Heading Down the Homestretch

It's a joy to be featured in the latest issue of Interviewing the Caribbean, a wonderful journal published by The University of the West Indies Press. The two latest issues (Winter 2019 and Spring 2020) of the journal are dedicated to the theme 'Caribbean Childhood: Traumas and Triumphs.' Editors Opal Palmer Adisa and Juleus Ghunta have done an incredible job curating a rich gathering of voices bearing witness to a sacred part of our lives that⁠—as Floella Benjamin always says⁠—lasts forever: our childhoods.



A collective stock-taking of Caribbean childhoods like this is timely and overdue. In many places in the Caribbean, we don't talk about our childhoods nearly enough, yet we carry our childhoods within us always. At a moment in history when an unprecedented threat to humankind has plunged a lot of us into the interior life, repressed childhood traumas may be resurfacing for many. I'm not a psychologist (my bachelor's degree in psychology wasn't enough to convince me I could handle the pieties of the field) but as I share in my featured essay in Interviewing the Caribbean, "The Nature of Belonging: Making a Home for Children’s Literature in the Caribbean’s Literary Landscape," I know from personal experience that there's tremendous healing adults can access just from reading children's books. If you aren't the type of adult who reads children's books, now is a good time to change that.

In my essay I open up about the psychological homelessness (a term coined by social scientists to describe feelings of not belonging in one's home country) I experienced as a child/teen growing up in Trinidad and during my early years as a young immigrant in America. I reflect on how I discovered a healing sense of identity and belonging in (what at the time seemed like) unlikely places—nature and children's books. I also write about returning to Trinidad with a newfound understanding of what 'home' means and using this insight, through work with children's books, to help young people establish a sense of home in the world. The issue also includes an open "Letter to a Child Leaving Trinidad" that I wrote giving them the kind of advice I wish I'd been given when I was younger and about to take that big step.

Some of my most difficult life experiences are what motivate me to advocate for Caribbean children and youth and their need to see themselves reflected in all kinds of stories, whether it's books or movies or even songs. I think it's important though, that young people in the Caribbean know that they can't wait for 'those people/adults out there' to acknowledge them to start feeling seen; feeling seen and heard is something they can cultivate for and within themselves by telling their own stories and helping others do the same.

This is my last post on the Anansesem website for the foreseeable future. Later this month, on Anansesem's tenth anniversary (May 24), I'll be stepping down as editor-in-chief (as previously announced), but the privilege of helping Caribbean children and youth find their way home will always be a prime concern for me. When we think of our priorities as adults, nothing is more important than making sure the young people who look to us for guidance grow up with an expanded sense of possibility when it comes to their identities, dreams and thinking. No child should have to grow up feeling unseen, stifled, unworthy or like they don't belong. As adults we have to do the work to heal these traumas in ourselves so we can help the current generation of Caribbean children and youth do and feel better.

About the Author

Summer Edward is Anansesem's founder and editor-in-chief emeritus. Her writing and art have been published in various literary magazines and anthologies. Her first children's book will be published by HarperCollins UK in 2020. Her home on the web is www.summeredward.com.

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9 Picture Book Biographies About Caribbean Women

With all that's happened in our global community in the past few days, we've had to hit pause on our Great Ladies of Caribbean Children's Literature essay series that we started publishing in celebration of Women's History Month; understandably, most people's minds, including those of our Great Ladies, are occupied with other things at the moment. We'll publish the rest of the essays in April. 

In the midst of our recent collective shock, Women's History Month still matters. I think about how my grandmothers (one of whom is still very much alive at age 103) lived through the Spanish flu pandemic that started in 1918 and two World Wars as well. I think of my maternal great-grandmother, the illegitimate daughter of a Venezuelan dictator, who fled to Trinidad in search of freedom and had to build a new life from nothing. I think of all of my great-great-grandmothers who survived the horrors of slavery. As we process the current difficult moment, their lives and stories call to me across time as reminders of the strength and wisdom we can draw from those who came before us.

In troubled times, I'm always drawn to, and always draw on, the lessons and triumphs of women's history, which are also, in part, the lessons and triumphs of feminine wisdom. In a pandemic I think we're already beginning to relearn feminine wisdom: the value of mothering and domesticity, and of the feminine traits of gentleness, empathy, humility, receptivity, and sensitivity, attributes that all of us, both female and male, may have lost sight of or neglected to cultivate.

Before the 'storm' hit, I wrote an annotated bibliography for EBSCOhost Novelist in observance of Women's History Month titled '9 Picture Book Biographies About Caribbean Women' (at the end, I mention 2 picture books that will be published later this year as well as 2 picture books that are fictional tributes to notable Caribbean women, as opposed to biographies, bringing the list to 13); you can access that bibliography here if you (or your institution) have a subscription: https://tinyurl.com/vjf4a78, or alternatively search for it in the NoveList Plus or NoveList K-8 Plus databases by entering UI 449635 in the search bar.

About the Author

Summer Edward is the Editor-in-Chief here at Anansesem. Her writing and art have been published in various literary magazines and anthologies. Her home on the web is www.summeredward.com.

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Great Ladies of Caribbean Children's Literature: Jessica Huntley

The essay below is a part of our 'Great Ladies of Caribbean Children's Literature' series. During Women's History Month, and in celebration of Anansesem's 10th anniversary, we're publishing essays by or about 10 female trailblazers whose labors, writings, editorial work and foundational research created the growing field of Caribbean children's and young adult literature.

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My late mother, Jessica Huntley (1927-1913), was a co-founder of one of the UK’s first Black publishing houses. Bogle-L’Ouverture Publications (named after two Caribbean heroes, Paul Bogle and Toussaint L’Ouverture) was born when the radical Guyanese historian Walter Rodney, a friend of my parents, was banned from re-entering Jamaica to resume his lectureship at the University of the West Indies in 1968. The company’s first publications were two books for adult audiences: Walter Rodney’s seminal work, The Groundings with My Brothers was published in 1969 and How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, also by Rodney, followed a few years later in 1972.

Bust of Jessica Huntley, sculpted for her 70th birthday by
Jamaican-born African artist, Fowokan (George Kelly). A bronze
replica of the bust can be seen in the Huntley Room at the
London Metropolitan Museum.

At first, these books and others related to the stories of African, Caribbean and Latin American people were sold alongside posters, greeting cards and crafts, from my parents’ living room in West Ealing, London. In 1974, they moved their activities to business premises nearby, opening the Bogle L’Ouverture Bookshop (in 1980 it was renamed the Walter Rodney Bookshop) in Chignell Place. The bookshop was not just a place where books were sold. It became a meeting hub for like-minded people where my mother listened to, advised and supported those who visited.

Bogle-L’Overture Publications’s existence depended heavily on the enthusiasm and drive of my mother for whom, to paraphrase the title of her and my father’s joint biography, Doing Nothing Is Not An Option. This mantra played out in her lifelong work as a publisher, bookseller and activist, greatly benefiting the lives of Black children and young adults in the UK.

