Why?: A Conversation about Race

by Taye Diggs, Shane W. Evans (Illustrator)

Overview

A piercing picture book about racial injustice from a child’s perspective from Taye Diggs and Shane Evans.

"Daddy?"
"Yes, my sweet boy."
"Why are those people shouting?"
"Our people are shouting because we need to be heard. We need to be heard."

Why? is a question asked by children daily, and in this striking and timely story, it begins a straightforward and challenging conversation between children of color and the adults in their lives.

Why are the buildings burning? Why are people marching? Why are they crying? Taye Diggs has written a beautiful, powerful, and poignant story that peers through the eyes of a child as they struggle to understand why these events are happening.

Why? distills the conversations many children and adults are having about race, injustice, and anger in communities throughout our country, and gives them context that young readers can connect with. Heartfelt and deeply piercing illustrations from Shane W. Evans will leave a lasting impact on readers of any age. One that will hopefully lead to more conversations, change, and peace within our own communities and the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250806093
Publisher:	Feiwel & Friends
Publication date:	02/01/2022
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Taye Diggs is an actor whose credits include motion pictures (How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Chicago), stage, (Rent, Wicked), and television (Private Practice, Murder in the First, Empire, and All American). He is also the author of Mixed Me!, Chocolate Me!, I Love You More Than. . . , and My Friend!, published by Feiwel and Friends. He lives in Los Angeles and New York City with his son.

Shane W. Evans is the illustrator of numerous award-winning (NAACP Award, Coretta Scott King Award) books for children, including We March, Underground, Mixed Me!, Chocolate Me!, I Love You More Than. . ., and My Friend!. He is based out of Kansas City, Missouri, and travels extensively to gain inspiration. Shane can be found in Dream Studio LLC where he creates and serves the community.

Editorial Reviews

12/20/2021

In the previous collaborators’ (Chocolate Me!) rhythmic picture book, several Black children each query an elder about instances of protesting (“Why are those people shouting?”), a vigil (“Why are those people crying?”), and marching (“Why are those people marching?”) shown in illustrations. The queries highlight a bigger movement, as well as the racism and injustice behind the gatherings: “Our people are marching because we have been stomped on and stepped over for way too long.” The q&a format and a resultant refrain of the children responding “OH” keep the pace consistent, building to the question, “Why are those buildings burning?”—“Sometimes buildings must burn./ The buildings burn for us./ The anger burning those/ buildings is us,” Diggs writes—and a child’s call to prayer for faith, love, and peace. Though the explanation behind the fire feels insufficiently contextualized for the book’s stated age range, Evans’s surreally colored, fluid illustrations add depth and emotion to this intergenerational narrative with a hopeful ending. Ages 3–6. Agent: Tina Dubois, ICM Partners. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Diggs makes these gutting conversations loving, plainspoken, and accessible to children. ... The question-and-answer format, the hallmark of parenting, helps the characters process large thoughts and huge problems, and yet find some paths to solutions."—School Library Journal, starred review

"Evans’s surreally colored, fluid illustrations add depth and emotion to this intergenerational narrative with a hopeful ending."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

★ 01/01/2022

K-Gr 2—A conversation about race takes place between a loving Black father and his child, who is full of questions: "'Daddy?' 'Yes, my sweet boy.' 'Why are those people shouting?' 'Our people are shouting because we need to be heard. We need to be heard.'" Next, a small brown girl wants to know why she sees people crying at a makeshift vigil set up on the street. "Our people are crying because they are in pain." A brown woman in a head scarf answers a boy's questions. There are buildings burning as the story crescendos, and one girl decides to pray for the pain, the destruction—for peace for her people. Diggs makes these gutting conversations loving, plainspoken, and accessible to children. They will also be helpful in coaxing little ones into broader discussions with the adults sharing this work. The question-and-answer format, the hallmark of parenting, helps the characters process large thoughts and huge problems, and yet find some paths to solutions. The illustrations make such big topics intimate, and somehow fathomable as well as heartbreaking. VERDICT Not a story as much as a workbook, this title brings even the youngest children into an important, essential conversation, and points a way to understanding and change.—Kimberly Olson Fakih

School Library Journal