Two new children's books view the natural world as a site of personal growth

Summary

NPR's Book of the Day: Exploring Nature and Identity in Children's Literature

Release Date: April 18, 2025

NPR's "Book of the Day" episode delves into the enriching world of children's literature, spotlighting two new books that emphasize the natural world as a catalyst for personal growth. Hosted by Andrew Limbong, the episode features in-depth conversations with authors Kiese Lehman and Brian Pinkney, exploring themes of identity, safety, and environmental consciousness through beautifully crafted narratives and illustrations.

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1. "City Summer, Country Summer" by Kiese Lehman

Exploring Identity and Softness

Kiese Lehman's latest work, City Summer, Country Summer, is a poignant exploration of identity and personal growth set against the backdrop of contrasting environments. Lehman, a MacArthur "Genius" grant recipient, shares his inspiration and the nuanced themes embedded in his storytelling.

Key Themes:

• Contrast Between Urban and Rural Life: The protagonist, a boy from New York City, spends his summer vacation visiting his grandmother in Mississippi. This geographical shift serves as a metaphor for exploring different facets of his identity.
• Black Boy Softness: Lehman emphasizes the importance of depicting black boys with depth beyond societal stereotypes. He seeks to highlight emotions, vulnerability, and the capacity for joy and experimentation.

Notable Quote:

“I wanted to create art and read art where black children are allowed to be lost. Because being lost is a kind of experimentation.”
— Kiese Lehman [04:50]

Illustration Insights: The book's illustrations by Alexis Franklin are described as "lush" and play a crucial role in conveying the story's emotional depth. The natural settings, including forests and gardens, symbolize safety and love, contrasting with the external unsafety in the world.

Highlighted Passages: Lehman reads a touching excerpt where the protagonist feels both fear and satisfaction while wandering the Mississippi woods, illustrating the internal conflict and the comfort found in nature.

“Wandering through those cool spots in those Mississippi woods was too much for New York's body. We didn't speak this. New York didn't speak this, but our bodies knew.”
— Kiese Lehman [04:27]

Discussion on Safety vs. Safeness: Lehman differentiates between "safety" and "safeness," emphasizing that while external environments may be unsafe, the emotional and psychological feeling of safeness is cultivated through familial love and nurturing relationships.

“I think there was, like, a bodily, psychological, emotional feeling of safeness when I was at my grandmother's house. And my grandmother's, like, touch when she could see me.”
— Kiese Lehman [06:21]

Healing for Adults: Lehman hopes the book serves as a healing tool for adults as well, allowing parents and caregivers to share expressions of joy and love with children, fostering a sense of security and belonging.

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2. "The Littlest Drop" by Sasha Alpert and Brian Pinkney

Continuing a Legacy of Illustration

The Littlest Drop is a collaborative effort between author Sasha Alpert and illustrator Brian Pinkney, the son of the legendary Jerry Pinkney. This book represents Brian’s homage to his father, blending his unique artistic style with Jerry Pinkney's foundational techniques.

Key Themes:

• Environmental Awareness: The story centers around a tiny hummingbird who, amidst a forest fire, bravely collects a single drop of water to help extinguish the flames. This act symbolizes hope and responsibility towards environmental conservation.
• Hope and Resilience: The narrative underscores the importance of maintaining hope and taking small actions to effect change, especially in the face of overwhelming challenges like the climate crisis.

Notable Quote:

“I'm doing what I can.”
— Hummingbird Character [10:09]

Illustration Process: Brian Pinkney discusses the delicate balance of honoring his father's detailed and expressive animal illustrations while infusing his own fluid and impressionistic style. The collaboration involved expanding Jerry Pinkney's initial sketches and integrating broader brushstrokes and vibrant colors to bring the story to life.

Notable Quote:

“The collaboration between the two of you is so beautiful because your dad did have such an amazing way, with just the extraordinary expressiveness of animals... and I just think that it's so beautiful together.”
— Brian Pinkney [12:33]

Artistic Challenges: Brian shares the challenges of stepping into his late father's shoes, particularly in illustrating numerous animal characters and maintaining the integrity of Jerry Pinkney’s original vision while incorporating his distinct artistic approach.

Illustrative Highlights: A standout illustration features a two-page spread of fire, symbolizing both destruction and the small but significant efforts to combat it. This visual representation captivates young readers, as noted by Brian:

“There are lots of characters. And I also saw the fire as a character. So it was important that the fire kind of grow and have a presence in the book, and then the presence diminishes as the fire goes out.”
— Brian Pinkney [14:07]

Broader Impact: While initially an environmental story, Brian reflects on the broader implications of hope and collective action, encouraging children to believe in their ability to make positive changes in the world.

