I looove this book!!! Odd Duck by Cecil Castellucci and Sara Varon. It is a lovely story, about a special friendship between two odd, misfit ducks. The Odd Couple meets The Ugly Duckling. Both of these ducks are evolved enough to know and accept they are different. Theodora the introverted loner, a creature of habits. I read her with a British accent, she reminds me of an old English lady. On the other end of the spectrum, but now right next door to her house, Chad, the happy go lucky artist rule breaker. I read him with the American voice (of course!)

Though at first it looks like there is no fodder for friendship between these two peas from very different pods, they are able to discover common ground in their quirkiness. And (because they are very evolved ducks!) they learn to get along on their commonalities, and accept their differences, as opposed to expecting the other to be like them. We all have something to learn from that!

I have read other Sara Varon books, like The Bake Sale, Robot Dreams and Chicken and Cat. I love them all! Sara Varon uses a sort of comic, cartoony, picture book fusion. Every page is filled with details that reveal the character's world, and personalities.
One of the details showed a yard sculpture of a wooden horse with an arrow pointing to it "Trojan Horse". This sparks a question from Lucy: What's a Trojan Horse? We pause the story, I tell her my raggedy version of the Battle of Troy, complemented by a Google search. She loves the concept, and starts colluding how she can invade her "future boyfriend's" house via Trojan Horse without being invited. Always scheming.
There are numerous subjects of conversation in the illustrations alone. Cooking, constellations, conceptual sculpture...

Here's my conversation with Lucy (6):
Me: So Lucy, What do you think this book was about?
Lucy: I think the moral of the story is that you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover.
Me: What makes you think that?
Lucy: Because Chad was all messy and no manners and Theodora was all perfect. But they were still able to be friends. Why was Theodora all perfect anyways? Who wants to be perfect all the time? 
Me: Do you think you're more like Theodora or more like Chad?
Lucy: Somewhere in the middle.

Good thing she thinks that. Although, I think she's more like Chad for sure. I could totally see her doing this:

This story is a celebration of the quirky. The different. Own who you are. Look for common ground. Make good companions.  Don't try to change people.

Sara Varon must be  an odd duck herself, and I love her for it!

So I'm taking a watercolor class at the Glassell School, with the amazing watercolorist Janet Hassinger, and a couple of weeks ago I decided on the theme for series project for this semester. Coincidentally, I had chosen Lucy's hair as the theme, and since the subject of hair came up so auspiciously last week, I decided to share the progress of my work with you. Of course, I'm just getting started on it. But I will keep updating it's progress so people can see the various stages of a watercolor paintings and the development of the series. I plan on using various techniques, color combinations and different stylistic approaches.

This is a preliminary sketch. It's interesting how the hair really takes on an abstract look. My colleagues had a hard time identifying the subject of the painting (which pleases me, as I always dabble on the fine line between reality and abstract (shapes). 

Piece 1, maintaining the neutral color scheme of the sketch, working negative spacing the locks and adding preliminary value range.

my inspirational photo.

I think there is a lot to explore in Lucy's hair, literally!

Here are some pieces from my previous series, on Agave plants. Perhaps there may be some subliminal similarities despite the contrasting subject matter.

I don't even know where to begin. I saw this video facebook post this morning.

   I cannot tell you how this breaks my heart. As you all may know, my daughter Lucy was born in Ethiopia, is almost seven, has brown skin, and African hair, just like this little girl. To me, this is Lucy's cry. And let me tell you. This is not a vanity cry. This is not a misplaced-values  cry. This is not a "oh, she'll get over it" cry. This cry is so deep, so painful, and so heavy in baggage, it cannot easily be explained (to white people, particularly). It carries in it's salty tears hundreds of years of history. Of not being seen as humans, as not the same, as not good enough, as not worthy enough. As much as racism still lives, Caucasians have come to understand and accept different skin colors, and many have made peace with our multi-tonal world. But the deep-rooted hair issue lives on.
   Hair in general, is not only an integral part of one's self esteem, it holds tremendous symbolic significance socially, particularly for women. I could write a PhD dissertation about this. But in the name of being brief, one can ask these questions to get a sense of the answers: What is one of the more difficult parts of cancer treatment? How difficult would it be for you to shave your head, or be bald? How much money do people spend on hair dressers, curling straight hair, straightening curly hair, cutting, trimming, coloring, styling? What does going out in public without brushing/caring/washing your hair feel like? Why do so many societies have women cover their hair as a major religious dogma? What happened to Samson when he cut his hair?
  For descendants of Africans, living amongst Caucasians, this has been an even more symbolic journey. For this community, whose (beautiful) skin color is permanent, being able to change their (beautiful) hair has been the one thing that they have control over, in order to feel more integrated in a mainly Caucasian society. Until today, much effort is made, to use what technology and means (which are often highly unhealthy, terribly expensive and unimaginably time consuming) are available, in hoping to achieve the feeling that hair is the great equalizer. And that has been, for the most part (despite the noble efforts of the Black Panther, Black is Beautiful, and embrace the Afro-look), the status-quo. Thankfully, there is a new movement under way, that is re-embracing the Natural look of Black Hair (check out Oprah Magazine September 2013 issue).  If you're interested in finding out more about this, a good place to start is Good Hair, a documentary by Chris Rock.
   And now comes the bit from my experience, where I hope to shine a light, and perhaps an "a-ha" moment for some. Non-black people, who have hair ranging from silk straight to very curly, just don't have the slightest idea, how much time, effort and often pain (not to mention money) is involved in taking care of African hair, especially girls' hair. This was a complete cultural shock for me, with a learning curve as steep as Mt Everest, and I'm still at base camp. We're talking about thousands of years of inherited experience, combing techniques, styles, products, vocabulary, scheduling, tactics for dealing with pain and sitting time. This hair, so beautiful and amazing to me, so malleable and deep in expression, is very (from here on, when I write the word very,  read VERY to the power of 10) difficult to take care of and very time consuming. It has to be combed properly daily, so as not to get tangled and knotted. But combing it is an art form that is very hard, and if you have a tender-headed* daughter like mine, it is full of suffering, pain, screams, wails and tears. Often, little kids wear elaborate hair-dos, which are breathtakingly beautiful, and serve not only the purpose of removing the unruly hair stigma, and helping create an image of beauty and tidiness, but also help with the maintenance of the hair, a hair-do having the life of a week or more, in which time it does not require much attention. Seriously, you have no idea what effort was involved in producing those hair-dos. Please appreciate that.

