Children's Book Author..
My first two African princess colouring pages are now Printables.
I have started work on my STEM Lovin’ Baby-Sitters colouring book. There will be pages about STEM, baby-sitting and natural hair. I will be making free printables as I go along starting with natural hair and fancy dress.
Fun and empowering colouring books with natural hair for black girls and boys
Here are a few of the colouring books that I have come across recently that celebrate diversity and feature black characters.
Colouring books can be cheap and cheerful. However if you want colouring pages with black kids or natural hair then you may have to pay a bit more. The books I have chosen here are high quality products created by named authors and illustrators. Some have special features like activity and journalling pages. All are designed to be empowering.
This 64 page book is full of boys getting into things like footballs, fireflies and fishing. Cute and cheerful drawings of little dudes will encourage small guys to get the crayons out. Chiquanda also has a sweet book for girls.
The STEM Colouring and Activity Book by J.D. Wright
It was hard to pick a favourite from this author’s appealing selection of books but I went for the STEM book as it features a multicultural cast of cute girls who cry out to be coloured in. There are also questions for the child to answer so a very endearing souvenir can be created. JD Wright has free pages to download on her site showing black kids with cool hairstyles.
Dream Big! More than a Princess Colouring book by Stephanie Tabashneck
My absolute favourite page in the set of images of girls with big dreams shows a woman strolling barefoot along a beach She asserts that she wants to be a mom and will foster, adopt or have her own kids.
The drawings of multicultural young women doing valuable work make this a fabulous career guidance book. Is she can do it so can I!
Colour My Fro; A Natural Hair Coloring book for Big Hair Lovers of all Ages by Crystal Swain Bates
I’ve blogged about this book before because I just love colouring it in. Cheerful , gorgeous women with natural hair are shown in a range of activities. The drawings by Janine Harrington are printed on one side of the paper only and cry out to be framed. Crystal Swain Bates has many great books.
I was complaining about the shortage of books for boys and author Crystal Swain Bates drew my attention to this fun filled 40 pager.
Cody and Jay are two lads who love to have fun. The book has activity pages, drawings to complete and a positive celebratory attitude. Spaceships and cars feature.
As I mentioned earlier I was complaining about books for boys in Instagram and Plum Street Press drew my attention to Swift Walker – a chirpy little characters who stars in many books for the 4-8 age group. Swifts loves travel and adventure. The drawings of Swift with his natural fro and just doing a little bit of work for representation.
Write On Girl : A Fun Guided journal for teen girls by Jillian D Bradfield
I have been watching this one on instagram for a while as the author jilleybeanbooks showed off pages and details of the project. I don’t have a copy yet but I can see from the reviews that as well as having drawings that girls will adore, the book deals with all the topics facing girls.
What really caught my eye was the pretty pre-teen saying a prayer and having a chat with God. I was impressed as a lot of books talk about empowerment without acknowledging spirituality.
The STEM Lovin Baby-Sitters by Avril O’Reilly
The characters from my book A Fairy in the Family Again have their own colouring book. The book was developed in London. It shows Jada-Kai, Keysha and Ruby as totally cool baby-sitters. The idea is that the child colouring the book is learning from these kind-hearted big girls about what big kids love to do. Those things include science, baby-sitting and black hair.
Girls will get to colour in pages with science, geckos, hairstyles, braids, unicorns, natural hair and even an African Princess Fancy Dress Party.
15 Big Dreamers from a wonderful Multi-cultural series by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara – Vegara has turned her book production into an efficient factory of inspirational stories and loveable art. On ya go, Maria. You can ask a kid to imagine/draw themselves in this style- and ask them about their BIG dreams.
Bekki the Fairy meets Obi and Titi
Bekki: Hello Obi and Titi. I am Bekki the Fairy. I am delighted to meet you both.
Titi: Wow, so fairies really do exist?! That is so cool!
Obi: Can you fly? I want to see, I want to see! I have a monkey called Mumu and he can talk but he can’t fly, oh!