Jessica’s strong social conscience was planted in her as a child growing up in Guyana. Her father passed away when she was very young and she was raised alongside three brothers by her strict God-fearing mother. My grandmother instilled in my mother a sense of pride, loyalty, and independence. As she became aware of the class and racial divisions resulting from colonial rule, Jessica was motivated to act when she encountered unjust policies. Financial constraints meant that she didn’t finish high school, but she had no qualms supporting the drive to close the gender pay gap at the Briana Shirt Factory in Georgetown. In 1953, she co-founded the Women’s Progressive Organisation to advocate for women’s issues in the People’s Progressive Party’s fight for independence.

When she joined my father in the UK in 1958, it became apparent to my mother and others of the Windrush generation that the racist policies of the day negatively impacted young people of African and Caribbean descent. One such policy was the so-called ‘sus’ law. This was a stop-and-search law that permitted police officers to stop, search and potentially arrest people suspected of frequenting or loitering in public places with criminal intent. In the 1970s and 1980s, this law targeted young Black men, a large number of whom were arrested for no good reason. Many young people and their parents sought the counsel of my mother, who was a founding member of the Black Parents Movement, established circa 1974/5. Jessica tapped into the social networks she formed at the Walter Rodney Bookshop to co-ordinate legal representation, protests and information campaigns in support of affected families.

The Black Parents Movement not only contested wrongful arrests of Black juveniles, but also challenged deportation orders, school suspensions/exclusions, and housing injustices. Its members also established Supplementary Saturday Schools. In the 1960s, the Supplementary School Movement was a grassroots effort by parents and teachers across the UK to counter the miseducation of Black youth. At the supplementary schools, Black children and youth were taught the ‘Three Rs’ (reading, writing and arithmetic) and given resources that reflected their own lives and racial/cultural heritage.

Jessica was painfully aware that many Caribbean and African children in the UK were labelled as ‘educationally subnormal’ and that the school curriculum provided them with very little knowledge of their history and heritage. She believed these problems could be remedied through culturally relevant education, particularly by providing Black children with access to books that reflected their experiences. In 1972, Bogle-L’Overture Publications published their first children’s book: Getting to Know Ourselves by a Grenadian couple, Phyllis and Bernard Coard. This coloring storybook, published by Jessica, introduces the concept of slavery by explaining why two children born in Jamaica look similar to two children born in Africa. It was one of the first children’s books published in the UK that enabled Black children to learn about their history.

Another children’s book, Rain Falling Sun Shining by Odette Thomas, was published in 1975. It presents a modern take on traditional Caribbean nursery rhymes, playground chants and folk songs, setting them to new melodies to engage pre-schoolers and their carers with memories of life ‘back home.’ Like so many of Bogle-L’Overture Publications’s titles, it was illustrated by the Jamaican-born artist, Errol Lloyd. Ackee, Breadfruit, Callaloo: An Edible Alphabet (1999) by Jamaican-born children’s author Valerie Bloom was another book that targeted primary school-aged children. Its bold and colourful pages introduce the reader to the fruits and vegetables of Jamaica, using poetry as the medium.

The publishing company also catered to the needs of teens; several young adult novels written by Andrew Salkey, the renowned Jamaican-Panamanian broadcaster and lecturer, were donated to Bogle-L’Overture Publications in its early days, including Danny Jones (1980), The River that Disappeared (1979) and Anancy’s Score (1973). Salkey also served as an editor of some of the publishing house’s books for young readers, such as Caribbean Folk Tales and Legends (1992), a collection of short stories by authors from the diaspora, some of which were written in dialect.

Click on book covers to zoom in.

My mother recognised that there was a gap in the market for a children’s series on important Caribbean historical figures, and so she and my father published three biographies for young readers written by my father, Eric Huntley: Two Lives: Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole (1993), Marcus Garvey: A Biography (1987) and The Life and Times of Cheddi Jagan (1994).

Jessica Huntley at her bookshop in the 1980s

During the 1980s, Jessica thrived as manager of the bookshop. Long before it was commonplace for bookstores to host events, she ensured that the Walter Rodney Bookshop acted as a venue for book launches, school workshops and meetings. It became a welcoming place where teachers brought their students to meet the musicians, poets and storytellers of the Black diaspora, from Louise “Miss Lou” Bennet-Coverly to Sam Selvon, and Ellen Kuzwayo to Ntozake Shange. Black children and youth were able to participate in discussions, hear perspectives never broadcast in the mainstream, and see positive representations of people who looked like them. Sometimes they came for relationship advice, sometimes to gather information. Librarians came regularly seeking to buy multicultural books for their young patrons. There were times when more books were loaned rather than sold; Jessica believed she was providing a community service.

Jessica supported young people’s endeavours, particularly when it came to their self-expression. Dread Beat and Blood, published by Bogle-L’Overture Publications in 1975, is a seminal work by Linton Kwesi Johnson; a collection of ‘dub-poetry,’ it gave voice to children of the Windrush-era West Indian migrants. Thanks in large part to the vision and encouragement of Jessica, many other Caribbean-UK writers of works for children and young adults got their publishing break.

Jessica Huntley speaking to young women at the Walter Rodney Bookshop in the 1980s

It is incredible to think that despite her humble beginnings growing up in a tenement yard in Guyana, her unfinished secondary school education, and her complete lack of experience in publishing, my mother was able to establish a small but widely influential self-funded publishing company. Due to financial difficulties, the Walter Rodney Bookshop was forced to close in 1990. For a woman like Jessica who thrived on face-to-face personal contact this was a great loss. However, the publishing aspect of the business continues today. Jessica’s contributions to literature for children and youth of the Black diaspora are considerable and have been documented in total at the Huntley Archives, the first major deposit of records from London's Black Caribbean community at the London Metropolitan Archives.

About the Author

Accabre Rutlin is a biology/psychology teacher, poet and artist based in London. She is the daughter of the pioneering Guyanese-British publishers and activists Jessica and Eric Huntley and the author of two books of poetry for young readers: At School Today (1977) and Easter Monday Blues (1992). Her children's poems have appeared in Spotlight on Poetry: Poems Around the World 1 (1999) and The New Oxford Treasury of Children's Poems (1995). She serves on the board of trustees of the Friends of the Huntley Archives at the London Metropolitan Archives (FHALMA). Her portrait was part of the No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960-1990 exhibition at The Guildhall.

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Great Ladies of Caribbean Children's Literature: Dr. Margarita Luciano López

The essay below is a part of our 'Great Ladies of Caribbean Children's Literature' series. During Women's History Month, and in celebration of Anansesem's 10th anniversary, we're publishing essays by or about 10 female trailblazers whose labors, writings, editorial work and foundational research created the growing field of Caribbean children's and young adult literature.

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I was born in San José de las Matas, Santiago province, in the northern part of the Dominican Republic. I come from a family of eight siblings: five brothers and three sisters. During my childhood my parents and teachers fostered in me a love of reading and writing. Thus began my love of literature and my first experiments in writing poetry and then stories.

