“I just don’t understand how this could happen.” ‘Freedom’ was the word that encompasses who she was.” “Everything she did was just to create more freedom for the community, for Black and Indigenous folks, and especially for Black folks on Juneteenth…. “I can’t believe that it was Juneteenth, that it was her event,” her friend, Samara Cole Doyon, a children’s book author, told the newspaper. Mokeme was also an organizer of the Black Excellence Retreat that was being held the weekend she was killed. Corrie Locke-Hardy - thetinyactivist.Mokeme, the mother of an 11-year-old daughter, was the founder of Rise and Shine Youth Retreat, which provides self-development programing to children of color, and opened a wellness retreat center and cooperative living-space four years ago on a Bowdoin farm, the Globe reports.

The conviviality conveyed in this picture book draws on the strength of family, ancestors, friendship, and finding the everyday jubilance in our lives. I truly love this book, it’s described on the cover as a celebration but it’s so much more than that. 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. But nothing is point out about mobility devices or hearing aids, they purely exist as representation of the beautiful world we live in. A pair of siblings at a fair, a family at the beach. A father and his daughter going on a hike, but she has both a cane and a service dog. You can practically hear the giggles tumbling out of the characters mouths and flowing off of the pages into the air entirely. 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. The narrators fully embody happiness and comfortability in their own skin, exuberantly taking on a multitude of situations throughout the story. The story itself has a handful of narrators, and is written in lyrical prose much like I Am Brown and From Tan to Tamarind. I’m completely obsessed already and read the book twice immediately after opening it. This book is stunning, the definition of Brown Joy. This 'celebration' makes magic out of the everyday joys of being in the world.

Clara Hendricks, Cambridge Public Library, MA - School Library JournalĬelebration of community and belonging. 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. Magnificent Homespun Brown is my absolute most cannot-stop-talking-about-it, cannot-stop-recommending-it book this year.

Samara cole doyon