Cover Reveal and Conversation: A Talk with Stefanie Foster Brown and Keisha Morris About My Heart Speaks Kriolu

There’s nothing quite like the debut of your first picture book. The excitement is palpable, and often there’s a bit of nervousness as well. You’re sending your baby out into the great wild world and it’s only just been born! Talk about terrifying.

Now there are debuts and there are debuts. And when I tell you that Stefanie Foster Brown lucked out in the debut department? You’ll see what I mean. Today, we’re revealing the cover of her first picture book My Heart Speaks Kriolu (out in stores November 4th) here on the blog today, but first let’s get a clear picture of the plot:

Papa always speaks of someday bringing his granddaughter back home to Cabo Verde. But the young girl has never set foot on their ancestral island’s faraway shores. And each time Papa urges her to speak Kriolu, the Portuguese creole native to the West African country, the girl’s tongue betrays her, and she stumbles over her own words. If she can’t even get the language right, can her grandfather’s home ever truly be hers, too?

But each Saturday afternoon when she helps guide her sight-impaired grandfather through their close-knit Massachusetts community, the girl swears she can smell, hear, feel Kriolu. And each Saturday she comes closer to discovering where home truly lies.

Today, I’m talking with Stefanie and illustrator Keisha Morris about the book in question (and then we’ll do the reveal!).

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Betsy Bird: Stefanie! Thank you so much for answering my questions today. And congrats on your debut picture book! Let’s talk a bit about where this particular story originated. As you mention in the book, the grandfather in this book bears more than a passing resemblance to your own. How did you get the idea for this book in the first place?

Stefanie Foster Brown: Thank YOU, Betsy! What an honor to chat with you. Thanks for letting me share this story with you. 

This was one of the first books I ever wrote. It was during the pandemic and I had just lost my last living grandparent. If you asked me to tell you something about who my grandparents were, I’d have a hard time describing them without telling you something about Cape Verdean culture. I thought a lot about what it meant to my own cultural identity that my grandparents were no longer with us. I have so many wonderful childhood memories of my grandfather, Papa, cooking Cape Verdean food, playing Cape Verdean music, and teaching me words in Kriolu. Papa, who was vision impaired, was very much a “cultural guide” for me. My memories of him got me thinking about how we experience culture with ALL our senses. We can see culture, touch it, smell it, hear it, and FEEL it deep inside of us. That was the idea that launched me into this story. 

BB: Ah! I love that. And Keisha! Thank you too for taking the time to talk to me today! You’re an accomplished artist with MANY fine picture books under your belt. It’d wager that you can afford to be choosy about the jobs you select. What was it about MY HEART SPEAKS KRIOLU that appealed to you?

Keisha Morris: Hi Betsy! Thank you so much for having me. When I read the manuscript, I instantly loved the story Stefanie created. The relationship between our main character and her grandfather pulled me in and wouldn’t let go. Getting to spend the day with someone so special reminds me of my childhood. I would go to the mall with my grandparents and my grandfather particularly loved people watching. We’d do a lap or two around the mall then settle in a section with the best seating and just people watch for a while. I also didn’t expect for this story to hit home as hard as it did. Towards the end of finishing up the illustrations for this book my grandfather and my father passed away. So, every scene, every line, every word now had a deeper meaning for me.

BB: So you had a connection, albeit a sad one, in the process of making this book. Stefanie, you’re a fourth generation Cape Verdean, as you explain in your Author’s Note. Until the last two or three years or so, I hadn’t seen any Cape Verdean representation in children’s literature in the American publishing market. All of that is beginning to change, and you’re a part of that. Can you tell us a bit about whether or not that part of your identity shapes your work and how you navigate the current publishing market (you have three books coming out in the future!).

Stefanie: My cultural identity has some intersectionality to it. My mother is Cape Verdean American and my father is African American with roots in the South, but born and raised in Queens. In a lot of ways, I grew up in a bi-cultural household. My parents were both Black Americans, yet culturally from very different places. With each story I write, I explore different facets of my identity. Some of my forthcoming books explicitly feature Cape Verdean American families and others do not. 

Whatever I write, I try to make it as specific as possible to my own experience . . . To me, that’s how stories become universal. It was meaningful to me that so many of my critique partners who were NOT Cape Verdean still saw themselves in my story. There I was writing about my very personal feelings of losing touch with Cape Verdean culture (a culture many of them had never even heard of!) and their response was to tell me how they experience that same sense of loss when it comes to the cultures of their families. Within my stories, I’m always looking for those threads that make the world feel a little smaller.

With that said . . . It is absolutely an exciting time to be a Cape Verdean American author. And I’m in great company. I have to name names because I’m so proud of the books coming out from Cape Verdean authors. Janet Costa Bates paved the way with a couple of picture books and a whole middle grade series featuring a Cape Verdean American girl, Rica Baptista. I was thrilled to be able to hand this series to my own daughters. Growing up, I never had the opportunity to see a Cape Verdean American as a main character in any book. Denise Rosario Adusei is another talented writer who debuted a gorgeous picture book last summer entitled Cesaria Feels the Beat (illustrated by Priscila Soares). There are also several Cape Verdean self-published authors on the scene. 

BB: Oh, I LOVE that list. New York Times and SLJ, take note. There’s an article in this. Now Keisha, turning back to you, an interesting part of this book is how you had to nail not only a visually difficult time of the year (winter) but also a very specific place: New Bedford, Mass. How did you go about getting just the right setting, characters, and feel for your art? 

Keisha: I’ve never been to New Bedford, Mass but had a very surface idea of the area. So, I did what most do and did a Google search! I spent a few days researching the architecture and feel of the location. I was lucky to have Stefanie provide photos and give more specific details to help really push the look and feel of the area for the book. I don’t normally do too much character development before sketching the book dummy, unless requested. But the characters tend to show themselves after I do a scribble sketch stage, a very messy usually only I can decipher stage, and then I get more detailed in my sketches from there.  

I love winter so getting to illustrate the season felt very special to me. I love layering clothes. Wearing hats and scarves and mittens, aside from the snow itself I think that’s my favorite part about winter. For the snow, I really wanted to use the negative space of the page, the plain white paper, with some texture to pull through.

BB: Makes perfect sense. Stefanie, you explain this a bit at the back of the book, but for those who haven’t seen it yet could you tell us a little bit about your own personal connection to Kriolu within your family and in the wider world?

Stefanie: Kriolu is a language that comes from Cabo Verde (an archipelago of 10 islands off the coast of Senegal). It is a Portuguese based creole language . . .  it’s a beautiful one to hear spoken. Put it to bluesy Cape Verdean music and it becomes downright hypnotic. 

My grandparents were the last generation in my family to speak Kriolu. I remember a couple editors I subbed this book to requested that I add more Kriolu words to the manuscript . . . which was ironic since the book is all about how I, in fact, do not speak Kriolu. Unfortunately, my vocabulary in Kriolu is limited to about 20 words. And about half of those are unfit for kidlit:) My sense is that that’s the experience of a lot of 4th, 5th and even 6th generation Cape Verdean Americans like myself. Preserving the language becomes more and more challenging. 

In college, I visited Cabo Verde for the first time on a service trip. I couldn’t speak the language . . . but the sights, sounds, and smells there felt like home to me. What was even more incredible though was that Cape Verdeans who lived there could look at me, hear me speak, and name exactly what part of the Island’s my family had come from some one hundred years ago. Culture doesn’t leave us. It’s in us. It’s in our DNA! 

Last year, I was strolling through a museum and heard a group of teens speaking Kriolu. I got teary-eyed to hear them. It didn’t dawn on me until later the reason why. I didn’t grow up around a Cape Verdean community and because of that, I’ve had limited exposure to Kriolu. Whenever I did hear Kriolu spoken, it was by my elders. It was really beautiful for me to hear youth speaking the language. Kriolu is alive and well. 

BB: You understand that now all I want is to know which dirty words in Kriolu you know. Turning back to Keisha, this is a bit of a quieter story than some of the other books you’ve done. What does your process look like? Do you make thumbnail sketches when figuring out the scenes? Do you work on your computer immediately or do you prefer hand drawing at the start? How do you begin when you’re first handed a manuscript?

Keisha: It is a bit quieter than some of the other books I’ve worked on but it was nice to change pace for a bit. My process varies depending on the story and I also like to change it up with every book I do. That way I don’t get bored with the process. Sometimes I start with pencil and paper. Sometimes I use my iPad. Sometimes I use whatever art supply I’m in love with at the moment!

While reading the manuscript I will sometimes scribble ideas in the margins and if that feels good, I’ll develop those ideas further. I love using tissue paper for the textures in my art, so I’ll spend some time getting out my tissue paper box, creating layers of textures glued together with mod podge. I then collage sections together in photoshop where I finish my illustrations.

BB: Speaking of those illustrations, Stefanie, as we now know, you were paired with the incomparable Keisha Morris, here, for this book. As an author, do you have a vague sense of what the book might look like as you write it? And how do you feel about the final product?

Stefanie: Aesthetically, the only thing I really hoped would come across was a specific setting (New Bedford, MA, the Cape Verdean enclave where my grandparents were from) and elements that authentically reflected Cape Verdean culture. 

 . . . And Keisha came through. She did a beautiful job showcasing the tender grandfather-granddaughter relationship at the heart of the story. The tones she chose to tell this story evoke a sense of nostalgia that plays upon the story’s themes so well. But my favorite part of her work here was the way she was able to make a distinction between the parts of the story that are real and imagined. She approached that so creatively! I really appreciate all the love and heart she brought to this story.

BB: Aww. Well said. Keisha, can you talk a little bit about the art direction on this project? Who was your Art Director? And how did you work together to get the right feel for the book?

Keisha: My Art Director was Laurent Linn! Laurent was amazing and allowed me the space to see the vision I had for the story come together. We setup a zoom meeting and had a wonderful get-to- know-you session where we also chatted about our vision for the illustrations. The process was very fluid, and Laurent gave me wonderful feedback that really added to the development and elevation of the illustrations. I really enjoyed working together.

BB: Oh! That means I’ve done two different Laurent Linn books on my blog in a row this week. That’s funny. So Stefanie, for your part, did this book pretty much stay the same from its earliest version or did you make any particular changes along the way?

Stefanie: My editor, Denene Milner who hails from a writing background herself, really loved the lyrical writing of this story. And the idea of how culture roots itself in our physical bodies really resonated with her. Denene connected with my vision for the story right from the start and there were few changes after that. 

BB: Well, Denene is kind of the expert in these matters. Finally, Keisha, what else do you have coming out these days? What’s next for you?

Keisha: My debut picture book Between Two Windows released early 2024 and I am happy to say my second Author/Illustrated picture book has been acquired, so that’s exciting. I am currently working on a few pictures books that should be out next year. And with what little time I have these days I have been dabbling in writing my first graphic novel!

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Huge thanks to both Stefanie and Keisha for answering all my questions today. And now? Cover reveal time!!

Thanks too to Wendi Gu of HG Literary for helping to put all this together. As I mentioned earlier, My Heart Speaks Kriolu is out November 4th, so be sure to look for it then!

Filed under: Cover Reveal, Interviews