“Children are dreamers and they need to keep hope. Children now are facing an incredibly challenging world in so many ways, and they are going to have to do what they can...”
— Brian Pinkney [15:10]

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Conclusion: Celebrating Potential and Healing Through Literature

This episode of NPR's "Book of the Day" not only highlights the creative journeys of Kiese Lehman and Brian Pinkney but also underscores the profound impact children's literature can have on both young readers and adults. Through City Summer, Country Summer and The Littlest Drop, these authors and illustrators celebrate the possibilities of personal growth, emotional depth, and environmental stewardship, offering stories that inspire, heal, and educate.

Listeners are encouraged to explore these books to witness the delicate interplay of narrative and illustration that brings these meaningful stories to life.

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Credits:

• Host: Andrew Limbong
• Guests: Kiese Lehman, Brian Pinkney, Sasha Alpert
• Producer: Samantha Balaban
• Production Team: Chloe Weiner, Megan Sullivan, among others

For more information and other engaging conversations, visit npr.org Picture This.

Transcript

[Andrew Limbong]

Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. I grew up in a city and so back then one of my only access points to nature, to the pastoral, was books. Today, we've got two children's books that do just that, push readers to see what's outside. Literally. In a bit, we'll hear from the son of famed illustrator Jerry Pinkney to find out what he's been working on. But first, one of the kids in Kiese Lehman's new book, city Summer, Country Summer, is like me from New York City. And when he heads south to visit his grandmother, it's not just a new geographical space that he's exploring. He's also finding a different, softer side of his own identity. Lehmann talks to NPR's Michelle Martin about his new book after the break.

[Michelle Martin]

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[Kiese Lehman]

And parents need a break or cheap long term babysitting, for generations, kids, especially city kids, have gone to spend time with relatives in the summer. What are those like away from home? What happens though, when there are young black boys who are allowed to roam and explore, away from rules and routines, but also away from everything they know? Writer and MacArthur genius Kiesi Lehman has some ideas. He has written a stunning new children's book called City Summer, Country Summer. And he's with us now in our studios in Washington to talk about his version of Endless Summer Days in the South. Thank you so much for joining us. Welcome.

[Michelle Martin]

Thank you for having me, Michelle. I'm happy to be here with you.

[Kiese Lehman]

Why a children's book? I think people who know your work know that one of your most well known books, heavy, it's titled Heavy Can Be a Little Heavy.

[Michelle Martin]

You know, we talked about Heavy when it came out. And one of the things that you said when we talked about that book was it's just hard in this book. And I wanted to create something that was softer and honest. You know, I think that book was about like the origins and the consequences of a lack of safety for children. And so I wanted to really like, sit in. What happens if we really explore a culture and a society and grandmothers that helped create safeness in spite of the unsafety of the world.

[Kiese Lehman]

So tell us about the characters and the storyline in City Summer. Country Summer.

[Michelle Martin]

Yeah. So there's this kid in New York who comes down from New York to visit his grandmother, and then there's other two kids who come from Jackson, Mississippi. And so for the kid from New York, it doesn't matter that those kids are from Jackson, which is a city. They're country to him. And it doesn't matter for the country kids whether New York is actually from New York or from Rochester, from Albany or New Rochelle. Or New Rochelle. Right. He's New York to them. And so I just wanted to also create a book that was about, like, the imperative of, like, black boy softness. I think people a lot of times talk about black boy joy, but I don't think we talk a lot about the importance of black boy touch, Black boy play and black boy experimentation. And I got lucky in that the artist Alexis Franklin came on to create, like, I think, one of the most lush picture books I've ever seen. And we really wanted to get forest and gardens into this space because in my childhood, those were spaces that were, ironically, like, the most safe for us. Those forests and those gardens were where we learned how to touch, where we learned how to accept touch. And even though we didn't use these words, they're also where we learned how to accept love. And that's really what I just wanted to create.

[Kiese Lehman]

Well, why don't you read us some?

[Michelle Martin]

Absolutely.

[Kiese Lehman]

This is the point in the book where they've been together for a bit.

[Michelle Martin]

Yeah. So they're in the woods for the first time, and I'll just start. New York wandered away from us and walked closer to the edge of the woods. You good? We asked. I'm ready to go home, he said. Something in those central Mississippi woods reminded New York of the language of home, being reminded of home so far away from his newborn sister Cece, so far away from the bodegas, the fire hydrants in the city blocks, terrified or satisfied New York. Whether it was absolute fear or exquisite satisfaction, wandering through those cool spots in those Mississippi woods was too much for New York's body. We didn't speak this. New York didn't speak this, but our bodies knew.

[Kiese Lehman]

That is lovely and it's poignant and it does so many things, because one of the things that it made me think of is how not just black boys, but maybe particularly black boys, we Sometimes don't give them enough credit for having a depth of feeling.