I completed my primary school education and part of my secondary school studies in my hometown. When I was a teenager, my family moved to Santo Domingo, the capital city. There, I finished high school and began my university career at La Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD). I double majored in education with a concentration in mathematics and education with a concentration in modern languages (Spanish, English and French). Subsequently, I completed a master’s degree in higher education at La Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo and a doctorate in pedagogical sciences at La Universidad Enrique José Varona de La Haban. For my dissertation, I conducted research on strategies for using children’s literature with primary school children within the context of their reading, cognitive and emotional development. I was then awarded a scholarship by the Organization of American States to travel to Venezuela where I completed a postgraduate degree in preparation of printed educational material for basic education.

I began teaching while studying at the university. Over the years, I have taught at all levels: pre-k, primary, secondary and tertiary. I also worked at the Ministry of Education in the Dominican Republic and directed two private educational institutions on the island: Mi Colegio and Centro Educativo Creciendo. I taught a course on children's literature at the Inter-American University for students pursuing a career in Early Childhood Education. I have enjoyed mentoring students at different universities around the island and have served as an advisor to those conducting research related to children's literature.

Books written by Dr. Margarita Luciano López

I have written and published books in the areas of mathematics, didactics, and children's and youth literature. My first children’s book El día en que llevaron la electricidad al paraje de la ciénaga (1988) was illustrated by Miguel Sánchez Tió and published by RADECO under the direction of Altagracia Díaz de de Jesús. My other picture storybooks include Senderos de paz: Cuentos para niños (Centro Caribeño de Investigación y Capacitación (CICAP), 1997), El día en que dos ciudades contrarias descubrieron que eran hermanas (Ediciones Unión, 1999) which debuted at the International Book Fair of Santo Domingo as part of the Domincan-Cuban edition of the Dienteleche collection, Quién se robó el verde (Trinitaria, 2000) which won the 1998/1999 National Aurora Tavárez Belliard Prize for Children's and Youth Literature, El carrito trepador (Editorial Santillana, 2001) illustrated by Kilia Llano, and De islas, mares y leyendas (Editora Unión de La Habana), co-written with Eleanor Grimaldi Silié. My novels for young readers include De escuela, tesoros y amigos (Opus, 2014), Por los caminos del monte (Editorial Santuario, 2011) and El patio encantado (Alfaguara, 2014).

Dr. Margarita Luciano López with her brothers, Joaquín Luciano and Johnny Luciano, at the launch of her children's novel, De escuela, tesoros y amigos, Carlos Guillot Building, Dominican Republic, 2014

I have also published poetry books for children including De Ronda por mi país: Poesía para niños (Centro Caribeño de Investigación y Capacitación (CICAP), 1997), Corazón de mermelada (Ediciones CP, 2015) illustrated by Víctor Manuel, and Arroz con mango (Centro Caribeño de Investigación y Capacitación (CICAP), 1996). Additionally, Eleanor Grimaldi Silié and I co-authored Literatura Infantil y Desarrollo Creativo (Editorial Grialibros, 1998; Gráfica Javier, 2007), a book on theory and practice for teaching children’s literature.

When I first started out, I had much to learn about writing, editing, and the children’s/YA book market. In working with different publishers over the years, I learned openness of thought, and different ways of structuring a book; I also learned a lot about young readers’ tastes.

Dr. Margarita Luciano hosting an exhibition about the Congresso Internacional de Literatura
Infantil e Juvenil, Editorial Santuario offices, 2012

Dr. Margarita Luciano López doing a book talk at the Children's and Youth Library of the
Dominican Republic in 2019

SLIDESHOW

Locally and internationally, I have delivered numerous workshops and presentations on the topic of children’s and youth literature at various venues and events including at the congresses organized by Action for Basic Education (EDUCA), the Children's and Youth Library of the Dominican Republic, and the International Book Fair of Santo Domingo. I have enjoyed visits with children and young people from different primary and secondary schools, and have served on juries for various school writing competitions, as well as on the judging panel for the National Aurora Tavárez Belliard Prize for Children's and Youth Literature. For about two years, I wrote a series of articles on children's and youth literature in the “Isla Abierta” supplement of the Hoy newspaper and the “Biblioteca” supplement of the Listín Diario newspaper. I have been a member of two local writing communities: the "Pedro Henríquez Ureña" children’s and youth literature group and the Circle of Writers for Children and Young People.

Over the years, I have been honored to have my work in the field of youth literature recognized by the various institutions in which I have worked, by the Junior Chamber International, and most importantly, by the outstanding young people of the Dominican Republic. I am currently finalizing my fourth children’s novel and a scholarly text on how to teach children's and YA literature.

Dr. Margarita Luciano López being honored with a street named after her at the XIV International Book Fair of Santo Domingo in 2011. From left: General Director of the Book Fair, Alejandro Arvelo; Dr. Margarita Luciano López; Minister of Culture, José Rafael Lantigua; and the Vice Minister of Culture, Bernarda Jorge

I consider San José de las Matas (Sajoma), where I have lived all my life, a paradise full of beautiful landscapes and people; the nature of my hometown, my family and friends have been, and continue to be, the chief inspirations for my writing.

About the Author

Dr. Margarita Luciano López is the author of over ten books for children and youth. Born and based in the Dominican Republic, she is also an educator, textbook author and the current director of the Centro Educativo Creciendo y del Centro Caribeño de Investigación y Capacitación (CICAP). In 2011, the International Book Fair of Santo Domingo recognized her longstanding contributions to Dominican children's and youth literature by designating one of the streets of the Fair with her name. She is married to Rafael Sang, is the mother of Guillermo and Rafael Enrique Sang Luciano, and the grandmother of Isaac Enrique Sang Vallejo.

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Great Ladies of Caribbean Children's Literature: Dr. Cherrell Shelley-Robinson

The essay below is a part of our 'Great Ladies of Caribbean Children's Literature' series. During Women's History Month, and in celebration of Anansesem's 10th anniversary, we're publishing essays by or about 10 female trailblazers whose labors, writings, editorial work and foundational research created the growing field of Caribbean children's and young adult literature.

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It seems as if being a scholar of children’s literature was written into my genes; I became hooked on books from the moment I learned how to hold one in my hands. Throughout my childhood, my thirst for books kept growing; as a child, I was always reading and writing stories. In high school, I was sought out by my peers whenever they wanted to know which book to read next. I attended a boarding school and had lots of time on my hands; during that five-year period, I systematically read through my school library. This was when I first encountered British and American classics like Gulliver’s Travels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Black Beauty, as well as series books likes Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven series, Anthony Buckeridge’s Jennings books, the Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene, Frank Dixon’s Hardy Boys series, and Richmal Crompton’s Just William books. These early reading experiences fed my imagination and embedded the literary conventions of story in my mind. All of this was preparing me for my future career as a children’s librarian, university lecturer and writer of stories for young people.

