter has indeed been honored.  Here is another passage.

We are joy!

Igniting the world,

like stars caliente and bright,

like trumpets blaring at

midnight!

You hear that?

   Skit-skat-

      caddy-wack!

Even if you had not seen his name on the dust jacket and book case, you would know by looking at them the artwork is by Bryan Collier.  His color palette first seen on the matching and open jacket and case is rich like royalty.  See how the color of the text, the girl's headband and shirt contrast and complement the deep blue and purple hues.  The use of light and shadow is exquisite.

The opening and closing endpapers are a pattern of portions of row houses.  In the illustrator's note, Bryan Collier explains this choice.  The dedication, verso, and title pages use the sky and circular elements seen on the jacket and case as a background.

Rendered 

with collage and Winsor & Newton watercolor paint on 300lb. Arches watercolor paper,

these images each span one and one-half pages.  In many of the pictures, the child seen on the front, right side, of the jacket and case is featured.  She is shown with her family, very close to us so we see only a portion of her face, and we look, like a gliding bird, down on her as she builds something.

Subsequent illustrations highlight Black Americans showcased in the text.  Those row houses appear many times.  We see Bryan Collier's use of rays.  In four of the five final pictures, the girl returns.  Careful readers will see the balloon shown in the first picture appear again and again.  The artwork of Bryan Collier for this book lifts up the beauty and strength of the words until you want to shout it out loud.

One of my many favorite illustrations is the girl standing outside the home shown in the first picture of her with her family.  We are very close to her.  The upper portion of her body fills most of the space with the home and the vibrant blue and purple sky behind her.  She is leaning toward us.  Her lips are shaped to blow air toward the wand she holds in her right hand.  The wand has been dipped in a solution to make bubbles.  They float in front of her and to the right.

This book, We Are Here written by Tami Charles with artwork by Bryan Collier, is a song to be sung to Black children (to all children so all children will know).  You can sing it out loud like a choir or softly like a lullaby.  This is a heartwarming, inspirational, exhilarating, and hopeful title.  There are seven paragraphs at the close of the book dedicated to those honored in these pages.  There is a short glossary.  Be sure to read the author's note and illustrator's note.  You will want to share this often and widely by having it in your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Tami Charles and Bryan Collier and their other work, please follow the link attached to their names to access their websites.  Tami Charles has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Bryan Collier has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  

For The Children

In the first meeting with my first principal in my first school, something he said has stayed with me for more than four decades.  This was the first year for this principal in this building. He looked at an over-abundance of new staff seated around the conference table.  The first thing he said to us was "without the children, we would not need you."  He wanted us to know the students came first.  

For me, not only did students come first, but I tried to look at them and say, "What if this was my child?"  I wanted them to have every advantage, every opportunity, and every respect I had to offer.  This is why certain books move me deeply.  With every reading of All Because You Matter (Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic, Inc., October 6, 2020) written by Tami Charles with illustrations by Bryan Collier, I find tears welling in my eyes.  Every single child deserves to be enveloped with the love and positivity pouring from the pages of this book.

They say that matter

is all things

that make up the universe:

   energy

      stars,

         space . . .

If that's the case,

then you, dear child, matter.

The voice continues to tell the child how in a time before they were a hope, people were shaping a world to welcome this child.  In this world they used their strength, physical and mental, to benefit those who were not yet born.  Everything they did was for the future.

On the evening of the birth of this child stars signaled the worth of this birth and every moment that was to follow.  Moments were chronicled, moments like first steps, first words, and the opening of a first book.  The combination of all elements in this book were to lift him up.  But . . .

There will not always be affirmation in this world.  Your name, the way you dress, how you complete your schoolwork, and how you and others like you are viewed will have you questioning your value.  You will ponder.  You will doubt.

Then this precious child is reminded about those from whom he came.  He is reminded about the depth of their accomplishments and character.  He is reminded of the night he was born and how the stars shone.  He is reminded that since the beginning of the beginning he and a multitude of others before and after him have always mattered.

Every carefully chosen word of author Tami Charles works toward a loving whole.  She desires readers of this book to know they are important regardless of anything else they may see, hear, or read.  She, sentence by sentence, fashions a verbal representation of this truth.  By repeating specific words from the beginning of her narrative on the final pages she brings us full circle.  Here is a passage.

