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ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: YOU’RE BREAKING MY HEART
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.olugbemisolabooks.com/
CITY: Brooklyn
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 376
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in New York, NY; daughter of a Jamaican mother and Nigerian father; married; children: a daughter.
EDUCATION:Cornell University, B.Sc.; New York University, M.A.; Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, professional development certificate.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, editor, and educator. Freelance writer and developer of curricular materials; also worked as a literacy coach and in youth development for ten years. We Need Diverse Books, former board member; has taught at Brooklyn New School, Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies, and Cornell Cooperative Extension.
AVOCATIONS:Walking, crafts.
MEMBER:PEN, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
AWARDS:Two Echoing Green Foundation fellowships; Notable Children’s Books for a Global Society selection, International Reading Association, and Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People selection, National Council for the Social Studies/Children’s Book Council, both 2011, both for Eighth-Grade Superzero; NAACP Image Award nomination, for Two Naomis.
WRITINGS
Contributor to anthologies, including Break These Rules: 35 YA Authors on Speaking Up, Standing Out, and Being Yourself, edited by Luke Reynolds, Chicago Review Press, 2013; The Journey Is Everything: Teaching Essays That Students Want to Write for People Who Want to Read Them, edited by Katherine Bomer, Heinemann, 2016; and We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices, edited by Cheryl Willis Hudson and Wade Hudson, Crown/Random House, 2018. Cofounder and contributor to websites, including The Brown Bookshelf; author of monthly column “Faves on a Friday” on AuthorsNow.com. Contributor to periodicals, including American Baby, Healthy Kids, Word Up! Rap Masters, Right On!, and Instructor; contributor to the website Brightly.
SIDELIGHTS
In Eighth-Grade Superzero, her debut novel for young adults, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich examines themes of self-acceptance, social responsibility, and courage through the eyes of her much-maligned protagonist. Rhuday-Perkovich, a freelance writer who spent some ten years working in youth development and literacy programs, drew on those important experiences in creating her novel. “I was always inspired by the young people that I’ve met, taught, and interacted with along the way,” she remarked in an Amazon.com interview, “In developing Reggie’s story, I knew that I wanted to share what I’d learned from those teens who cared deeply about justice, friendship, community, and love in all of its forms.”
Eighth-Grade Superzero focuses on Reggie McKnight, a Brooklyn, New York, middle-school student who is known to his classmates as “Pukey” due to an unfortunate occurrence at a school assembly. Scarred by the incident and determined to keep a low profile for the rest of the year, Reggie discovers hidden strengths when he volunteers for a community-service project at a local homeless shelter. With the backing of good friends Ruthie and Joe C., Reggie eventually gains the confidence to run for class president. According to Booklist critic Michael Cart, Rhuday-Perkovich brings “both passion and compassion to a story that has its moments of humor and genuine emotion,” and Jessica Marie commented in School Library Journal that Eighth-Grade Superzero “takes on a number of weighty issues including religion, homelessness, and getting involved without the heavy language and situations” often found in adolescent fiction. A contributor in Publishers Weekly also praised Rhuday-Perkovich’s novel, calling it a work “filled with characters who are delightfully flawed and, more importantly, striving to overcome those flaws.”
Teaming up with Audrey Vernick, Rhuday-Perkovich cowrote the middle-grade novel Two Naomis, about two ten-year-olds with divorced parents whose lives intertwine. Naomi Marie, an African American big sister and natural leader, is living with her mother, while Naomi E., a white girl who likes gardening, is living with her father. Their parents fall in love, which leads to some complicated attempts to pair the two Naomis, whose interests do not immediately coincide, but who eventually get to both know and like each other. The girls alternate as narrators.
In Horn Book, Eboni Njoku observed that the Naomis handle the uncomfortable circumstances “with creativity, humor, and wit” and “emerge with a greater sense of each other, their changing family dynamics, and themselves.” In Booklist, Michelle Young observed that Two Naomis is “grounded and sweet, never cloying,” with “perfectly authentic” dialogue. A Publishers Weekly reviewer concluded, “This tale of a family blending together is warm, upbeat, and satisfying.”