I was eighteen years old when I got my first job at the St. Ann Parish Library. There, I was introduced to the wider world of children’s literature when I was put in charge of Children’s Story Hour. It was my responsibility to select suitable stories to share with the children on Saturday mornings under a huge Poinciana tree on the library grounds. I embraced the opportunity to read as many children’s books as I could. This was when I discovered I really enjoyed reading children’s books. I knew I was naturally inclined towards the humanities but had no idea where this would take me, until I stumbled across the world of children’s books: suddenly my path became clearer.

As an undergrad, I majored in English literature. In 1974, I formally studied children’s literature for the first time while earning my postgraduate diploma in librarianship at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus. I became completely immersed in the field and went on to pursue it as my specialization when I did my PhD at the University of Toronto. My dissertation, which I completed in 1997, was titled “The Voluntary Reading Interests and Habits of Jamaican Sixth Graders.” Since then, the main thrust of my writings and research has been the need for more indigenous Caribbean children’s literature and for our Caribbean realities to be authentically portrayed in books for young readers. It was daunting, but also exciting, to produce scholarly work on Caribbean children’s literature at a time when hardly any research in this area existed.

Dr. Cherrell Shelley-Robinson receiving
an award from Kingston Bookshop in 2002
for her outstanding contribution to children’s
literature

In 1986, I began lecturing on children’s literature at the Department of Library and Information Studies at UWI, Mona where I taught for the next twenty-two years. When I took over the course, its major emphasis was on British and American books, and I expanded the syllabus to include more Caribbean books. To support this shift, I set out to identify and acquire as many Caribbean children’s books as my budget would allow; my book purchases over the years have resulted in one of the largest collections of Caribbean children’s books, currently housed in the Main Library at UWI, Mona. In order to accomplish this mammoth task, I travelled to libraries and bookstores in most of the Caribbean countries as well as to Toronto, London, Washington, D.C, and even to the International Youth Library (Internationale Jugendbibliothek) in Munich, Germany.

One of my most memorable book collection trips was my lecture tour to the UK in 2006 where I delivered several public lectures to librarians and teachers in London and Birmingham. My objective was to educate them about the range of Caribbean children’s literature being published and how these works fitted within critical scholarship in the field. I also spent some time at BookTrust which houses copies of almost every children’s book published in the UK within the last two years; there, I searched through thousands of titles to identify, read and record the Caribbean ones. I then went on to the University of Roehampton’s special children’s literature collection to do the same for all those from the previous years. It was hard but rewarding work as I unearthed many titles most of us in the Caribbean did not even know existed. One of my greatest delights was visiting the British Library and finding a book called Mamma's Black Nurse Stories: West Indian Folklore, one of the earliest Caribbean children’s books published in Britain and written for use in Jamaica.

Before going to work at the University, I was a school librarian at the Camperdown High School from 1972 to 1978. There, based on my strong belief in the power of reading in the lives of children, I started a library club that met for seven years. This was but one of the many kinds of programmes I developed to promote childhood reading. In the process, I became a mentor to two of my students who also became school librarians. At the University, most of my students were teachers, and I hope that I was able to transmit to them some of my passion for children’s literature and also motivate them to develop meaningful literature programmes to touch the hearts and nourish the minds of their students. I know that at least two of my students have gone on to become authors, one of whom won a CODE Burt Award for Caribbean Young Adult Literature.

Dr. Cherrell Shelley-Robinson conducting a workshop in 2000

Another aspect of my lifelong involvement in children’s literature has been my own writing. In the early 80s, I wrote hundreds of children’s short stories over a ten-year period for weekly broadcast on Radio Jamaica Rediffusion Limited (RJR). My picture book Manny and the Mermaid, illustrated by Irene M. Huber, was published by the Children's Writers Circle in 1987. My first children’s novel, Jojo’s Treasure Hunt, was published by Carlong Publishers in 2003 and was the runner-up for the Vic Reid Prize for Young Adult Literature in the Lignum Vitae Writing Awards presented by JAMCOPY (Jamaican Copyright Licensing Agency) and the Jamaican Writers Society (JAWS). It also won the Carlong Award for best children’s book. Jojo’s Treasure Hunt tells the story of a twelve-year-old boy who decides to search for fabled treasure after his family is threatened with eviction. I was one of the contributors to the children’s short story anthology Tek mi! noh tek mi!: Caribbean Folktales published by Carlong Publishers in 2008. I self-published my second children’s novel, Tara’s Family Secrets, in 2019.



I have also been a publisher; from 1997 to 2004, I single-handedly edited and published a magazine for Caribbean children called Scribbles. After seven years, I finally had to give this up (much to my regret) because of problems with distribution and sales. I started Scribbles because I felt strongly that Caribbean children needed to see themselves positively portrayed in their reading materials. I have been a strong advocate for this all my life and many of my scholarly papers were written within this context.

Dr. Cherrell Shelley-Robinson (far right) at the launch of her children's magazine, Scribbles, November 1997

Over the years, I have been granted many opportunities to share my knowledge and expertise in the field. I have served as an occasional children’s editor for Carlong Publishers, and as a judge for national and regional children’s book awards. I had the honor and pleasure of serving as one of the judges for the CODE Burt Award for Caribbean Young Adult Literature in its inaugural year, and I have also served as an adjudicator for the Lignum Vitae Writing Awards. For my lifetime work in librarianship, including my contribution to children’s librarianship and literature, I was awarded a bronze Musgrave Medal (an annual award presented by the Institute of Jamaica in recognition of achievement in art, science, and literature) in 2001.

Dr. Cherrell Shelley-Robinson (front row, fourth from left) at the Musgrave Medal award ceremony in 2001

My many years in the children’s literature field have been extremely rewarding ones; I have enjoyed reading and writing children’s books, researching and producing scholarly articles, conducting writing workshops, interviewing authors, and sharing my knowledge at conferences and in other public spaces. I believe with all my heart that exposure to literature from an early age plays an essential role in developing our creativity and imagination. Above all, literature humanizes us, giving us valuable insights into our own lives and that of others, a process that should start when we are children. I cannot imagine a world without children’s literature in its many genres and formats. I am now retired, but my enthusiasm has not waned; I still continue to read, write and edit stories, conduct workshops, and make public presentations.

Dr. Cherrell Shelley-Robinson delivering a presentation on Caribbean children’s literature at the International Association of School Libraries conference in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, 1996

Dr. Cherrell Shelley-Robinson as President of the Library and Information Association of Jamaica, presenting a plaque to a colleague in 2000

Dr. Cherrell Shelley-Robinson with her trophy for Distinguished Librarian of the Year, awarded to her by the Librarian and Information Association of Jamaica (LIAJ) in 2006

SLIDESHOW

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Scholarly Books and Articles by Dr. Cherrell Shelley-Robinson

“Training Paraprofessionals: a Cooperative Venture.” IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) Journal, vol. 12, no. 4, 1986: 285-7.

