Project Description
The majority of US-published picture books are about white children at approximately 50%. Animal representation (and non-human or other) takes up about a quarter of picture books. The remaining smaller percentages are picture books about People of Color and Black folks. The lack of Black representation within picture books is a microcosm of how we culture children to view Black people; the sole shortage of quantity leads to erasure, tokenization, and distorted representations. Though this project isn't the solution to racism within publishing (that's up to publishers to fix), it's an opportunity to disrupt distortions of Black representation by subverting certain tropes that perpetuate anti-Blackness, colorism, and toxic masculinity. With influences from critical race theory, My Brother has Thorns focuses on counterstorytelling through the lens of speculative fiction. The project explores (de)militarization, mental illness, and intersectional Black representation within the character design considerations, world-building, and narrative.
Bio
Kaylani Juanita McCard has illustrated inclusive picture books, such as Ta-Da!, When Aiden Became a Brother, The Little Things, A House for Every Bird, and Magnificent Homespun Brown, which received the 2021 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award. Kaylani is the Summer Stride Artist of 2021 for the San Francisco Public Library and was born in Oakland. Though she currently lives in Fairfield, she has studied at Cal Arts, CCA, and UC Davis. Through counter storytelling and illustration, Kaylani explores representation and identity within picture books in fresh new ways. My Brother has Thorns is an ongoing project that speculates on different ways to represent (de)militarization, Black families, masculinity, and mental illness, within picture books.