Titi: Obi, Mumu is no longer your monkey. Remember, he ran off and the talking thing is meant to be a secret.
*Titi rolls her eyes*
Titi: It’s really nice to meet you too Bekki. Please carry on, don’t mind him.
Bekki: Is it true your story happens in Africa in the olden historical days?
Titi: Yes, it’s based in the 15th century in a place called the Benin Kingdom.
Obi: Yes, it was a great empire which is located where present-day Nigeria is.
Bekki: This is a question for Titi. Are you really a princess?
Obi: Oh, oh! Now you’re in trouble, fairy girl. She doesn’t like being called a princess, do you Royal Princess Titilayo? Hahaha.
Titi: It’s okay. Yes, I am but I’m no different from anybody else. Obi reminds me of that every day.
Obi: Yes, I do, oh. In fact, it is my royal duty hehehe…..
Bekki: I come from London but I am a mixture of Nigeria, Ghana, Brazil, Portugal and Scotland. Are you a mixture?
Obi: Nope. I’m pure Obi and she is pure Titi!
Titi: Don’t mind him, he doesn’t know what he is talking about. Our creator wanted to mix things up a little so he gave me a Yoruba name and Obi is Igbo. Research shows that the Benin Kingdom, at the time, was very mixed as there were so many different groups of people living there from all over.
Bekki: If I did a magic spell to go to Nigeria would I be able to see the hidden Temple of Ogisu?
*Obi laughs *
Obi: Of course not, its hidden and it’s really, really hard to find, but if you grant me a couple of wishes I might show it to you.
Titi: Obi you are so rude! Don’t give him anything. You probably shouldn’t have granted him this interview. He is going to spoil it!
Bekki: Who wrote a book about you and why?
Obi: Oh, I know this one. Can I answer? Can I?
Titi: It was Mr O T Begho and he wrote about us and our adventure for two main reasons. One was the lack of black characters in books, educational material, cartoons and games. The second was to give a more factual and positive representation of African history and culture.
Obi: I was gonna say that!
Bekki: Did you like having a pet monkey, Obi?
Obi: No! He is an olè!
Titi: Sorry, that means thief and he isn’t. He is just misunderstood.
Obi: Really? What about when he stole my birthday presents or the time we caught him with a bag full of gold in the temple.
Titi: Err…. maybe we should move to the next question.
Bekki: I do skipping and I like rhyming songs. Have you got any good ones to share with me, please?
Obi: I do.
I once met a fairy,
that said that she could fly,
But when I pushed her off a cliff,
She fell straight down and
Titi: Obi stop it!
*Titi covers his mouth*
Bekki: If you were a toys would you be an action hero, a cuddly plush toy or a paper doll with loads of outfits?
Titi: We would be action heroes. We really love a good adventure and somehow we’ve become quite good at getting ourselves out of trouble.
*Titi is still covering Obi’s mouth but he nods in agreement. *
Bekki: Will you be in more books?
Obi: Mr Begho has nearly finished book 6 and I think that’s the end of the series. I have big prospects though. I’m going to be in a computer game or even a movie.
Titi: I want him to continue writing. I have an idea I want to pitch to him but Obi thinks it’s silly. Why just write about the Benin Kingdom? You see, we have this travellers pendant and it’s magical and can take us anywhere, as long as we can find Okuta dust to power it. So, we could travel to other African Kingdoms and continue our adventure there.
Obi: Boring.
Bekki: No, it’s not. Imagine all the princess dresses you would see! It has been cool talking to you, Obi and Titi. Can we be friends?
Titi: Yes, of course. I love fairies.
Obi: Nope
Bekki: Shhhh, Obi! I want to tell people about your cool website.
Ahem, even though Obi and Titi are in historical books they use the most modern technology. They have games, videos, Mr Begho doing a rap and all sorts of books and things on their website, I like the photobombs! Come on Titi, let’s have a dance and sing Let it Go.
ENDS