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New Children’s Book Encourages Children of Color to Learn and Explore
The recently released children’s book Adventures of Sable Brown recounts the magical journey of two siblings, Sable and Sammie, as their imaginations turn a normal day of play into an adventure through an African safari that appears in their closet.
The book’s author, Pittsburgh native Shalise Gardner, MBA, MPA, drew inspiration from her 3-year-old grandson, Mallik. “I wanted to leave a legacy,” she explains. “I want to show him that someone in his immediate family worked hard to make a dream come true that’s going to be beneficial to himself and our family.” She continues, “I always wanted to write a book, but I didn’t know which genre. It wasn’t until he was born that I [decided] children’s books.”
In the story, Sable and Sammie, guided by a wise owl named Dr. Smooh, meet many animals—lions, elephants, giraffes, hyenas and rhinos—while learning fun facts about them along the way.
Along with the story’s vivid descriptions, the book’s large, bright and colorful illustrations create an engaging experience for children while reading. “Illustrator Debopriya Banerjee [was] awesome in capturing my vision and making it come to life,” Gardner says. The illustration process was essential to Gardner, as it was important to her to accurately portray the black children in the story. “Even down to the color,” she explains. “Because we come in all shades, I had to approve every sketch, color and shade.”
Gardner also carefully picked each character’s name and specific animals to educate young readers while their imaginations guide them through the adventure. “Even with Sable. I wanted her name to represent African-American culture,” she says. “When you think of ‘Sable’ you think of the color black. The definition of Sable is black. Brown is another color of African-Americans. So, it was appropriate for me to put the two names together for the main character.”
The entire process of writing and publishing took Gardner two years. Gardner also gives credit to her high-school friend and fellow children’s book author Kelly Starling Lyons for inspiring her to write a book. Additionally, Gardner was mentored by Atlanta children’s book author Alika R. Turner, who guided her through the step-by-step process of writing, publishing and marketing Adventures of Sable Brown.
Gardner’s faith and passion for serving others has led her to this pivotal point in her career. “I thank God, first and foremost, for giving me a vision, my gifts and talents,” she explains. With more than 15 years of professional experience in social services, Gardner believes her books can give hope to children of color as they are able to identify with the fun, loving characters she writes about while simultaneously learning new things.
“I think that this book could inspire children to read and even possibly pursue writing their own books one day,” Gardner says. “The representation of black children in books shows that they come from good homes as well, whether it’s a single-parent or two-parent household. Black children can still grow up with morals, stability and self-worth. Black children can learn, imagine and grow just as normal as any other child.”
This book is just the beginning of Gardner’s writing career, as she hopes to one day branch off into adult fiction.
Adventures of Sable Brown will be a three-book series and is now available for purchase on Amazon.