Rhuday-Perkovich and Vernick brought back the girls’ new family with Naomis Too, in which stepsisterhood and life at a new school present their own sets of challenges. Naomi Marie must deal with racism, while Naomi E. is dealing with the high standard set by Naomi Marie’s achievements and also getting to know the latter’s little sister, Brianna. In Horn Book, Njoku observed that “the characters navigate microaggressions and the challenges of allyship in an authentic manner of young people coming of age.” A Kirkus Reviews writer affirmed that the coauthors write “with sensitivity and a deep understanding of the interior lives of middle school girls,” helping make Naomis Too “a sequel that packs as much heart, humor, and understanding as the first.”
With her first picture book, Someday Is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-Ins, Rhuday-Perkovich depicts a teacher and students who sought to desegregate a chain of restaurants more than a year before the famous sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina. Daughter of a World War I veteran who returned home to racial prejudice, Luper became a youth leader with the NAACP as well as a teacher. She and her students endured shouts and spit alike as they successfully protested to achieve their goal. In Booklist, Ilene Cooper observed that “the story’s drama is inherent, and readers may well be inspired by the difference people—even young ones—can make.”
Rhuday-Perkovich’s nonfiction middle-grade book Above and Beyond: NASA’s Journey to Tomorrow, was inspired by a sixtieth-anniversary NASA documentary by Rory Kennedy, who provides an introduction. From the Wright Brothers and the advent of flight up through the first Americans in outer space, the creation of the International Space Station, and the planned launch of a new telescope in 2020, the text covers the wide variety of aeronautical efforts undertaken by the US space agency. Tangential concerns include the treatment of animals in space and the relationship between reality and science fiction, and there are plenty of profiles, facts, sidebars, and images of the cosmos. In Booklist, Kathleen McBroom affirmed of Above and Beyond that “space nerds will be hooked … and the format and generous artwork will attract browsers.”
Having contributed to several anthologies, Rhuday-Perkovich, in her capacity as a We Need Diverse Books board member, served as editor of The Hero Next Door, a genre-spanning collection of middle-grade fiction about everyday acts of kindness and compassion. From helping a fellow student learn, to listening to grandparents’ stories, to welcoming an adopted sibling into the family, to taking a risk to help a friend, the ethnically diverse heroes in these stories are precisely the kind readers can imagine themselves to be, too. In School Library Journal, Katy Hershberger called the book “a great anthology with a message of spreading kindness and hope.” With its “vivid and vibrant assemblage” of contributors and conceptions of heroism, a Kirkus Reviews writer hailed The Hero Next Door as a “stellar collection that, in celebrating heroes, helps readers find the universal in the specific.”
Rhuday-Perkovich, who moved frequently as a child, believes that the challenges she faced adjusting to new schools and neighborhoods helped her to develop an appreciation for personal and cultural differences, and she hopes to impart this appreciation in her fiction. “Literature, and in very special ways, children’s literature, offers unique opportunities for making meaning and crossing borders,” she told online interviewer Amy Bowllan on her blog, “The stories of those who are both like and unlike ourselves expand our imaginations and enrich our lives; they can go a long way toward strengthening individuals and communities; they are priceless gifts.”
In It Doesn’t Take a Genius, thirteen-year-old E is often found by his older brother Luke’s side. When Luke gets a scholarship to study at a boarding school in Maine and is going away over the summer to be a camp counsellor at DuBois, E is unhappy that they will be apart. E tries to discourage Luke from going any way that he can. When he sees how determined Luke is to go, E quietly applies to attend DuBois as well so they can be together. E is accepted but arrives to find that everyone there is exceptionally talented, leaving him feeling insecure. He learns how not to embarrass himself over things he does not know and looks up stuff online so he can participate in conversations. While Luke is eager to be free of his younger brother, E is not comfortable enough yet to let go.
In an interview on Crazyquiltedi, Rhuday-Perkovich talked about the balance she was hoping to achieve in the portrayal of her young characters living in a world with serious problems to cope with. “On one hand, I wanted to write a story about Black joy and summer fun, but on the other hand, these are Black children, so those real life things are a part of their lives in many ways. It was a challenge to write in the middle of everything going on, but it also felt even more necessary.” Rhuday-Perkovich added: “There are so many days that the feeling of living in a world that is so sharply anti-Black almost takes my breath away, even though it’s not surprising. And that makes me more committed to show our children how much I see them, and love them.”
Booklist contributor Bridget Ward suggested that “readers seeking books with BIPOC protagonists … will enjoy this … endearing coming-of-age story.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews remarked that “the cast of characters is fully realized, distinct, and absolutely lovable, and E’s journey will resonate.” The same reviewer called It Doesn’t Take a Genius “an exceptional novel with broad appeal.”
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Operation Sisterhood is a middle-grade novel that features a Nigerian American eleven-year-old girl named Tokunbo who has to adjust to a completely new living situation. She had been living with just her mom, but now they have moved to Harlem to live with her mom’s boyfriend, his daughter, a pair of twins and the twins’ parents, along with a bunch of pets. Tokunbo has to figure out what it means to be a sister along with enjoying Harlem in the summer. On top of that, the new family is planning a wedding party.
“A loving display of family and community,” wrote a reviewer in Kirkus Reviews. They noted that the story is “densely detailed,” but they appreciated how the narration “allows for the personalities of each sister to shine.” They called it a “love letter” to the city and enjoyed the book’s “heartwarming moments.” A reviewer in Publishers Weekly wrote that Rhuday-Perkovich “interweaves Black culture with a realistic depiction of what a transition to a blended family . . . can look like.”
Rhuday-Perkovich transitions to chapter-book nonfiction with Mae Makes a Way: The True Story of Mae Reeves, Hat & History Maker. Mae Reeves was a hatmaker who grew up in Georgia but moved to Chicago to learn how to make hats. She then set up her own shop in Philadelphia, making hats that became famous enough that they are now displayed in the National Museum of African American History and Culture (which collaborated on the book). The book focuses on both Reeves’s childhood and adulthood as well the challenges that Black business owners have faced.
Beronica Puhr, writing in Booklist, called Mae Makes a Way a “vital piece of literature,” and she appreciated how Andrea Pippins’s illustrations causes the pictures of the hats to “stand out.” Puhr thought that the book was a bit “text-heavy for new or prereaders” but came away from reading with an appreciation for Reeves as “an amazing woman who continuously persevered.” A writer in Kirkus Reviews praised Rhuday-Perkovich’s “effervescent prose” and wrote that Pippins “uses bright, flat colors” in her artwork. The result is a “pleaser for younger readers, particularly for fans of fashion and fashion design.” They predicted it would be especially appropriate for children looking for role models.
Rhuday-Perkovich ventures into the YA realm with the novel You’re Breaking My Heart. Fourteen-year-old Harriet is wrestling with the guilt of feeling like she is somehow responsible for the death of her older brother. She is not, as he was killed in a school shooting, but the fact that they had fought earlier leaves her full of regrets. She starts experiencing hallucinations and then almost drowns in a swimming pool. That somehow leads her to explore a strange, haunted underground world where she hopes to find the answers she needs.
A reviewer in Publishers Weekly found the premise “captivating” and praised Rhuday-Perkovich for the book’s “careful sensitivity and refreshing creativity.” Their only criticism was that the narrative’s pacing is sometimes “uneven.” A writer in Kirkus Reviews called the idea “highly original” and predicted that the “surreal fun house vibe will keep readers on the edges of their seats.”
In an interview with We Need Diverse Books, Rhuday-Perkovich talked of growing up “being nourished by stories from my parents and family members.” Those experiences helped her realize that “Black lives are beautiful, powerful, dynamic, and come in infinite flavors.”
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BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, December 15, 2009, Michael Cart, review of Eighth-Grade Superzero, p. 34; September 1, 2016, Michelle Young, review of Two Naomis, p. 112; November 1, 2018, Ilene Cooper, review of Someday Is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-Ins, p. 45; December 1, 2018, Kathleen McBroom, review of Above and Beyond: NASA’s Journey to Tomorrow, p. 45; April 15, 2021, Bridget Ward, review of It Doesn’t Take a Genius, p. 57; May 15, 2022, Beronica Purh, review of Mae Makes a Way: The True Story of Mae Reeves, Hat & History Maker, p. 40; Septemeber, 2023, Vivian Alvarez, review of Makeda Makes a Birthday Treat, p. 95.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, April 10, 2010, Karen Coats, review of Eighth-Grade Superzero, p. 351.
Horn Book, November 1, 2016, Eboni Njoku, review of Two Naomis, p. 87; January 1, 2019, Eboni Njoku, review of Naomis Too, p. 101.
Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2009, review of Eighth-Grade Superzero; August 15, 2018, review of Naomis Too; April 15, 2019, review of The Hero Next Door; April 1, 2021, review of It Doesn’t Take a Genius; November 1, 2021, review of Operation Sisterhood; March 15, 2022, review of Saving Earth: Climate Change and the Fight for Our Future; July 1, 2022, review of Mae Makes a Way; November 1, 2023, review of You’re Breaking My Heart.
Publishers Weekly, December 14, 2009, review of Eighth-Grade Superzero, p. 59; July 4, 2016, review of Two Naomis, p. 68; December 6, 2021, review of Operation Sisterhood, pp. 137+; October 30, 2023, review of You’re Breaking My Heart, p. 100.
School Library Journal, February 1, 2010, Jessica Marie, review of Eighth-Grade Superzero, p. 123; August 1, 2016, Ashley Leffel, review of Two Naomis, p. 95; December 22, 2018, Maren Ostergard, review of Above and Beyond, p. 78; May 1, 2019, Katy Hershberger, review of The Hero Next Door, p. 94.
ONLINE
Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/ (April 1, 2011), author interview.
Amy Bowllan blog, http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/bowllansblog/ (October 5, 2009), Amy Bowllan, “Writers against Racism: Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich.”
Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, http://deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com/ (May 15, 2021), Deborah Kalb, author interview.
Book Smugglers, http://thebooksmugglers.com/ (July 1, 2010), review of Eight-Grade Superzero.
Brown Bookshelf, https://thebrownbookshelf.com (February 24, 2024), author blog.
Crazyquiltedi, https://crazyquiltedi.blog/ (May 7, 2021), author interview.
Cynsations, http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/ (June 21, 2010), Cynthia Leitich Smith, author interview.
Gotham Writers, https://www.writingclasses.com/ (August 17, 2021), author profile.
Oklahoman, https://oklahoman.com/ (August 19, 2018), Ken Raymond, “Author Pens Picture Book about the Life of Oklahoma City Civil Rights Pioneer Clara Luper.”
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich website, https://www.olugbemisolabooks.com (August 17, 2021).
Phil Bildner website, https://philbildner.com/ (June 1, 2016), “Talking Two Naomis with Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich and Audrey Vernick.”
Pine Manor College website, https://www.pmc.edu/ (August 17, 2021), Vanessa Aarons, author interview.
Pine Reads Review, https://www.pinereadsreview.com (February 18, 2022), Bethany Harrison, author interview.
Public Broadcasting Service website, https://www.pbs.org/ (August 17, 2021), author profile.
Scholastic website, http://www2.scholastic.com/ (April 1, 2011), “Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich.”
Texas Book Festival website, https://www.texasbookfestival.org/ (February 15, 2021), Gavin Quinn, author interview.
Unleashing Readers, http://www.unleashingreaders.com/ (April 13, 2021), author interview and review of It Doesn’t Take a Genius.
We Need Diverse Books, https://diversebooks.org (January 3, 2022), JoAnn Yao, author interview.
YA and Kids! Books Central, https://www.yabookscentral.com/ (June 1, 2021), author interview.*
Thanks for stopping by! If you’re looking to practice saying my name, Teaching Books has got you covered. (With a lot more resources over there too!)
In short: I was the ‘new kid’ at school many times over, in more than one country, and currently live with my family in NYC, where I love walking and working on crafts in many forms. I used to keep a knitting and craft blog; I may reboot it one day!
BIO
OLUGBEMISOLA RHUDAY-PERKOVICH is the author of several children’s books, including Makeda Makes A Birthday Treat, Operation Sisterhood, an IndieNext Pick, It Doesn’t Take A Genius, a Kirkus Best Book of the Year, 8th Grade Superzero (an Amazon Best Book of the Month, a Notable Book for a Global Society by the International Reading Association (IRA), and a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People by the National Council for the Social Studies and CBC), Two Naomis, co-authored with Audrey Vernick, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award, Saving Earth: Climate Change and the Fight For Our Future, a Junior Library Guild Selection, and YALSA nominee for Excellence in Nonfiction, as well as the picture book Someday Is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-Ins (a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People by the National Council for the Social Studies and CBC), and Mae Makes A Way: The True Story of Mae Reeves, Hat and History Maker, a RISE Feminist Book Project winner. Her recent release: The Sun Does Shine: An Innocent Man, A Wrongful Conviction, and the Long Path to Justice (Young Readers Edition); it was a YALSA nominee for Excellence in Nonfiction, a School Library Journal and Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year, with Anthony Ray Hinton and Lara Love Hardin.
She is the editor of the We Need Diverse Books anthology The Hero Next Door, and has contributed to several collections, including We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices (edited by Cheryl and Wade Hudson of Just Us Books), The Journey Is Everything: Teaching Essays That Students Want to Write for People Who Want to Read Them, edited by Katherine Bomer; and Imagine It Better: Visions of What School Might Be, edited by Luke Reynolds.
