Honeysmoke: A Story of Finding Your Color by Monique Fields
This book tells about a biracial girl searches for the perfect color word to describe herself in this empowering picture book with a universal theme of self-identity, eventually describing a special word to describe the combination of her mother’s dark and her father’s light skin colors: honeysmoke. [1]
Summary
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.”
Simone knows her color—she is honeysmoke.
For multiracial kids, and all kids everywhere they are, this picture book teach a universal message that empowers young people to create their own self-identity. [2]
Pros
This is a very unique story with beautiful art work. The little girl is working through holding both of her identities and capturing it through a color of her own. She explores each of her parents attributes and family, resulting in her own color skin. [3]
One of a verified reader gave her comment about this book. She mention this book counts as a diverse book because the family depicted is a family with a mixed heritage. The mother is African-American, the father is white, and the daughter is a mix of the two. In it, the daughter struggles with some identity issues - as far as knowing what color she is and how she fits in. The author has written multiple essays on race and identity, she founded a non-profit named after this book as a resource for parents raising children of multicultural backgrounds. [4]
References
- ↑ https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/83549-a-children-s-and-ya-anti-racist-reading-list.html
- ↑ https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250115829
- ↑ https://www.amazon.com/Honeysmoke-Story-Finding-Your-Color/dp/1250115825
- ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34499226-honeysmoke