The words and pictures

coming together like

sweet jam on toast,

musica blasting through barrios,

sun in blue sky . . .

all because you matter.

How could you not love the child featured on the front of the open dust jacket?  Look at that beautiful face, so full of promise.  A collage of petals frame either side of him.  Illustrator Bryan Collier states in a note he begins with a single petal symbolizing a beginning and layers these to create blossoms.  You can see faces in some of them.  These depict those who have always believed you matter.

The collage of petals continues to the left of the spine, on the back of the dust jacket.  It makes a valley in the center of the page.  Across the starry sky, a single star streaks from left to right. 

On the book case an interior image is expanded.  It conveys a time when the child speculates on whether he will ever have value.  He thinks this as his Pop Pop prays for those children gone:

Trayvon,

Tamir,

Philando.

On the opening and closing endpapers the collage of petals in various hues of blue form a canvas.  They are replete with stars.  On the first a single star speeds from left to right on the right side.  On the second a moon hangs on the left side, a sliver beginning to show. Petals in a wallpaper pattern with blues and purple form a background for the verso and title pages.  

Each illustration

created with collage and Winsor & Newton watercolor paint on 300lb. Arches watercolor paper 

usually spanning two pages, with a portion left for a column for text, is a glorious representation and enhancement of the text.  The color palette is luminous.  The faces on the people are exquisite.  You expect them to walk off the pages.  Each element in these pictures is a meticulously placed piece.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is toward the beginning of the book.  The picture covers the entire left side, crosses the gutter and fills the left side of the right half.  The text appears on the wallpaper-textured right side.  The illustration features an African tribal chieftain with his left arm raised, fist clenched.  His face reflects calm, purpose, and strength.  Fanning to the left, above, and right of him are layers of petals, many of them have their tips folded down.  There are many patterns, colors, and people on them.  On the far left is a golden sky, hills, and pyramids.  On the right is the starry sky with the silver of moon.  

Thinking about this book, you cannot imagine a better pairing than this author and illustrator.  For All Because You Matter written by Tami Charles with artwork by Bryan Collier, each one of them painstakingly added words and brush strokes and collage to make this stunning book for children, their parents and other adults who hold them in great affection.  At the close of the book both Tami Charles and Bryan Collier include notes for readers.  This book comes with my highest recommendation for your personal and professional collections.  (I am adding my accolades to many others, professional and personal.)

To learn more about Tami Charles and Bryan Collier and their other work, please follow the link attached to their names to access their respective web sites.  Tami Charles has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.  Bryan Collier has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  At the publisher's website you can view interior images and read the notes found at the end of the book.  On the Scholastic blog there is more from Tami Charles you might enjoy.  At Scholastic's Ambassador of School Libraries, John Schumacher's site, Watch. Connect. Read., Tami Charles and Bryan Collier talk about this book.  This book and Tami Charles are featured on The Children's Book Podcast with teacher librarian Matthew Winner.  At We Need Diverse Books the book trailer is premiered.  Tami Charles and Bryan Collier are also guests at Politics and Prose Bookstore.

Cooking Up Memories

In twelve days on December 31, 2019 at midnight, this decade will come to a close. To say the world and its inhabitants have seen monumental changes in these ten years is truly an understatement. From the individual to the global level and everything in-between, there have been heartbreaking setbacks and soul-soaring achievements, great sadness and glorious happiness.

A new year is a time to remember, reflect and refine.  It is a time to honor the past and embrace the future.  Freedom Soup (Candlewick Press, December 10, 2019) written by Tami Charles with illustrations by Jacqueline Alcantara is certain to have readers recalling their family histories and favorite soup recipes and how the two mix to make memories passed from generation to generation.

Today is New Year's Day.  This year, I get to help make Freedom Soup.

The child's grandmother, Ti Gran, believes she has a gift for cooking.  Winter is wrapping the outside world in cold and snow.  Inside warmth spreads throughout Ti Gran's kitchen as music, Haitian kompa, fills the air with its rhythmic sounds.  The two dance in shared affection for each other and the meal they are making.