“Windows on the World: Jamaican Literature for Children.” The School Library: Window on the World: 15th Annual Conference Proceedings of the International Associations of School Librarianship, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1987, pp. 99-112.

“Indigenous English Language Books for Caribbean Children: A Historical Perspective.” Jamaica Library Association Bulletin, 1989/90: 38-46.

“The School Library: a Valuable Partner in the Search for Educational Excellence.” Proceedings of the 1990 Cross-campus Conference on Education, 3rd-6th April, 1990, Kingston: UWI Faculty of Education, 1991, pp. 291-296. (Comps. E.P. Brandon and P.N. Nissen)

“Coming of Age in Caribbean Fiction for the Young.” Bridging the Gap Between Nations: Conference Proceedings of the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL), Kalamazoo, Michigan: IASL, 1991, pp. 191-207. (co-authored with Amy Robertson)

“Sexism in Children’s Books.” In Libraries, Learning and Literacy (ed. Ken Ingram). Kingston: Jamaica Library Association, 1994, pp. 193-221.

“Cyril Palmer: 1930 – (Children’s Writer).” In: Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English. London: Routeledge, 1994, p. 1195.

“Children’s Literature (The Caribbean).” In: Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English. London: Routeledge, 1994, p. 234-236.

“Approaches to Researching Children’s Reading Interests.” In School Librarianship: International Issues and Perspectives (eds. Ken Haycock and Blanche Wools). Seattle: International Association of School Librarianship, 1997, 13 – 17. (Also published in: School Libraries: Imperatives for the 21st Century: Proceedings of the 25th Annual Conference of IASL, Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Seattle; IASL, 1997, 84–89.

“The Role of School Libraries in Quality Education.” In Quality Primary Education: A National Challenge (Jamaica Teachers' Association Report on JTA National Education Conference, May 28 & 29, 1997). Kingston: JTA, 1997, 38 – 39.

“Love and Sex in Rosa Guy’s Trilogy: The Friends, Ruby, and Edith Jackson.” In The Women, the Writer and Caribbean Society (ed. Helen Pyne-Timothy). Los Angeles: Centre for African Caribbean Studies, 1998, 186 – 198.

“Priorities and Strategies for the Twenty-First Century: The Need for Information Literacy.” In Integrando el Centro de Recursos para el Apprendizaje al Curriculum. Semanario Internacional de Bibliotecarios Escolares. Santiago de Chile: Ministerio de Educacion, 1999, pp. 186-198. (Also on CD-ROM)

“El Libro para Ninos y Jovenes en el Caribe Ingles: Entrevista.” Educacion y Biblioteca: Revista Mensuel de Documentacion y Recursos Didacticos, vol, 12, no. 1, 2000: 58-63.

“Black Like Me: Ethnicity and the Child Reader.” Obsidian, vol. 111, no. 1, 2001: 100-114

“The Voluntary Reading Interests of Jamaican Sixth Graders: a survey.” School Libraries Worldwide, vol. 7, no. 1, 2001: 72-81.

“Are You Information Literate?” Daily Gleaner, August 31, 2001, Col. 9

“Finding a Place in the Sun: the Immigrant Experience in Caribbean Children’s Literature.” Children and Libraries, vol. 3, no. 1, 2005: 14-20, 62.

"Children’s Literature in the English-speaking Caribbean.” In Encyclopedia of Caribbean Literature (e.d. D.H. Figuero). Westport: Greenwood Press, 2006, pp. 165-167.

“School Libraries in the Caribbean: A Jamaican Case Study.” In Caribbean Libraries in the 21st Century: Changes, Challenges and Choices (eds. Cheryl Peltier-Davis and Renwick Shamin). New Jersey: Information Today, 2007, pp. 95-117.

The School Library as a Learning Resource Centre: a Course For Teacher Librarians. Volume 1: Presenter’s Guide. Kingston: Published for OAS by the Department of Library Studies, 1989.

The School Library as a Learning Resource Centre: a Course for Teacher Librarians. Volume 2: Participant’s Text. Kingston: Published for OAS by the Department of Library Studies, 1989.

Sunscapes: A Select Bibliography of Caribbean Literature for Children and Young Adults. Kingston: Jamaica Information Service, 1998.

About the Author

Dr. Cherrell Shelley-Robinson is a retired Jamaican librarian, scholar and university professor based in Jamaica; she is also a children's author. Between 1972 and 1979 she worked as a teacher and school librarian at Meadowbrook High School and Camperdown High School, both in Kingston, Jamaica. For twenty-two years, she lectured on children's literature and library education in the Department of Library and Information Studies at The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. She has served as President of the Library and Information Association of Jamaica, as Chair of Jamaica's National Information Literacy Initiative, and as Regional Director of the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL).

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Great Ladies of Caribbean Children's Literature: Julie Morton

The essay below is a part of our 'Great Ladies of Caribbean Children's Literature' series. During Women's History Month, and in celebration of Anansesem's 10th anniversary, we're publishing essays by or about 10 female trailblazers whose labors, writings, editorial work and foundational research created the growing field of Caribbean children's and young adult literature.

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One of the unhappy memories of my first teaching appointment was of five-year-old children in my charge without books or paper, some with pencils no more than two inches long. I had to tear paper into small squares so they could write the alphabet and math sums. The results were not collectibles, needless to say. Perhaps it was there that the germ of an idea for publishing entered my head, although I did not initially recognize it as such. The year was 1957. What if children could have copybooks of their own, designed to save their work and show their progress throughout the school term?

That thought must have lodged in a remote corner of my brain as over the next few years I went from one teaching appointment to another, off to Toronto where I earned a degree in Fine Arts at York University, and back to Trinidad no longer wanting to teach in a classroom. Instead, I went into commercial advertising and it was then that I became involved in publishing of annual reports, newspaper ads and television ads. I learned about pre-production, how to lay out a page, and how to write copy. I filled in a lot of blanks myself in an effort to become more knowledgeable about publishing.

I founded my publishing house, Morton Salvatori Publishers Limited (later renamed Morton Publishing), in Port of Spain in 1974. The first book we published was a book by John Newel Lewis, a well-known English architect, artist and illustrator who worked in Czechoslovakia and London before migrating to Trinidad in 1953. The book was called Nobody In His Right Mind (1974) and it recorded his illustrations of Carnival as he experienced it during his years as a Carnival judge. I think I can say that we were pioneers in the publishing business. We started publishing books at a time when publishing activity in Trinidad and Tobago was limited to leaflets, tracts, posters, cards, and a few annual reports.

Morton books at the printery being packaged for export to Jamaica

Then came a series of books for children which I published for advertising clients to promote various products for children, mainly for Nestlé Trinidad and Tobago Limited, a food and beverage company. Among the first of these was a colouring book to promote sales of Pink Panther chocolates, a strawberry flavoured pink candy bar made by Nestlé in the 70s. Those books for children produced for Nestlé were followed by a range of cookbooks aligned to their products, including milk, pasta etc.

