Bestselling author and illustrator Vashti Harrison joins us to talk about Big, her new storybook educating children on growth and self-love. We discuss how Vashti explored the adultification of black girls, and how she utilized the color pink throughout the book. She also explains how she thinks about parents and kids as her target audience, and the process of linking an author to an illustrator in the world of children’s books.
The Stacks Book Club selection for May is This Boy We Made by Taylor Harris. We will discuss the book on May 31st with Nicole Chung.
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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.
- Big by Vashti Harrison
- Little Leaders by Vashti Harrison
- Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o, illustrated by Vashti Harrison
- Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry, illustrated by Vashti Harrison
- “Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood” (Rebecca Epstein, Jamilia J. Blake and Thalia Gonzalez, Georgetown University)
- Little Legends by Vashti Harrison
- Degas Dancers
- Little Dreamers by Vashti Harrison
- Michelle Obama
- Cece Loves Science and Adventure by Kimberly Derting and Shelli R. Johannes , illustrated by Vashti Harrison
- Hello Stars by Alena Pitts with Wynter Pitts
- Harriet the Spy (Bronwen Hughes, 1996)
- Michelle Trachtenberg
- University of Virginia
- Love is Blind (Netflix)
- “For Netflix, the Love Is Blind Live Reunion Fiasco Is More Than Just Embarrassing” (Judy Berman, Time)
- Succession (HBO)
- Hair Love ABCs by Matthew A. Cherry, illustrated by Vashti Harrison
- Bodies Are Cool by Tyler Feder
- I Love My Body Because by Shelly Anand and Nomi Ellenson, illustrated by Erika Rodriguez Medina
- Starfish by Lisa Fipps
- We Need Diverse Books
- Toni Morrison
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