 The hair-dos themselves (which I believe come with a sort of cultural "manual", handed down from generation to generation), are very intricate and difficult to learn (as an outsider). Thanks to YouTube videos, blogs ( such as www.chocolatehairvanillacare.com), helpful African American moms (that walk up to you at the supermarket, with understanding and pity in their voice, and reach out to you with helpful information like products and tips, and who will actually at times come over to show you how to do it), and wonderful patient hairdressers like Sunshine (a Katrina transplant in Houston who is most patient with Lucy and me), I am able to, at least, feel like I'm keeping my head above the water. I used to do Lucy's hair weekly. It was a 3-4 hour ordeal every time, from wash to finalizing the twists. And every single minute of it was filled with suffering, pain, screams, wails and tears (let's just call that scene, "The Stress"). After about four years, I decided to try to reduce "The Stress",  by allowing Lucy's hair to "lock" (aka dreadlocks, although as Sunshine says, there is nothing dreadful about them- and they certainly are NOT "faddish"). This would reduce the amount of time needed to maintain it to a once a month, two hour session. Sunshine, who maintains Lucy's  locks, and I, still experience "The Stress" at every sitting, as Lucy apparently has  a difficult case of tender-headed-ness. But it's the least painful solution (even short hair, as some of you may wonder, would involve "The Stress" daily). And locks happen to be a great look for Lucy,  wonderfully matching her unique personality. 
   Despite the fact that she gets compliments on her hair all the time, which is great, she also has not been able to dodge the fact that her hair is different from a lot of other kids', and, as she sees it, not in a good way. She does, after all,  live in a world of blond Barbies (despite also having the token Tiana and a couple of other brown-skinned dolls - which I'm grateful for ), and a majority of girls at school with long straight hair. She has come home crying several times, wishing that she had straight golden hair like some of her friends. She has come home crying, because one of her "pink-skinned" friends told her she would not invite her to her birthday party because she was only inviting girls with straight hair. She has heard "the talk" from me many times, about how everyone looks different, and how that is a good thing. About how her hair is so unique and beautiful. But she still suffers through the physical pain of getting it done, and will inevitably wish for her hair to be different.
   What I cannot tell you is into how many pieces her heart would be broken if her school told her that her hair was inappropriate, and that she could no longer attend her school because of her hair. That, my friend, is a hurt you don't recover from.
   It's time for this non-sense to stop.

In the spirit of shining a light on the beauty and acceptance of African hair, I present you with a wonderful picture book, I Love My Hair! by Natasha Tarpley. It is a book that celebrates African hair, in all it's glory. It acknowledges the pain that is sometimes felt in the process of it's caring. But it also focuses on the beauty and uniqueness of different styles, and through poetic text and beautiful watercolor illustrations that complement the text as visual poetry, helps kids of African descent appreciate, and enjoy their beautiful hair. And to liberate themselves by feeling that their hair can let them fly, free from all hair prejudices that bind them.

As far as the school from the video goes, my wish is that not only the African American parents, but ALL parents, withdraw their kids from that school in outrage, unless that ridiculous rule is removed from it's books.


*tender-headed= I have not found an official scientific definition of this, but within the African American community, it is a term widely used to describe some people, especially some kids, that have extremely sensitive scalps, and suffer intense pain when their hair is being combed, parted , twisted or braided.

The illustrations by Haude Levesque are tastefully made to have a more stylized and cut-out look, rather than ultra-realistic, which makes them easy to look at and understand. No gross-out factors. The text is simple to read and understand.

All in all, this is a great recommendation for a fun, educational, engaging and LOL kind of read!

Bug Butts, by Dawn Cusik.

