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| photo: Victoria Blackshear | |
Derrick Barnes won the 2018 Ezra Jack Keats Book Award for outstanding new writer, and his picture book Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut took home four honors at the 2018 American Library Association's Youth Media Awards: the Coretta Scott King Author Honor and Illustrator Honor, the Newbery Honor and the Caldecott Honor. Barnes is also the author of The King of Kindergarten and the chapter book series Ruby and the Booker Boys. His new book is Who Got Game?: Baseball: Amazing but True Stories! (Workman). He lives in Charlotte, N.C., with his wife, Dr. Tinka Barnes, and their four sons, all of whom play sports.
On your nightstand now:
Just Like Me by Vanessa Brantley-Newton is a great celebration of girl power. The fun and rhythmic poetry and lovely artwork make for what I think is going to be a classic for years to come.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor. This story reminded me of my roots. Although I was born and raised in the Midwest--Kansas City, Mo.--my family is from Clarksdale and Lexington, Miss., the setting for the novel. I spent multiple summers down south playing in creeks and collecting red clay in my sneakers, curious about those that came before me and all of the hardships that they endured.
Your top five authors:
So many to name. Depends on when I'm asked and how recently I finished one of their books. But these five--I love their voices immensely: Derek Walcott, Ibi Zoboi, Renée Watson, Jacqueline Woodson and Kiese Laymon.
Book you've faked reading:
The Bluest Eye. I just remember trying to impress a girl in my freshman year in college, an "older woman," attempting to book talk the works of Toni Morrison. I wasn't ready. I might as well have tried to solve a few advanced Calculus II equations.
Book you're an evangelist for:
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass. In my opinion, the greatest American ever. He fought, physically fought his oppressor and won. He was an intellectual, a self-taught man, a gentleman.... I feel he is the epitome of resistance in the face of opposition. I keep a copy in my backpack wherever I go.
Book you've bought for the cover:
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo. The color scheme, the afro... the whole package. I was seeing the cover everywhere in 2018 and then she ended up winning a ton of awards. I ordered it and the interior matches the beauty, authenticity and passion on the cover.
Book you hid from your parents (as a teen):
The Spook Who Sat by the Door by Sam Greenlee. I only hid it because it was recommended by my history teacher when I was a junior in high school and I'd be reading it instead of doing my homework. Powerful read about revolution.
Book that changed your life:
Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut. I mean like literally changed my life.
Favorite line from a book:
One of my favorite lines is from one of my all-time favorite protagonists, Holden Caulfield:
"What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff--I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be."
Five books you'll never part with:
1) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass (See question five.)
2) The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935 by James D. Anderson. Taught me a lot about the disparity in education as it relates to race and class.
3) Raising Black Boys by Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu. Legendary educator and social scientist that has given his life to provide better education for Black children, Black boys in particular.
4) The Sweet Flypaper of Life by Langston Hughes. The master poet, one of my homeboys (we're both from Missouri), the official and lead scribe from the Harlem Renaissance.
5) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album by Ashley Kahn, foreword by Elvin Jones. My favorite artist of all time from any creative genre.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. I was an avid reader between the ages of six and 12. Stopped reading for pleasure when I became a teen--only read for information and academics in high school and the first two years of college. I started reading again for pleasure in my junior year of college. This was the first book I chose to revitalize my early love for fiction. Classic material.