Alice Faye Duncan is the author of the new children's picture book Just Like a Mama. Her other books include Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop. She is based in Memphis.
Q: What inspired your new book, Just Like a Mama?
A: I wrote the first draft for Just Like a Mama during
my first year teaching school in 1993. I taught a 4th grade class with 40
students.
There was a child in my class who did not live with her
mother. The child’s grandmother cared for her and sent her to school each
day, dressed-up clean like a shiny new penny. Every braid was perfectly parted,
oiled and decked in a silk bow that matched the child's starched ensemble.
The grandmother’s fastidious care was inspiring and
sent a message to anyone with eyes. Here was a cherished child. Here was
a child, greatly loved.
Beyond my first year teaching, the idea for Just Like a
Mama rested on me so strongly because I had witnessed the love and healing
balm of a kinship adoption. My mother adopted her sister when my
grandmother died in 1966.
It was my mother who “mothered” her 10-year old sister,
raised her up, and sent her to college. My mother's relationship with her
little sister is a maternal one. They relate to each other like mother and
daughter.
Surely I was thinking of this connection on some
subconscious level during the writing process. I have written at least five
interpretations of this story since 1993. Words and scenes have changed, but
love's celebration remains a constant.
Q: What do you think Charnelle Pinkney Barlow's
illustrations add to the story?
A: Charnelle Pinkney comes from a long line of
artists. Her grandfather is Caldecott winner Jerry Pinkney. And her
uncle is the award-winning illustrator Brian Pinkney. Drawing
and painting is Charnelle's creative inheritance--her DNA.
She is also a joyful spirit and her enthusiasm for life
lights upon each page. The energy and vibrancy of Charnelle's
pictures make for a joyful read. The pictures bubble over into good
feelings and make for bonding moments when children and adults read the book
together.
Q: What do you hope kids take away from the book?
A: I have great hopes for Just Like a Mama. I want it
to affirm the young reader who lives in a loving home where biological parents
are not present.
I want the book to inspire empathy and warm feelings in the
hearts of children who reside with their biological parents.
Of course, affirmation and empathy are incidental. I wasn't
thinking of lofty goals while writing. I wrote the story first to photograph,
capture, and remember what it looks like and feels like to be completely loved.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I belong to a Southern Sisterhood of Black
Creatives. We call ourselves "The Sowing Circle."
Presently, we have combined our efforts to promote our
four new books for children. They all debut on January 14,
2020.
The Sowing Circle's mission is very specific. We are
Black Creatives sowing words and images in the hearts of children to reap
a generation that is inquisitive, empathetic and enlightened.
We believe this mission is achieved when adults purchase our
books and share them with children in their families or donate our
books to "helping institutions" like libraries, schools, and
hospitals that serve children.
As our books are purchased and promoted, we
encourage supporters to celebrate their pre-orders and book purchases
on social media with two hashtags: #sowingcircle and #J14. Our
website is www.sowing-circle.com.
Sowing Circle participants include:
Tameka Fryer Brown—Brown Baby Lullaby
Charlotte, North Carolina
Alice Faye Duncan—Just Like a Mama
Memphis, Tennessee
Kelly Starling Lyons—Dream Builder
Raleigh, North Carolina
Vanessa Brantley-Newton—Just Like Me
Charlotte, North Carolina
In this New Year...sow a seed. Make books part of your
charitable giving. Visit the Sowing Circle at www.sowing-circle.com.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Alice Faye Duncan.
I love this interview and I need this book in my library. Thank you again, Alice Faye Duncan for writing the life affirming story that so many kids need to hear, to read...and to know is on a shelf. You are such an inspiration to me.
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