The Jean Little Library Praises Brown Is Warm

I’m both elated and humbled by this review for Brown Is Warm from the Jean Little Library.

This book is perfect in combining the diversity I want to see in my collection with subjects that teachers and parents are looking for and which will make it a popular choice and, possibly, an enduring classic.

Verdict: If you long for beautiful and diverse high-concept books but know they won’t circulate well for you, this is the book you need for your collection! If those high-concept books are easy circulators for you, this lovely book will be a wonderful addition. Either way, I recommend it for most collections.

Along with the illustrator, the editor, the designer, and the production team, I work my hardest at making a book that is beautiful, lyrical, a pleasure for the senses. But the one thing that is always a bit up in the air is reader engagement. I try to keep my readers in mind always, but I’m not sure any writer can ever really read their own work as a reader would–coming to it completely fresh. And the difficulty is doubled when the writer is an adult and the reader is a child.

It’s so gratifying, then, to hear praise from a librarian not just for the literary quality of the book (I mean, thanks for that, I do appreciate it), but also because she believes it will circulate–go into a reader’s hands over and over again. Because that’s what makes a book complete.