Indigo Dreaming

by Dinah Johnson, Anna Cunha (Illustrator)

Overview

A gorgeous, imagination-sparking introduction to the beauty and interconnectedness of the Black diaspora.

A young girl living on the coast of South Carolina dreams of her distant relatives on the shores of Africa and beyond. Indigo Dreaming is a poetic meditation between two young girls—on different sides of the sea—who wonder about how they are intricately linked by culture, even though they are separated by location. The girls’ reflections come together, creating an imaginative and illuminating vision of home, as well as a celebration of the Black diaspora.

This gorgeous lyrical tale engages the senses and evokes childlike curiosity and wonder.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063080201
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/04/2022
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	345,959
Product dimensions:	9.60(w) x 11.30(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Dinah Johnson is the author of Black Magic, Hair Dance!, All Around Town: The Photographs of Richard Samuel Roberts, H Is for Harlem, and several other books. She is a professor of English at the University of South Carolina. You can catch up with Dinah at

www.dinahjohnsonbooks.com.

Anna Cunha is a Brazilian illustrator, living and working in Belo Horizonte. She has illustrated more than twenty books, including the celebrated A Story About Afiya, and has won the AEILIJ Prize for her work. You can visit Anna at annacunha.com.

Editorial Reviews

10/17/2022

Two Black girls play on the beaches of their respective island homes, each imagining there’s another just like themselves: “Every morning at day-clean,/ I wonder if somewhere there’s a girl like me,// who spends every day beside the sea.” One girl wades into the surf to talk to birds and leaps across the sand on the beach; the other seeks out sweetgrass to weave baskets and listens to the ocean in a seashell. Both wonder all the while, “Is there a girl across the sea who imagines me?” An author’s note contextualizes this story from Johnson (H Is for Harlem), which, via images of two girls leading similar lives an ocean apart, draws parallels between members of the African diaspora: “Communities in the United States and Sierra Leone have discovered all that they still share.” Saturated, layered art by Cunha (Fly) employs visible textures to add depth to each illustration. In concert with playful, dreamlike prose, which details events over the course of a given day, motion-filled landscapes offer images “of the two of us playing/ in the same sun/ in the same sand,/ hand in hand.” Ages 4–8. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Striking and cozy all at once. — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Full of meaningful relationships, this picture book is a joyous, loving celebration of the African diaspora around the globe. — Booklist

[Two] girls, while separated by an ocean, have much in common, as shown in Cunha’s textured, colorful illustrations and Johnson’s engaging text. — Horn Book Magazine

Johnson’s near-rhyming verse is as lulling as the sea [and] Cunha’s textured soft pastels create a wistful, dreamy atmosphere. A gorgeous book that will touch every child’s longing to connect with someone “out there” who is like them. — School Library Journal

Saturated, layered art by Cunha employs visible textures to add depth to each illustration. In concert with playful, dreamlike prose, which details events over the course of a given day, motion-filled landscapes offer images “of the two of us playing/ in the same sun/ in the same sand,/ hand in hand.” — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

09/30/2022

PreS-Gr 2—A young girl with brown skin and black hair wonders if somewhere across the ocean is another girl like her. Johnson's near-rhyming verse is as lulling as the sea: "Every morning at day-clean, when the sun is just about to rise, I pretend that Indigo Beach is mine!" Cunha's textured soft pastels create a wistful, dreamy atmosphere. Through the girl's musings readers will learn words and phrases specific to her culture: day-clean, sweetgrass, goobers, Frogmore Stew, Karimba music. The author's note explains that people who live on the South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida sea islands are called Gullah or GeeChee and descend from Sierra Leone. Relative isolation has preserved their culture and language and they still have much in common with their ancestors today. VERDICT A gorgeous book that will touch every child's longing to connect with someone "out there" who is like them. —Hillary Perelyubskiy

School Library Journal

★ 2022-10-12
A Gullah child goes about a busy day.

At daybreak (or day-clean in Gullah), the young Black girl glories in the sunrise over the sandy beach and wonders if there might be another girl like her somewhere “who spends every day beside the sea.” From here, an entire day of reflection steadily unspools. Could another girl also be flying along the sand or looking for sweetgrass? Does she eat the same foods or know the same stories? Can she catch rain on her tongue or hear music in the air? Does that girl fall asleep under the same moon and also dream of a girl like herself? Johnson weaves a deceptively simple poem that interlaces distinct slices of Gullah Geechee life with cultural threads that stretch to the Caribbean, Brazil, and all the way to Sierra Leone. Cunha’s illustrations capture a landscape that is as real as it is a dream, as momentous as it is mundane. Vibrant pastels are rendered into soft, open spreads, drawing readers into an intimate world that visually is reaching for its counterpart and into a story space that is most certainly big enough for two as it alternates between the protagonist and the girl she imagines. Fans of Barbara Lehman’s The Red Book (2004) will find similar play with reflection and wall-breaking here as well as that insistent tug at the idea of connection. Seasoned readers will also find some wonderful cultural context in the author’s note. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Striking and cozy all at once. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews