Q&A with JaNay Brown-Wood: Bring Them Joy
Through my kids screenwriting world, I recently had the pleasure of meeting and reading the delightful writing of children’s book author JaNay Brown-Wood. Like many of her characters, JaNay exudes a warm, playful energy and has a can-do attitude about all the amazing things she endeavors to do—and overwhelmingly succeeds at, no less! JaNay’s beautiful mission to celebrate diversity and bring positivity into the world is at the heart of her stories about everything from toddlers learning about produce to magical puppies who help kids through tough situations.
JaNay is an award-winning children’s author, poet, educator, and former professor of Early Childhood Education and Child Development. Her book Imani’s Moon won the National Association of Elementary School Principals’ Children’s Book of the Year Award and was featured on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Storytime with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Among many other projects, JaNay is also the author of four Chicken Soup for the Soul Babies/Kids books, Crayola’s Follow That Line! Magic at Your Fingertips, the Harriet Tubman Little Golden Book Biography, the Simone Biles Little Golden Book Biography, and the New York Times Bestselling book Why Not You? (Penguin/Random House) which she collaborated on with Ciara and Russell Wilson.
It was an honor to chat with JaNay about how she came to be a writer and champion for kids, the author/illustrator collaboration process, and the importance of representation in children’s literature.
Q&A with Dr. JaNay Brown-Wood, children’s book author & educator
Q: What led you to write children’s books?
A: When I was younger, I actually hated reading—like, I despised it. You could not get me to read. I would fake read, meaning when we had a comprehension test at school, moments before the test I would flip through the chapter and then make up answers. But I always wrote my own stories. As an adult, I know that part of the reason I didn’t like to read was that I couldn’t find myself in the books that were offered to me. We know that there’s a lack of diversity in children’s books. In the books that were being assigned to me, I didn’t see myself reflected, I didn’t connect with them, I didn’t have an interest in them. So, I wrote my own stories. I wrote and illustrated this picture book series called “Taylor the Tyrannosaurus Rex.” I wrote the first one in sixth grade. Taylor was my little sister’s name, so it was based on my sister, and I wrote my family into it. I didn’t realize I did this because, back then, I didn’t see us in books.
This has become a huge piece of my mission as a children’s author: to write diverse books. I believe children everywhere should be able to find themselves represented on the pages of books in authentic and validating ways. When I think about books that feature Black characters, so often you find Black history and things like slavery and civil rights, and that didn’t interest me as a kid either. Now I strive to write books that are just Black kids being Black kids in America—doing things like being on a farm and looking for produce, or going to Grandma’s tiny house to eat and celebrate family, or a brand-new baby just came and everybody needs to be quiet so the baby can stay asleep! I just didn’t see this representation when I was younger, and I don’t want that for my daughter or upcoming generations. I want them to be able to find themselves in stories.
I also write because I’m an educator. I often try to infuse more than just story in my books, but some kind of “disguised learning,” where kids don’t even realize they’re learning because they’re so engaged in the story. For example, in my Where in the Garden series, I introduce you to a whole bunch of produce that you may have never heard of before, like artichoke or kumquat, and now you have an interest in trying these things, and now your vocabulary has expanded!
Q: You are extremely prolific! Do you ever come up against writer’s block? Do you work on a lot of projects at the same time?
A: I’m always at different spots on various projects. I might be at the very end of one while another is just percolating, and maybe my editor’s already seen others and is sending me revisions. Sometimes ideas just come to my mind, and I try to keep a notebook so I can capture them. Other times collaborations are pitched to me, so someone will reach out to my agent first.
Q: What is the process like for picture books? Are you finalizing a draft before an illustrator is brought in? Or is it a collaboration earlier in the process?
A: Generally, the author and the illustrator are kept separate. I’ve only met maybe two or three of my illustrators. One of them I just met and I think the book’s been out two or three years! I work with my editor, who will typically pass manuscripts to the art director, who then works with the artist. They’ll send things back and forth, but we’re kept separate.
As far as the process goes, normally if it’s a JaNay-generated idea, I’ll write it, then I’ll send it to a critique group where I’ll get feedback and refine it. Then I send it to my agent, who sends it out to a host of editors, and then we just wait and get a billion rejections until we finally get a yes. When we get a yes, we start the revision process with the editor. We go back and forth—so that part’s super collaborative—to get to a more final draft. Generally, that’s when the artist is brought in. My editor and I will generate lists of possible illustrators and eventually get it down to our top two or three. The editor reaches out to the artist’s agent, and the agent finds out if the artist is interested and if the artist has time. I’m finding as I write more books that I’m having access to more illustrators, and they are so swamped—they are always working on a bunch of books! So, sometimes that might mean that a book of mine comes out much later.