Then came my foray into publishing my own fiction books for children- very risky business! I self-published a few of my own children’s stories as picture books: The House of Gold (1988) about a young girl lured from her home on a hillside by the mesmerizing sight of a golden house beyond the rainforest; Looking for the Pawi (1988), illustrated by my daughter Leigh Morton, in which four children and their grandfather journey through the forests of Trinidad in search of the rare bird; an abecedarian picture book titled A Wacky, Wonderful, West Indian Alphabet (1992) that I illustrated myself; A Turtle Called Phil, illustrated by Canadian artist Phil Barber, about a shy turtle who dreams about being an artist and gets his wish with the support of his friends; and Snailblazer about a young boy, Miren, his pet snail Hercules, and the race to become the fastest snail in the valley.

The first children’s book I wrote and self-published, however, was called The Magical Mystical Ibis (1981); it was illustrated by Lisa Henry Chu Foon, a Swedish artist who moved to Trinidad in 1971. This picture book invites readers to travel with the Scarlet Ibises (the national bird of Trinidad and Tobago) through storms and mystical swamplands to the lush, green Caroni Plain and experience their joy and fear in the land they have learned to love and must leave. The printer and I tried for hardcover, but let’s call it an experiment; it didn’t look so good. Nevertheless, we were brave enough to launch it formally and were very encouraged by the response from the public.

It was a learning experience for the printers and for me. Things improved after that and the quality of our books got better. We started to publish the works of other Trinbagonian children’s writers. The Lights of Divali (1988), written by Amina Ibrahim Ali and illustrated by Richard Ackoon, tells the story of a young boy, Suresh, and his family’s preparation for the Hindu festival. The Call of the Wild (2002) by Vilma Dubé, illustrated by Leigh Morton, is a story in verse about Myrtle, a leatherback turtle, who journeys to the shores of Trinidad to lay her eggs. Legend of the Pitch Lake, written and illustrated by Leigh Morton, recounts the legend of an Amerindian village that was punished by the gods for killing the sacred hummingbirds for their beautiful feathers. Treasures of the Caribbean, illustrated by Leigh Morton and Nicole Leotaud, is a storybook-colouring book combo featuring stories about real and mythical Caribbean sea creatures. We also published many colouring books, activity books and school readers, including the New Century Readers for children ages 7-11 which focused on Caribbean life studies and environmental themes.

We would have continued indefinitely except for the fact that no bank would fund us. That has not changed. There is so much more we could and should do in this field. Credit has to be given to Caribbean Paper and Printed Products Limited, founded in Aranguez, Trinidad in 1993, for their interest in developing and finessing book publishing. Needless to say, hardcover books are now a breeze.

Then came computers, specifically, in our case, the Macintosh. My then business partner became very excited about the possibilities after reading about it in Time magazine. We acquired two of them and they changed the face of our fledgling operation.

CAPNET, the Caribbean Publishers Network, was a brilliant initiative started by Ian Randle of Jamaica, along with Ken Jaikaransingh and Jeremy Taylor of Trinidad. I joined the network later on and subsequently became Secretary and then President. Many good things came out of CAPNET. The first project I was involved in as Secretary was a very successful week-long book exhibition and seminar, called Bookfest, that was held in Trinidad. It was international in scope: we had exhibitors, writers, speakers and publishers from all over the world. The event was well attended and all publishers recorded good sales.

Subsequently, CAPNET took part in the Frankfurt Book Show, the Canadian/American Library Conference in Toronto, the Zimbabwe Book Show and the London Book Show, among others. CAPNET also had its own conferences and book events in Curacao, Jamaica, Cuba and Barbados. At every event the Caribbean exhibited as a unit and was well represented by most of the publishers with their publications. I wish I could say that we made lots of money. We didn’t. But it was a very interesting time in my life.

Leigh Morton and Nicole Leotaud discussing illustrations for children's books during a CrossCulture Programme (CCP) seminar sponsored by UNESCO

In August 2014, I opened Morton’s Bookstore, which I believe was the first children’s bookstore in Trinidad. Unfortunately, in November 2019, I had to close the bookstore due to high rents and the fact that many parents can barely afford to buy books for their children, aside from school books. We do however maintain a space for storage and distribution of our preschool range in Port of Spain. I may reopen the bookstore in the future. Running it was a good experience. Adults came in with kids and stayed to talk and ask advice on choosing books; in the case of preschoolers, many customers wanted to talk about how to approach reading. The store was an open space with book shelves lining the walls, and an alphabet/number mat made in a hopscotch design in bright colours, on which kids could jump and count. We carried books for children up to age 12.

Old article on Morton's Bookstore
in the Trinidad Express newspaper

Because of financial challenges, Morton Publishing has had to limit our publishing output. For the last four years we have concentrated solely on educational books for kids. I have gone back to the original reason I became interested in publishing- developing and publishing a range of books for preschoolers. The pre-school age, between 2 and 6 years, is when children develop and learn faster than at any other time in their lives. There is so much research on child development to back this up, so it is amazing that many "First World" countries are still debating this concept. The range of preschool books is incomplete, and may never be completed, because as I go on, I am finding new ways to teach children. There is no need to explain how difficult it was breaking new ground as a local children’s publisher; we had some hostile reactions to our work and it has taken more than 20 years to reach this stage of success, but now schools all over Trinidad and Tobago are using our preschool range of books and bookstores purchase wholesale for redistribution. In fact, our preschool range is distributed only through booksellers. We have just a small portion of the market, but that is slowly increasing.

Aside from books for preschoolers, I have always been interested in publishing children’s stories that address environmental concerns. In 1993, I wrote and published a series of reading books with workbooks for primary schools. Called the Green Readers, these books all focus on the environment. Now more than ever there is need for a series like this that integrates into the story information about climate change, global warming, greenhouse gases, epidemics like CORVID 19, and other prevailing concerns. We are revising and redoing artwork to re-publish the Green Readers for schools later this year. In 2009, I served as the Art Director for another environmentally-themed picture book, Shaggy Parrot and Reggae Band, illustrated by John Mendes and written by a team of Jamaican children's writers which included Jana Bent, Rupert Brent III, Nicole Hoo Fatt, Kellie Magnus, Rebecca Parker and Veronica Salter.

There are so many beautiful and important Caribbean children’s stories yet to be published; I hope I can find a way to get back to that soon.

About the Author

Julie Morton was born and raised in Trinidad where she has lived all her life. She studied at Naparima Teachers' College, entered the teaching profession and graduated with a Diploma in Education. During a four year stay in Toronto, Canada, she attended York University to study Fine Arts and Ryerson College where she did courses in Fashion Art among others. She is the founder of Morton Publishing, based in Port of Spain, Trinidad, and Morton Books, a children’s bookstore also based in Port of Spain, which she ran for 6 years. She consults with and offers advice for young authors who wish to publish.