Belle and Ti Gran combine a mixture of herbs and marinate the meat.  Together they raise up the boiled pumpkin and remove the skin.  Vegetables are peeled and pared.  Belle adds them to the pot with the pumpkin and the now browned meat.  As the ingredients simmer and are stirred, Ti Gran begins a story, the story of Freedom Soup.

Her grandmother speaks of slavery in Haiti.  The Haitians labored in the relentless sun where sugarcane, coffee and vegetables grew.  They made soup for the masters but were not allowed to eat it.  It was only for the free to consume.

After years and years of slavery, the people fought for years to regain their freedom.  In celebration of their new independence, they made and ate Freedom Soup.  As the two start to dance reliving the freedom their ancestors won, Belle adds pasta to the soup.  Later, a host of relatives gather at Ti Gran's marveling at the soup and savoring the stories.


Author Tami Charles shares her special recipe for storytelling in this narrative.  Her ingredients, lush descriptions of setting and rich verbs, create a delectable and sensory experience for readers. The inclusion of dialogue elevates her first-person perspective as told by Belle.  Here is a passage.

Outside, snow is piling,
cottony-thick.  Inside, warm,
sweet air flows.

Haitian kompa pours
through the speakers.  The
shake-shake of maracas
vibrates down to my toes.

Ti Gran's feet tap-tap to
the rhythm.


When you first look at the open, matching dust jacket and book case, the front, on the right, is shouting out absolute bliss.  The bright, bold complementary colors heighten the movements of Ti Gran and Belle.  The swirl of their clothing, their upraised and bent arms and toe-tapping feet invite, no demand, you walk right into that scene and join them!

To the left, on the back, a circular image is placed on a golden brush-stroked canvas.  It is an image from Ti Gran's story of the revolt of the slaves for freedom.  This dust jacket and book case show us the celebration and the historical basis for it, generation after generation.

There is a tiny floral pattern in two-tone hues of pumpkin on the opening and closing endpapers.  On the title page, a kneeling Ti Gran is placing an apron over the head of Belle before they begin cooking in her kitchen. Rendered

in pencil, marker, and gouache
and assembled digitally

these illustrations by Jacqueline Alcantara are vibrant double-page pictures, page edge to page edge, insets placed between text on crisp white with a vivid sky-blue border, single-page images, page edge to page edge and single-page visuals framed in white space.

Each picture is brimming with cultural and historical details, movement, the aroma of the soup and the wondrous pleasure Belle and her Ti Gran feel when they are together.  When the story is being told, Jacqueline Alcantara places Ti Gran, Belle or the soup in part of the picture, a combination that brings the past into the present.  Readers will enjoy the shifts in perspective and how it contributes to the pacing and emphasizes specific moments.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is for the text above noted.  It is a double-page picture.  On the left in the background through the kitchen windows, we can see a city white with snow and chilly blue with cold.  A counter stretches beneath the windows to the refrigerator on the right. A radio on the counter is playing the Haitian kompa. Another counter moves from the left edge of the page, crosses the gutter and ends on the bottom of the right side.  This counter is filled with ingredients for the soup.  Ti Gran is holding a carrot in her left hand and stirring something in a bowl with her right hand.  On the right Belle is standing on a chair dancing and shaking a spice shaker.  Behind her is the refrigerator, magnets on the top portion, pictures, treasured items, a few pieces of art and a plant.  This scene reminds us of the importance of making our own happiness whenever we can.


This book, Freedom Soup written by Tami Charles with illustrations by Jacqueline Alcantara, is a story of tasting triumph each and every year.  It is about family, remembering from where we've come and as Ti Gran says:

"Oh, Belle.  Nothing in this world is free, not even freedom."

At the close of the book, the author includes a recipe for Freedom Soup and an author's note.  Both are wonderful and informative.  I can't imagine a professional or personal library without a copy of this title.

To learn more about Tami Charles and Jacqueline Alcantara and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their respective websites.  Tami Charles has accounts on Instagram and Twitter.  Jacqueline Alcantara has accounts on Instagram and Twitter.  The cover for this title was revealed at Latinxs in Kid Lit.  You can view interior images at the publisher's website, at Penguin Random House and at the publisher's Facebook account.