She’s written for various outlets, including PBS Parents, Read Brightly, American Baby, Healthy Kids, and some of her childhood favorite hip hop fanzines, like the iconic Right On! Magazine.
Olugbemisola has worked extensively in youth development and education, and was twice awarded a public service fellowship by the Echoing Green Foundation for her work on a creative arts and literacy project with adolescent girls. Olugbemisola lives with her family in New York City where she writes, makes things, and needs to get more sleep. IG: @olugbemisolarhudayperkovich.
Olugbemisola is a former member of The Brown Bookshelf, a Web site dedicated to amplifying Black and Brown voices in children’s literature, and a former We Need Diverse Books Board member.
Literary Agent: The phenomenal Marietta Zacker.
Film/TV Rights: The marvelous Mary Pender, UTA.
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich is the author of 8th Grade Superzero, It Doesn't Take a Genius, the nonfiction books Above and Beyond: NASA’s Journey to Tomorrow and Someday Is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-Ins, and the upcoming Mae Makes a Way and Saving Earth: The Climate Crisis and the Fight for Our Future. She is the coauthor of the middle-grade novel Two Naomis, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and its sequel, Naomis Too. Inspired by some of her favorite family stories and the city she loves, Operation Sisterhood is a celebration of the sweetness and spice of sisterhood. Olugbemisola is a member of the Brown Bookshelf and a former board member of We Need Diverse Books. She lives with her family in New York City, where she writes, makes things, and needs to get more sleep.
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Children's Fiction
New and upcoming books
February 2024
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You're Breaking My Heart
Series
Two Naomis (with Audrey Vernick)
1. Two Naomis (2016)
2. Naomis Too (2018)
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Novels
8th Grade Super Zero (2010)
It Doesn't Take a Genius (2021)
Operation Sisterhood (2022)
You're Breaking My Heart (2024)
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Anthologies edited
The Hero Next Door (2019)
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Non fiction hide
The Civil Rights Movement (2018)
Above and Beyond (2018)
The Sun Does Shine (2022) (with Lara Love Hardin and Anthony Ray Hinton)
Interview with Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
February 18, 2022 Bethany Harrison 0 Comments
About the author: “Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich is the author of several children’s books, including Operation Sisterhood, It Doesn’t Take A Genius, 8th Grade Superzero, and Two Naomis, co-authored with Audrey Vernick, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Her nonfiction books include Someday Is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-Ins, Saving Earth: Climate Change and the Fight for Our Future, The Sun Does Shine, Above and Beyond: NASA’s Journey to Tomorrow, picture books, easy readers, and more. She is a member of the Brown Bookshelf, and editor of the We Need Diverse Books anthology The Hero Next Door. She’s a Jamaican Nigerian New Yorker who lives with her family in NYC where she writes, makes things, and needs to get more sleep.” (Bio from the author.)
Find Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich on the following platforms:
Link
Twitter
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A huge thank you to Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich for taking the time to do an interview with us at Pine Reads! Her newest middle-grade novel Operation Sisterhood is out now, and be sure to check out our review of Operation Sisterhood here!
Bethany Harrison & Erika Brittain: To start our interview, we would like to say thank you so much for talking to us about Operation Sisterhood! This is your newest middle-grade book, released on January 4th by Crown Books For Young Readers, and we loved this story so much! Have you gotten the time to celebrate this book release? If so, what did you do?
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich: One of the best things I got to do was record a “table read” with some friends and family. I wrote a script version of the scene where Bo first meets the whole family, and we recorded together over Zoom. The cast included biological and author family: my daughter Adedayo Perkovich, a musician and poet; my sister Kikelomo Amusa-Shonubi, a crochet artist; Dhonielle Clayton ( The Marvellers); Lamar Giles (The Last Mirror on the Left); Torrey Maldonado (What Lane?); Brittany J. Thurman (Fly), and Laura Pegram, founder and editor of Kweli Journal. It was so, so much fun! I’m blessed to know such great talents and good sports.
BH & EB: A major part of this story revolves around Bo, Sunday, Lil, and Lee forming a band. You had your own brush with musical stardom with your band “GLOSS”, and there are so many great musicians mentioned throughout the story. Are there any musicians from the book that are a particular favorite?