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Great Ladies of Caribbean Children's Literature: Diane Browne

The essay below is a part of our 'Great Ladies of Caribbean Children's Literature' series. During Women's History Month, and in celebration of Anansesem's 10th anniversary, we're publishing essays by or about 10 female trailblazers whose labors, writings, editorial work and foundational research created the growing field of Caribbean children's and young adult literature.

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Growing up in Jamaica, the children’s books we were exposed to were mainly British or American books. Heroines with blonde curls inhabited their pages. I longed to see people who looked like me and the people I knew in stories, to prove that we could be heroes/heroines too. There was always Anancy, the trickster spider, whom we enjoyed, and I knew he belonged to us, but he wasn’t a person. Stories are used to socialise children and, at that time, European children’s books reflected racist colonial thinking. Consider how the golliwog doll, an anti-Black caricature, in some of their stories would have impacted us. My eldest daughter remembers that the golliwog was always getting into and causing trouble. Subtle brainwashing? As a young mother, I realized that there was nothing for my children, both girls, to read with which they could identify. I would have to write for them.

In 1979, I won a children’s story contest run by UNESCO in celebration of the Year of the Child. Then, in 1980, I was one of a team of three hired by the Ministry of Education to write for a project called the Doctor Bird Reading Series (named after the Doctor Bird, the national bird of Jamaica). These were supplementary readers for grades 4-6. The idea was that presenting school reading material as storybooks instead of textbooks would motivate the children to read. Imagine going to work every day to write! We wrote every morning and edited as a group every afternoon. This project used a number of local artists, giving them exposure too. When we went into schools to meet with our target audience, we discovered that the children thought all writers were either dead or foreigners. I like to think that the Doctor Bird books helped a generation of Jamaican children to debunk that myth and realize they could be writers too.



Every now and then I run into adults who read the Doctor Bird books during their school days and are delighted to know they are meeting one of the authors. I recall working on a project with at-risk youth (boys) and when asked what books they had read one boy mentioned a Doctor Bird title. I grinned and slowly it dawned on them that I was the author. The conversation went something like this: “Is she write it? Miss, is you write it?” (with wonder in his voice) “Yes, is me write it.” “Yes man, is she write it.” Grins and laughter all around, and I felt so pleased. We cannot underestimate the effect of books, especially culturally relevant stories, on the lives of our children. In an island where disposable income is often limited, these books from the Ministry of Education may be the only books some children will ever own. I also receive emails from Jamaicans overseas who remember the Doctor Bird books from their childhood and want to know how they can purchase them for their children.

Other Jamaican children’s writers had come before us, other Jamaican children’s books had been published, and important work had been done. However, I think I can truthfully say this was the first major project in the island to produce so many storybooks for children that reflected and validated them and their lives. There were books for each grade at the appropriate reading level. I wrote 23 of the stories/selections including non-fiction pieces. This was the real beginning of my writing career.

The Children’s Writers Circle, a group of writers started by Pat Persaud and Billy Hall in 1983, also played a significant role in the development of Jamaica’s children’s writing scene. I was one of the editors. Pat Persaud was brilliant at marketing and getting sponsorship from the private sector. It was a productive time for us. The books, in black and white, were not expensive, therefore the libraries could purchase a decent number of copies. Members of the Circle would drive around to the various bookshops selling their books. By then, two of my children’s stories, "Debonair the Donkey" and "Gammon and the Woman Tongue Trees," had won gold medals in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s (JCDC) writing competitions. Gammon and the Woman’s Tongue Trees was actually published as a picture storybook by the Children’s Writers Circle in 1987. Eventually, many members of the Circle migrated and the group officially disbanded in 2006.

While working at Heinemann Caribbean as an editor, I was asked to develop a Children’s Publishing Department. We published five children’s books, (the stories were anonymously submitted to a panel and included my own story, "Cordelia Finds Fame and Fortune," which was selected). They were attractively packaged and published in 1990. We launched them with fanfare, bookmarks, labels and children dressed as characters. However, there was always the issue of competition from overseas books, many of which were excess inventory from large print runs; these foreign books easily outsold anything we could produce. Therefore, although the Heinemann books were excellent, continuing to reprint them was not viable. This challenge continues.

I have written over forty children’s stories, some of which became published books. The themes in my stories tend to be identity, the hero/heroine growing into some kind of mastery, validation of the Jamaican space (our culture, our folksongs etc.), and family. All of my stories do not necessarily have a happily-ever-after ending, but they are all hopeful stories.

My picture book Cordelia Finds Fame and Fortune (1990) connected with a lot of readers. In the story Cordelia is teased by the other children in her village because she has red hair and dark skin. They sing ‘Cordelia Brown whe mek you head so red,’ a folk song I have loved ever since I was a little girl. Cordelia decides to run away to seek her fortune so that no one would ever tease her again. On her way, she meets an old lady who has been all over the world doing just that-seeking her fortune-and learns a valuable lesson. Suffice it to say, Cordelia’s red hair becomes important in the search for fame and fortune. An American edition of the book was published by Harcourt Brace for libraries in the USA. I have no idea how that happened, but the agreement was a publisher-to-publisher agreement so I did not strike it rich. The American edition was a much larger hard-copy book and they anglicized the Jamaican Creole so that the folk song became, ‘Cordelia Brown, why is your hair so red?’

In 2004, I received a bronze Musgrave Medal (an annual award by the Institute of Jamaica in recognition of achievement in art, science, and literature) in recognition of my contribution to Jamaican children’s literature. It is wonderful to be recognized by one’s peers. In 2006, I was hired by the Ministry of Education to serve as the Production Manager for the books in their Literacy 1-2-3 programme; I edited the texts and monitored the artwork supplied by various Jamaican writers and artists. Like the Doctor Bird books, the Literacy 1-2-3 books are leveled readers (they are for grades 1-3), but they are printed in full colour. When the books arrived back from the printer they were gorgeous; looking at them for the first time, I realized I had come full circle; I was now helping to usher in a new generation of books that Jamaican children would grow up reading in school.

Diane Browne receiving the Musgrave Medal from Sir Roy Augier in 2004

In 2011, my children’s story, The Happiness Dress, won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in the children’s story category and I self-published it in 2016. I had written the story long before and as the final submission date for the competition drew near, I took it out and another ending appeared in my mind; as they say, let your stories rest for a while and then take them out and see what happens. The story shows very simply the importance of fathers in girls’ lives and how a child who receives affirmation that s/he is special gains self-confidence. There is no preaching in the book, just characters sharing their feelings.

Abigail’s Glorious Hair is another picture storybook that I self-published in 2016. Around that time, a lot of ‘hair books’ aimed at black girls were appearing and the trend hasn’t slowed down; that’s good since we have a lot of issues to work though when it comes to our hair. When I was a child, adults would say it was a pity that the sun spoilt my hair. I knew that to be rubbish. When I had daughters I knew I had to strike a blow at this hair issue once and for all, but the story hadn’t come to me yet. Then my first granddaughter was born and it soon became clear that we had a tightly curled lion’s mane on our hands. Her little brother loved her hair, and I loved combing it, that feeling of belonging and love, and so my hair book became a book about the loving female ritual of combing our hair. To quote the story:

Mum brushes and combs out and her fingers are going through my hair, one, two, twist; one, two, twist; one, two, twist . . . and love flows through her fingers and I feel snug and safe.