When the illustrator is signed on, they get my words, then they’ll do sketches. They send me the sketches and I offer feedback. Later I see another iteration, then a colored version, then a final version. Sometimes, as the illustrator is working on the art, it’ll lead to tweaks in the text. I might have written something that needs context when the pictures aren’t beside it, but now that the pictures are there, it doesn’t need that context. I’ll revise those pieces and refine the text. Finally, many publishers will send me a printed-out version—a bunch of pages that get cut and bound. After that, the book is finished.
Q: What’s your favorite part of the children’s book writing process?
A: I love sharing my work with kids. I was in Florida recently for some school visits, and I spoke mainly to kinder and first graders. I got to read some of my books, one of them being Amara’s Farm. There was a large number of African-American kids. To have me standing up there meant they’re seeing me, they’re reflected in me, and then the books—they’re reflected in the books. They were asking all these questions, just super engaged. At one school, the librarian came up to me and said, “We have a fourth-grader who’s a fantastic writer—will you talk to her?” I was like, “Oh my gosh, yes!” I try to be honest with kids, but also inspire and encourage them. I told this fourth-grader about when I was her age, how I was doing this—like, “You’re on the right track! Keep doing it! You can do it too!” I just love that part.
Q: How do you deal with rejection?
A: Rejection is so interesting because there are different facets of it in this business. First, there is the all-out editor “thanks but no thanks!” People think you get an agent and editors will buy all your books! No. My agent is fantastic, but I still get many rejections from editors. And then there’s the rejection of reviews. You have the reviews from Publishers Weekly or Kirkus, or other big-name reviews that everybody listens to. If they don’t like your work, that also feels like a rejection. It feels hard, because you sent your baby out into the world and here are these reviewers like, “No, I don’t like this.”
And then there are the readers. That part is tough too. For the most part I’ve been pretty fortunate with formal reviewers and readers. But I’m having an interesting experience right now because in my fifth Love Puppies book—my early chapter book series with Scholastic—the human character has two moms. I’m being torn apart in Amazon reviews that are like, “Two moms? Oh my gosh, why are you pushing your agenda?” I think all my other Love Puppies books are, on average, about 4.8 or 4.9 out of 5 for ratings, and the last time I checked, that one is 2.5! It’s such a bummer because that book is about a little girl whose mom has a brand-new baby. So, it’s a young kid having to deal with a brand-new baby in the house—she’s no longer the focus of attention, she’s feeling left out. In my Love Puppies stories, I incorporate social-emotional strategies tied to whatever the topic is. So, here’s a book that could really help a kid who might be going through this experience, and you won’t even give them the resource because, “Oh my gosh, she has two moms”—it’s a lot. So that feels like rejection too.
Q: It seems like you have a healthy approach to it.
A: I try but I’m not going to lie; it hurts. Your skin thickens, but still—sometimes I take things personally. But I remind myself why I do what I do. I get in front of kids, I read them stories, I tell them, “I can’t wait to read one of your best-selling books!” That helps quiet some of that ugly. But it is what it is.
Q: What advice do you have for someone who might want to write a kids book?
A: Read kids books. Read as many as you can. If you want to write picture books, you should be reading picture books—and reading them with a critical eye—what makes this book good? Or why don’t you like this book? And be attentive to aspects of storytelling like narrative arc, conflict, all of those pieces. Often when people try to write children’s books, it feels didactic. It’s like a lecture in a book as opposed to a story that has a hidden message. I’ve read for many people who are interested in writing books, and I often feel like, “No! This feels as if you are trying to teach the child something. You’re not telling a story.” Most kids don’t want to just sit there and be taught at—versus, you know, in my book Imani’s Moon, she’s got conflict, she has an obstacle to overcome, but I’m teaching readers about perseverance and overcoming obstacles. I would also say: mine your childhood. That often helps to generate new ideas and things to write about.
Check out JaNay’s new and upcoming titles at her website!
Q: What do you hope kids will take away from your books?
A: That experience of seeing themselves in books, hopefully learning some new concept, or just curiosity piqued. I wrote my book Imani’s Moon like a folk tale. The setting is in Africa with the Maasai people, so maybe the reader is thinking, “Oh, what’s this?” and maybe they want to learn more about Maasai or African folk tales. I hope my books can pique kids’ interest and get them curious.
I also hope that kids get joy from my books. Joy is an important piece of early literacy. If you get excited about reading and writing, then you’re more likely to do more of it, and that’s needed to solidify the foundation for early literacy and all that follows.
You can learn more about JaNay Brown-Wood and join her mailing list at her website.
For more on author/artist collaborations, check out “How Book Covers Are Designed” over at Penguin.
Feeling inspired? Consider supporting We Need Diverse Books, whose mission is to “create a world where every reader can find themselves in the pages of a book.”