ORP: Ooh, it’s hard for me to even remember, I tried to pack so many in there! I think there are some like Hazel Scott and Louis Armstrong, whose activism I learned about as an adult, that are dear to my heart. But really, all of them! If they’re in there, it’s because I love, respect, and appreciate their artistry and their story so much.
BH & EB: Talking about Bo, Sunday, Lil, and Lee, the sisters all have such vibrant individual personalities! How did you come up with each one’s unique voice and presence?
ORP: It’s one of my favourite parts of the writing process (along with revision), creating characters. They tend to be very vivid early on, and I walk with them, live with them, have internal conversations with them for a long time before I even start writing. I think that when I think about their relationships with others, with themselves, with their environment, that’s what helps me create and deepen my characters (I hope.)
BH & EB: Our protagonist Bo is very resistant to change, especially adjusting to life with the “Dwyer-Saunders clan”. Being an adult now, how has your own relationship to change affected the way you portrayed an 11-year-old facing new problems?
ORP: I think Bo’s very smart – she knows what works for her, so it makes sense to want to keep it going. She also knows what brings her discomfort, and as “fun” as her family may seem, there are things about their life that are not right for her, and that’s OK. Bo is figuring out when to take risks, and to be flexible, and when to assert herself and set clear boundaries. I’m better at it than I used to be, but I’m still navigating that on a daily basis.
BH & EB: Bo connects with her new family through baking, and we get to read one of her recipes at the end of the book. Adding the recipe for the “Sunshine Surprise Smilecake” was such a great touch that made the book feel even more real! Where did the recipe come from?
ORP: I have a very large (mostly vintage) cookbook collection, and I love reading recipes, but I rarely actually follow them. I read to learn about what flavors work together, how certain food categories work, etc. I like to play around with food and flavor a lot. So I think that recipe started from a few different very basic plain cake recipes. I knew that I wanted to use yogurt in it, and I’d recently discovered freeze-dried fruit and how it can add intense flavor to frosting, so I knew that I wanted to do a berry cream cheese frosting. I was also focusing on coming up with something pretty simple, versatile, up for experimentation…very kid-friendly.
BH & EB: In your Author’s Note, you say that many of the girls’ adventures in the book are inspired by memories of your own adventures with your own sister. What was it like to revisit parts of your childhood as you wrote?
ORP: Oh, it was lovely, it gave me lots of opportunities to laugh with friends and family -– and the laughter was such much-needed good medicine.
BH & EB: Also in your Author’s Note, you mention that you wanted the book to express the “Black love and joy” that you felt through life. Do you have a favorite moment in the book that illustrates this?
ORP: I think that might be the scene of Bo’s first dinner/sleepover, when they’re in the living room singing and dancing along to soca. Soca was our Saturday morning cleaning soundtrack, and I also have fond memories of dancing with my mom and other family members to Boney M’s “Brown Girl In The Ring” and we’d take turns being that “Brown Girl” in the center, getting hyped by other family members. The Block Party also reminds me of the many, many NYC festivals, parades, block parties, etc, that we enjoyed…Oh! And the “presentations” that the girls do are a lot like the ones we did, like the reluctant performances at holiday gatherings, or the “persuasive” essays/speeches that I’d sometime have to do in order to make a case to my dad about some event or activity that I wanted to do.
The OS family “freeschools” — the parents want to raise the girls to be “free within themselves,” to paraphrase Langston Hughes—to love who they are, know they are loved as they are, and be fully who they can be. Even though I was not officially homeschooled and went to a lot of different types of schools, my parents, and many of the other Black parents we knew, believed in a kind of schooling outside of the school building, the kind that meant doing interpretive dances to “Young, Gifted, and Black” at annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfasts, reciting the poems of Claude McKay in after school programs, and memorizing the countries of the African continent with a puzzle.
Really, just the whole vibe of being loved, challenged, encouraged to be creative and curious, and to make the most of the world that I’m in – that’s the spirit that I drew from.
BH & EB: The book is written in a very sensory way—the big colorful brownstone, the sunny, green community garden, the girls’ projects. Were there people or places in your life that inspired these things?