[Michelle Martin]

That's true.

[Kiese Lehman]

I mean, so much of the literature, it seems to me around black boyhood is about being hard or being cool, but just the ordinary feeling of missing your baby sister.

[Michelle Martin]

Yeah. And being homesick and being lost and, you know. And I want to create art and read art where black children are allowed to be lost. Because being lost is a kind of experimentation. I just wanted to explore that sensibility of being somewhere new and missing, somewhere old and longing for touch.

[Kiese Lehman]

There's another passage I wanted you to read where you talk about that healing power. Would you read that for us, please? Absolutely.

[Michelle Martin]

So at this point, they've been looking for New York in the garden. They were playing Marco Polo, and they can't find him.

[Kiese Lehman]

Well, hold on, dude. People just. I don't know. Does everybody know what Marco Polo is? It's like a game a lot of times you play in the pool.

[Michelle Martin]

So when I came up north, I found out that people play Marco Polo in the pool because we played Marco Polo in the garden. Cause we didn't have pools. Right. So at this point, New York has found the boys, and the boys have found New York. In the middle of the garden, we felt a forceful wind getting closer to us. And when we turned around, New York tackled us and tumbled upon a row of my grandma. Grandma's butter beans on the ground of that garden covered in vegetables and dirt, coated in so much laughter. I want to say that the Mississippi and New York and our black boy bodies were indistinguishable from each other. That would be a lie. We absolutely contrasted. But the sights, tastes and smells of our contrast felt like safeness. Not safe tea. Safeness. And safeness sounded like love.

[Kiese Lehman]

Do you want to say more about that? What is the difference between safeness and safety?

[Michelle Martin]

Yeah, for me, I think, you know, growing up Mississippi, you know, my grandmother worked in a chicken plant factory. She grew up in 1929. She knew segregation in ways I would never knew. She knew unsafety. And I grew up in the 80s and 90s, which were sort of unsafe times for a lot of black children. But even in those unsafe spaces and times, I think there was, like, a bodily, psychological, emotional feeling of safeness when I was at my grandmother's house. And my grandmother's, like, touch when she could see me. And so I'm trying to encourage us to, one, realize that every child on this earth deserves safety. But also, I think, as parental figures, there's like a psychological, physical, spiritual safeness that we have to ensure that. I think our children have. And it's hard to do that when we don't have it ourselves.

[Kiese Lehman]

And creating a sense that this is important, acknowledging that it's important. Absolutely. I'm feeling like this book isn't just about sort of calling out something that's wrong. This book is about celebrating what could.

[Michelle Martin]

I wish I had that sentence when we were putting the book out. But it is absolutely about celebrating something that can be right and that's something that can be right. We have to remind ourselves can be our bodies. I think a lot of us move through the space in the world. I did as a young black boy thinking that my body was necessarily unsafe because of the way adults treated me, the way police treated me. But I was never treated unsafe by my grandmother.

[Kiese Lehman]

And I wonder if maybe in a way this book is meant to be healing for adults too.

[Michelle Martin]

Absolutely. You know, before kids can read letters, they can read faces. And so my hope is that like, you know, people who read to 5 year olds or 4th graders can share those facial expressions with young people who, you know, are in need of safety, but who are also in need of seeing that their fathers and their mothers and their uncles and their aunties faces contort with the kind of joy that I think only children's books can bring.

[Kiese Lehman]

Cassie Layman is the author of the new children's book City Summer, Country Summer. Cassie Lehman, thank you so much for talking to us.

[Michelle Martin]

I'm so thankful to be here. Thank you.

[Asia Rascoe]

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[Andrew Limbong]

Pinkney knows that there's a certain pressure that comes with carrying on a family name. His father was the famed illustrator Jerry Pinkney, and it was Jerry who was originally supposed to do the art for the new book the Littlest Drop. Jerry Pinkney died in 2020, but Brian Pinkney decided to keep the project going. He and writer Sasha Alpert talk about how the book came together. Here's Empire's Asia Rascoe to help set it up a bit more in the.

[Sasha Alpert]

New children's book the Littlest Drop, birds sang in the trees as monkeys swung through their branches, snakes slithered around their trunks, and giant cats crept silently below. On one small branch of one tall tree, a tiny hummingbird.

[Brian Pinkney]

The hummingbird has just built her nest and a fire breaks out.

[Sasha Alpert]

The Littlest Drop is Sasha Alper's first picture book. Based on a parable from the indigenous Quechua people of South America.

[Brian Pinkney]

All of the animals flee to the river, except for the little hummingbird. She goes and gets just one little drop of water because that's all she can hold. Finally, the largest animal, the elephant, asks her little hummingbird, what are you doing? You can't put out this fire. And she says, I'm doing what I can.

So my father was originally going to illustrate this story.