The picture on the front of the book is exactly how my granddaughter looks when her hair is twisted-out. The joyful expression on her face is real. This book still sells very well. A friend said that her grandchildren knew they were beautiful, but when they read the book, they believed it even more. We cannot measure the effect of stories on our children but we know that it is real. I love these anecdotes from readers that prove it. I am happy that both The Happiness Dress and Abigail’s Glorious Hair have since been picked up by the young Jamaican publishing house, Blue Banyan Books.

I have delivered numerous children’s writing workshop in Jamaica, and the wider Caribbean, including in multilingual Curacao. Others in the region have the same desire to develop books for children, and face the same challenges that we do. I’ve also given presentations at conferences, in Jamaica and overseas, about the importance of indigenous reading material for children and was an author for the Miami Book Fair’s Outreach Visits to Schools in 1991 where we sang the correct version of ‘Cordelia Brown.’

Diane Browne leading reading activities in a school

I tend to write books that are linked to whatever interests me at the time. I wrote three time-travel books, because Jamaican children can time-travel too. Two of the books in this series go back to pivotal events in our history: the 1907 earthquake and Hurricane Charlie in 1951. I love the research that goes into historical books like these. In the most recent book, Whispering Winds, Time of Secrets, which I self-published on Amazon in 2019, the young characters travel to the future where they find a dystopian Jamaica. Bath Fountain, a mineral spring in Jamaica, plays a central role in this story as it does in a legend I rewrote for the Doctor Bird Series. I love to make these kind of links in my writing and they often happen in a sort of serendipitous way.

We know that the main character in a book should grow or learn, not in a boring pedantic way but in a meaningful way. My characters usually do this as the story evolves. Young adult (YA) stories, my most recent interest, allow much scope for characters to grow. Writing YA fiction, I found that I grew as an author as well. Island Princess in Brooklyn, published by Carlong Publishers in 2011, is one of my YA books and explores migration, which is a part of the fabric of Jamaican life. The protagonist, Princess, doesn’t want to leave her granny in Jamaica to join her mother, whom she barely knows, in Brooklyn. Upon her arrival in America, Princess is very negative about everything, making it harder for her to settle down. Princess certainly grows by the end of the book. When I started to write the story I actually didn’t like her but by the time I finished the book, she had become one of my favourite characters that I’ve created. Most of my father’s family migrated to the USA, so I drew upon my family history in writing this story. When I wrote Cordelia Finds Fame and Fortune it was almost a lament about the migration that was taking place then. I knew my relatives had good reasons to migrate, but I wanted them to stay. Many years later, I’ve come to terms with migration, which always happens with an island people, and now I can have a heroine, Princess, who comes to term with it too.

Many readers have loved Island Princess in Brooklyn, including readers from Puerto Rico and as far as Uganda. Princess’ story is all of our stories. Last month I got an email from a thirteen-year-old whose class was reading Island Princess in Brooklyn. She used one word to describe what she thought of the book: amazing.

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Books and Short Stories by Diane Browne

The Funny Grey Cloud, Ministry of Education, Jamaica, 1978

Various stories/excerpts published in the LMW Primary Language Arts Series, Ministry of Education, Jamaica, 1980

Titles in the Doctor Bird Reading Series, Ministry of Education, Jamaica, 1980 (reprinted 2002-2005):
-Sweet, Sweet Mango Tree
-The Cat Woman & the Spinning Wheel
-An Angel of Mercy
-Those Who Left Jamaica

"Once Upon a Starlight", in The Big River and Other Stories, Children’s Writers Circle, Jamaica, 1983

Gammon and the Woman’s Tongue Trees, in Jamaica Journal (vol. 17. No.1), 1984. (Gold Medal in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission's writing competition)

Various stories/excerpts in New Caribbean Junior Readers, Ginn & Co. UK, 1984

Things I Like, Children’s Writers Circle, Jamaica, 1984

Debonair the Donkey, JCDC, Jamaica, 1986 (Gold Medal in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission's writing competition)

Gammon and the Woman’s Tongue Trees, Children’s Writers Circle, Jamaica, 1987

Cordelia Finds Fame Fame and Fortune, Heinemann Caribbean Publishers, 1990 (Best Children's Book Award from the Book Industry Association of Jamaica)

"Peter’s Secret", in Just Suppose and Other Stories, Children’s Writers Circle, Jamaica, 1990

"Gammon and the Woman’s Tongue Trees" in A World of Children’s Stories, Friendship Press, USA, 1993

Cordelia Finds Fame and Fortune, Harcourt Brace, USA, (American Edition) 1994

"Once Upon A Starlight" in Scribbles Magazine, Jamaica, 1997

"Great Gran’s Gift" in Scribbles Magazine, Jamaica, 1998

Tourism Activity Books for Grades 1, 2 & 3 (written for the Big Tourism Competition), Jamaica Tourist Board, 2001
-We Can Be Tourists Too: Shari & Tony
-A Tour for Tourists

Various stories and excerpts in the Caribbean Language Arts Series, Carlong Publishers, 2002

A Tumbling World...A Time of Fire, Arawak Publications, 2002

Every Little Thing Will be All Right, Carlong Publishers, 2003

Teaching about HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean, (co-author), Macmillan Caribbean, 2006

Titles in the Get Caught Reading! Cricket Readers Series, Ginn, UK, 2007
-Six Runs! (co-author)
-Peter's New Bat
-Magic Bat
-Twins in a Spin (co-author)

The Ring and the Roaring Water (sequel to A Tumbling World...A Time of Fire), self-published, 2008

Island Princess in Brooklyn, Carlong Publishers, 2011 (Shortlisted for the inaugural Burt Award for Young adult Caribbean Literature, 2014)

Ebony and the Auntie of the Starlight: A Caribbean Cinderella Story, self-published, 2014

Abigail’s Glorious Hair, self-published, 2016, republished by Blue Banyan Books

The Happiness Dress, 2016, self-published, 2016, republished by Blue Banyan Books (2011 Commonwealth Short Story Prize in the children’s story category)

Whispering Winds, Time of Secrets (sequel to The Ring and the Roaring Water), self-published, 2019

About the Author

Diane Browne is an award-winning writer, editor and publishing consultant who is one of Jamaica's most prolific children's authors. She has been a visiting author for the Students’ Encounter Programme at the Miami Book Fair, and has presented at international conferences put on by the National Association of Teachers of English, the International Association of School Librarianship, the International Reading Association and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. She frequently participates as a trainer/consultant in workshops for both writers of children’s fiction and textbooks, in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. Her most recent picture books are Abigail’s Glorious Hair and The Happiness Dress. A number of her books are now available as e-books on Amazon. Her home on the web is www.dianebrowneblog.blogspot.com.

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