Father’s Day Discussion: Let’s Talk About My Daddy Is a Cowboy with Stephanie Seales and C.G Esperanza

This happened this past Thursday. In my library we conduct regular meetings of staff members where we discuss children’s books of all types. The one stipulation? They have to come out in 2024. So in this last meeting a co-worker of mine is talking about picture books. He has an array that he’s enjoyed but there is one book, and one book alone, that stands apart from the pack for him. He places before us My Daddy Is a Cowboy, written by Stephanie Seales with art by C.G. Esperanza (and just out this past week!). And yeah, it’s just gorgeous. I don’t know if you’ve ever had the pleasure of encountering a book illustrated by C.G. Esperanza before, but when you do there is just this palpable sense of joy and energy and just sheer electricity shooting out from the pages. The colors! The vibrant pages! If my heart stops someday, forget the electric paddles. Just show me some Esperanza art and I’ll be back on my feet in two shakes of a lamb’s tale.

But I digress.

After presenting this art, my co-worker states that this book is a Caldecott contender to keep an eye upon. That combined with Stephanie Seales’ truly touching text, this is precisely the kind of book we should be looking at a lot more closely. And the fact of the matter is, he’s right! So this Father’s Day, I’m highlighting the ultimate daddy book of 2024.

Here’s how the publisher describes it:

“A young girl and her father share an early morning horseback ride around their city in My Daddy Is a Cowboy, a picture book celebration of “just-us time,” perfect for fans of My Papi Has a Motocycle.

In the early hours before dawn, a young girl and her father greet their horses and ride together through the waking city streets. As they trot along, Daddy tells cowboy stories filled with fun and community, friendship, discovery, and pride.

Seeing her city from a new vantage point and feeling seen in a new way, the child discovers that she too is a cowboy—strong and confident in who she is.

Thoughtfully and lyrically written by debut author Stephanie Seales, with vibrant illustrations from award-winning artist C. G. Esperanza, this beautiful picture book is a celebration of Black joy, outdoor play, and quality time spent between child and parent.”

I was glad that the publisher recognized that this book is definitely in the My Papi Has a Motorcycle vein. That was my first thought when I read it too.

And…

Okay. Can I stop for a moment and just say something? So when I do an interview with folks I tend to ask their publisher for their headshots. This is just standard operating procedure, right? And normally I get very nice, very normal, very boring shots that I duly place within my blog post at strategic moments.

Well, not this time.

This time, I pretty much got the two greatest headshots of 2024. And so rather than integrating them into this interview, I want to stand aside and take a moment to acknowledge how wonderful it is when an author or illustrator really and truly cares about the headshot that they’re putting out into the world. Because, folks, these are the best of the best of the best that I’ve seen in a long while. See if you agree:

Am I right, or am I right? Gorgeous.

Okay, it’s no lie that I had lots of questions about this book.

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Betsy Bird: Well, hello! And thank you so much for answering my questions today. I’m just gonna come out of the gate and just tell you that MY DADDY IS A COWBOY is truly gorgeous and tugs HARD at the heart. Tell us a little bit about where this book came from/how you came to this project. and what your personal connection is to horses and cowboys.

Stephanie Seales: Thanks so much for interviewing us, Betsy, and for the kind words about the books! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! When I wrote the manuscript, I was thinking about a few things: one was all the amazing Black dads out there and how they’re underrepresented; another was about how cool urban cowboys are and how they bring so much joy to their communities; I also really wanted a picture book that featured Panamanian American characters and there hasn’t been one (at least not traditionally published), so I decided to write it myself!

As far as my personal connection to horses and cowboys, I sadly don’t have much to share! Everyone now thinks I’m a horse person, but I didn’t have much access to horses growing up (except for pony rides which now horrifies me knowing how those ponies and horses are often abused!)! That lack of accessibility was on my mind when writing. I love that urban cowboys are making horses and horseback riding more accessible to city kids and I hope this book can help kids see that if they want to be a cowboy they can, wherever they may be.

BB: Give us a little more sense of the world where this book takes place. Is it a specific city or an amalgamation? And did you have any particular stables in mind when you wrote this? Or, for that matter, when you painted this?

Stephanie: I was heavily inspired by the Compton Cowboys who, if anyone doesn’t know, are cowboys in Compton, a city in Southern California. I’m from SoCal and I love California, so I was thinking of Compton when I was writing. All the places mentioned in the text actually exist in Compton!

BB: I know you couldn’t have planned to time the release of your book so close to Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter, but the timing is excellent. There’s a lot of discussion now about the history of Black cowboys and connections to country music and culture. Your book right from the title onward upends a lot of the archaic cowboy stereotypes. I wonder if you both could tell me a little about what you were thinking as you made the book.

Stephanie: Actually, C.G. is secret besties with Beyoncé and planned the whole thing 😂

CG: 😉

BB: I always suspected. So Charles, the horse is often cited as, notoriously, the most difficult animal to draw. Did you have to do any research when you were working on this book? Anything you had to cite as a reference?

CG: I definitely took lots of photos of horses at the Pelham Bit Stables in the Bronx and also Central park! The photos help me capture the horses personalities.

BB: Sometimes you read a picture book and you just think to yourself, “No way that isn’t a real person.” The girl, her daddy, her abuelita, her mom, her brother, they ALL felt so incredibly real. But really it was the girl and her daddy I just kept looking at and wondering about. Charles, I don’t know much about your process. Do you have specific models when you make a book? If you do, are they people you know? Or are your characters an amalgamation of folks?

CG: The Girl in the book is actually one of my former art students. I usually always ask people I know to pose for my characters. They are pretty much actors in our movie!

BB: I couldn’t help but think of another fantastic daddy/daughter book as I read this one. MY PAPI HAS A MOTORCYCLE by Isabel Quintero has a great dynamic too, and like this book a lot of it is about riding around in the city. Sometimes fathers can feel a little bit at a loss when trying to think of ways to connect to their girls, but both these books have their own ideas. It’s that dynamic that makes this particular book stand out so much. Could you talk on dads and kids, and which dads you’ve known that have really inspired you in this way?

Stephanie: When I was writing I was thinking particularly about some millennial dad accounts I follow and just the millennial dads I see out in the world. I see so many millennial parents raising their kids with intention, kindness, and respect. It feels like a real cultural shift and it warms my heart and makes me happy for their kids. I hope it will mean good things for the wider world in future.

BB: Finally, what else are you two working on? What else is coming up for you?

Stephanie: Up next for me is another picture book tentatively titled Jodie Doesn’t Love Dogs that will be illustrated by the amazing Raissa Figueroa. It’s coming from Candlewick Spring ‘27. I’m calling it a dog book for people who don’t love dogs (and for those who do!). Part of my not-so-evil plan to convert the entire world into dog lovers LOL!

CG: I am working on my next picture book titled DRAGON MAMA, a book about a super cool mom with a huge dragon tattoo and her kid hanging out in Orchard Beach in the Bronx. An often overlooked and under appreciated beach in the Bronx. The book is also a love letter to Black tattoo culture. It will be released in 2025!

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That was awesome. Great big thanks to Stephanie and Charles (a.k.a. CG) for answering my questions today. Like I said, My Daddy Is a Cowboy is out right now, so you have a chance to see it for yourself. And special thanks to Anna Merz and the folks at Abrams for helping to set up this interview today.

Now go read that book!!

Filed under: Best Books, Best Books of 2024, Interviews