[Sasha Alpert]

That's two time Caldecott Honor winner Brian Pinkney.

[Brian Pinkney]

So my father's Jerry Pinkney. He's won a Caldecott Award. He's won about four, I think, Caldecott Honor Awards. And it's just prolific. Probably one of the most prolific children's book illustrators that ever has been in America. And he passed away, so this was his last unfinished project for our series.

[Sasha Alpert]

Picture this. Sasha Alper and Brian Pinkney talk about how their children's book brought some of Jerry Pinkney's final illustrations to life.

[Brian Pinkney]

A publisher called me and said, you know, now that your father isn't alive anymore, would you like to finish his book? And my first thought was, how am I gonna do this? He was a master at doing animals. And I've done like maybe a couple animals on a spread, but never like 20. And I thought I'm have to do like the hummingbird and just do one little paint stroke at a time.

You know, I've been reading your father's book since I was very young. My father owned bookstores, so I had so many of them. For me, I'm just so overjoyed that you both illustrated it. I mean, I know it's very bittersweet, but I just, I got really lucky.

You know, it was interesting. I spent my whole childhood watching him illustrate his books. I would come home from school and spend time in his studio and watch him while he was drawing. And I would learn how he worked and then he would give me techniques and I would practice doing them in my own little home studio, which I had set up in my room. Actually it was a walk in closet that my mother took all the clothes out and I'd practice doing what I saw him doing. So I knew his technique very well, yet my style went in a little bit of a different direction.

I Just think that the collaboration between the two of you is so beautiful because your dad did have such an amazing way, with just the extraordinary expressiveness of animals. But the incredible way that you show movement and your use of color, the way it dramatizes the story. I just think that it's so beautiful together.

My dad was much more detailed, orientated than I am. I'm much more fluid, a little impressionistic, energetic in a way, and broader strokes. And also, I couldn't draw as small as him. What he did with this book was, I realized upon reading it, he tested himself, like he always does with his artwork, to reach farther. So he had done a dummy book, a very small dummy book. I think a lot of it out of his head, with many back views of animals and little ants the size of original ants. I had to actually blow up his dummy book, like, 300% so that I could see it. And then I just start sketching, and I started painting using the materials that I like, watercolor and acrylic. So after that, I would have a beautiful painting in watercolor. And then I would have to go back in with a black ink line to highlight his lines that would also draw the characters, the different animals, yet in my style of painting. So it was kind of like a meditation in a way, because I literally was combining my dad's structure, like the architecture of his drawing with my brushstroke. And once that was done, I went back over that then with acrylic, and I built up the color that way. And I would use the color palette that my dad had used in some of his books, like the lion in the Mouth. That's one of his classics.

You know, you use so many different things in it. Some of the pages really look just, you know, peaceful, and you have those softer colors and the way you'll do the sort of gradations of color. I love that, you know, with the watercolors, how it sort of subtly changes color. And it really. It makes it look like movement, but it's so subtle that it took me a few times of looking at it to realize that. And I also love. There's a whole spread in the middle. That's two pages of just fire. And having read this to some kids now, they are just riveted by that picture. They like drama, they like action. And that fire feels so alive.

The characters are the hummingbird, the elephant, the giraffe, the crocodile, the hippopotamus. There are lots of characters. And I also saw the fire as a character. So it was important that the fire kind of grow and have a presence in the book, and then the presence diminishes as the fire goes out.

It was very much an environmental book to to start. And while I think it is still very much that and the climate crisis only worsens, I do now see it as broader than that. You know, I really thought about this little hummingbird a lot. I really wanted a good ending for her as a children's book. You know, children are dreamers and they need to keep hope. Children now are facing an incredibly challenging world in so many ways, and they are going to have to do what they can, all of them, and they're going to have to keep hope that they can make the world a greener, better, more just place.

[Sasha Alpert]

That was author Sasha Alper and illustrator Brian Pinkney talking about their new children's book, the Littlest Drop, which was also illustrated by the late great Jerry Pinkney. Our series Picture this is produced by Samantha Balaban. For more conversations like this one, head to npr.org Picture this.

[Andrew Limbong]

That's it for this week on NPR's Book of the Day. Let us know what you think. You can write to [e-mail] I'm Andrew Limbong. The podcast is produced by Chloe Weiner and edited by Megan Sullivan. Our founding editor is Petra Maher. The show elements for this week were produced and edited by Samantha Balaban, Ed McNulty, Lena Burnett, Ashley Brown, Melissa Gray, Elena Toric, Patrick Jaron Wadanan, Jeffrey Pierre, Adriana Gallardo, and Monsieur Khurana. Yolanda Sanguini is our executive producer.

[Michelle Martin]

Thanks for listening.

[Asia Rascoe]

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