August 24, 2013.
Lucy (6) has a friend (7) over for a sleepover. I walk by the room and overhear a conversation:

Friend: Who do you like, Romney or Obama?
Lucy: Who do YOU like?
Friend: I like Romney.
Lucy: I like Obama.
Friend: Well Obama is bad. You have to like Romney.
Lucy: He's not bad!
Friend: Yes he is. And if you want to be my friend, you have to like Romney.
Lucy: No I don't! I can like whoever I want. You can't tell me who to like! Everyone can like whoever they choose to like!

Go Lucy! Best answer ever!

Working on character development today, for my manuscript/comic (working title: The Problem). I'm not really sure what the character will be. A non-specific blob? a worm? today it's a penguin. I think kids like penguins. I want it to be cute and innocent looking. Character 2 is the bully version of him. 

I feel like I've got to rush through my ideas. Yesterday I was going down my PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month, 1 idea/day every October) ideas from the last couple of years, and a bunch of them have been done. I was telling Lucy about how upset I was that a few of my top contenders are out. She said, "I can't believe they're stealing your ideas! Isn't there a law against that?!?" And then she proceeded to say that I have to hurry up and write my books already before they get taken. 

So here I am. Moving forward.

I'm always looking for good comics for Lucy. Something that's just clean fun: good story, not scary, not too many superheroes, no inappropriate words for her age (6). So I found this series called 323 Detective Agency -  The Disappearance of Dave Warthog by Fiona Robinson. It's kind of a cross between the Bremen Town Musicians and The Number One Ladies Detective Agency. Five animals, each with a special skills, who go into the big town to make it big, end up living together, and solving mysteries as a "day job". There is enough of an intriguing plot to keep the kids involved in the story, wanting to read on and solve the mystery. Lucy definitely did not want to put the book down. 

I found the drawings a little hard to read at times, and it's not a minimalist, clean cartoon; definitely a lot going on visually. Nonetheless, it is cute, funny, has lots of action -a rewarding read. It walks you through the logical process of gathering clues and deducing the conclusion, and is riddled with clues in the visual details. The morning after reading this book, Lucy had assembled her own version of a detective outfit, white lab coat, glasses, notebook and pencil, and was making lists of clues around the house, trying to solve her imaginary mysteries.

Animal characters are a great way to represent different human archetypes. I'd say that, despite not having people, this book scores well in terms of diversity, for creating characters that vary greatly in species, size (from donkey to dung beetle), character, and aspirations, but who can bring their talents together and respect each other's differences.

There are few times I feel so strongly about yelling out to the world that they must read a certain picture book. I should have known it immediately when I saw "An Oprah Winfrey Recommended Kids' Book" on the cover!
Patricia Polacco wrote and illustrated a little gem of a story, Mrs. Katz and Tush, one of those picture books that is clearly over 500 words, and all the better for it. Kudos to her. 
It's the story of a relationship between a lonely senior Jewish widow, and a neighbor African American boy. The sensitive boy feels her solitude and gives her a cat, to keep her company, but ends up being drawn to the stories of her childhood, growing up in Poland, escaping the Holocaust, and becomes her daily companion himself. Through her stories, they find shared common ground in their difficult cultural history.
My six-year-old daughter is of African origin, and also being raised Jewish, so there were countless moments of pausing during the storytelling, to clarify and discuss some thoughts she is just starting to understand. Slavery, racial and cultural prejudice, moving from your native land, having Jewish grandparents that fled Poland, what is a headstone and why we put rocks on the, what is a "runt". 
Of course I couldn't contain my tears.
Lucy: Why are you crying mom?
Me: Because this books makes me a little sad.
Lucy: If it's sad, maybe we should read a different one...
Me: No Lucy, it's ok. Some books are happy. Some books are sad. That is how life is. Happy moments and sad moments too. It's ok for us to read things that make us feel sad sometimes.
She seemed to understand. That, and many things.


Thank you to the PJ Library, for striving to keep Jewish culture alive in our busy modern day families, by delivering free children's books on such themes.

Jad Abumrad, my hero from Radiolab, tells of  the path of creation of his out-of-the-box radio show. After he put some random soundbites together, that really didn't make any sense at all, he describes the feeling of being lost in a forest, and then sensing he'd stumbled upon "the arrow", which said "follow me". In storytelling, there is a point that the author cues the audience by saying something like, "and at that moment, everything changed..." 
Jad tells of how he had no idea where the arrows would take him. Change cannot be planned, it can only be recognized.
As a writer, I have often feelings of being lost in that forest. I feel alone a lot of the times. I feel lost and looking for direction. I am training myself, to have the time, the wherewithal  and the sensitivity to RECOGNIZE the arrows that may occur. One has to be looking for them. One has to be receptive to them. This takes time. This takes silence. This takes available brainwaves.
This year, I said goodbye to my business of ten years, Simple Difference. Clearing the space.
I also found out yesterday I did not get a job that I thought I'd get for sure. This has to be a good thing.
It's much easier to have a job then to write. It's much simpler to know what to do than try to make your creative juices flow and know what to do with them. But I have to be confident, that I am clearing the slate here, so that I am PRESENT when the arrows come.