My children's book Grandma's Purple Flowers is now out in paperback. I'll be signing books and reading on Saturday, Oct. 18 from 2 til 4 p.m. at Pyramid Atlantic's new store in Silver Spring, MD (821 Wayne Avenue) as part of downtown Silver Spring's Fall Festival.
Grandma's Purple Flowers celebrates the affection between a young African American girl and her favorite Grandma through the seasons, with simple lyrical text and lively cut paper collages. When Grandma dies one day something surprising comforts her during her time of mourning.
This has always been a special book for me, since it was the first one that I both wrote and illustrated. It draws upon childhood memories that I had of my paternal grandma, Annie Kate, who traveled by Greyhound bus from Georgia to visit my siblings and I in Chicago. The words of the story however, grew out of my sense of loss from not having my mother around when my youngest son was born.