ORP: Yes, absolutely. For instance, the garden was very much inspired by the JD Wilson Community Garden in Harlem. I first visited it more than ten years ago, invited by a friend. We barbecued there, and people came by and hung out, some stayed, some didn’t, and I was struck by the laid-back, all are welcome vibe that was very different from the community garden in my Brooklyn neighborhood at the time. Then not too long ago, I ended up living right around the corner from that same garden, and was part of a CSA there, and it still has that same “Come in, Join Us, Be You and Be With Us As Much Or As Little As You Want” vibe. Not too manicured, with a sense of joy and respect for community. And there’s a “cat clubhouse” which I thought was very cool.
BH & EB: In addition to a great cast of human characters, there are so many loveable furry, feathery, and scaly friends in this book. What was the appeal of having both human and animal characters in this story? How did that change the family dynamic?
ORP: Oh, that was just fun (though maybe not for everyone in the family!). I’m a cat person (shout out to Batman, who’s right next to me as I type), but I love lots of animals, my daughter spent many summers at zoo and aquarium camps, and I love the way libraries have opportunities to read to dogs, etc. Animal Haven here in NYC was the inspiration for Beauty of the Beast. I’m working on a story about a school library therapy cat who also happens to be a detective. ☺ I’m obsessed with some wonderful IG accounts, like Center One Therapy and The Daily Steve B. After I read A Ring of Endless Light and visited many aquariums as a kid, I wanted to be a marine biologist for a little while. I still love learning about the animal-related work that scientists to, especially some of the Black women and other women of color like Drs. Rae Wynn-Grant, Asha de Vos, Ayanna Elizabeth Johnson, Kakani Katija…I love the ways that they work at the intersection of science and social justice.
BH & EB: Going off that, one of the cats is named Mrs. Pilkington. You also have a blog called “mrs. pilkington knits”. So we have to ask, is there a story behind this nickname?
ORP: Ha! It’s an obscure reference to a moment on an old animated show called The Critic that involved a sophisticated talking T-Rex who spoke of assuming “odd jobs under the name Mr. Pilkington.” (Watch a clip here!) When I started my craft blog, I wasn’t comfortable using my actual name, so…yeah.
BH & EB: This isn’t your first pandemic-published/worked on book. It Doesn’t Take a Genius (Six Foot Press) released in April 2021, and you have a lot of exciting upcoming works in the next year. What insights or advice do you have for other writers who are doing what they love in a time of major change and uncertainty?
ORP: I’d say be generous and flexible with yourself. Be kind and forgiving to yourself. Take that attitude and extend it to others. Know in your heart that this isn’t “easy” work, even if it’s the thing you know in your heart that you are meant to do, even in the best of times, and we are definitely not in the best of times. Other people’s rules may not work for you, and that’s OK. Or they might work for a little while, and then something will have to change. Connect with your writing community or that one writing buddy where you can just talk story and life, and sit and write, and also just struggle and be without judgment. And sometimes it helps to remind yourself of what got you started on this path in the first place – for me, it’s reading, listening to, and watching familiar favourites.
BH & EB: And lastly, can you tell us a bit about your upcoming written works? Or any fun personal projects you have going on?
ORP: I have a trio of nonfiction projects on the way this Spring: SAVING EARTH: Climate Change and the Fight for Our Future in April, MAE MAKES A WAY: The True Story of Mae Reeves, Hat and History Maker, and THE SUN DOES SHINE (Young Readers Edition): An Innocent Man, A Wrongful Conviction, and the Long Path to Justice. And I have a YA novel, and an I Can Read coming up as well.
I have some knitting and puppet/toy projects that I’m working on, just for myself – those are always fun. And I’m working on an Operation Sisterhood sequel!
Q&A With Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Operation Sisterhood
January 3, 2022 by JoAnn Yao
By Ashley Wells
Today we’re pleased to welcome Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich to the WNDB blog to discuss Operation Sisterhood, available on January 4, 2022.
Set against the bursting energy of a New York City summer is a joyful middle grade novel about the difficulties of change, the loyalty of sisters, and the love of family.
Bo and her mom always had their own rhythm until they moved to Harlem with Mum’s boyfriend Bill, his daughter Sunday, twins Lili and Lee, the twins’ parents, and a menagerie of animals. With so many people in one brownstone, Bo isn’t so sure there’s still room for her.
operation sisterhood cover
Operation Sisterhood’s main character Bo experiences big changes and emotions throughout the book. She feels so real and I’m sure lots of kids will identify with her. How did you go about creating her character?
I love creating characters. I thought of the sisters as a unit in a lot of ways, and how each of their personalities might work (and sometimes not work) together. With Bo, some of the things I thought about were: what if you’re someone in this family that seems to operate in a very “fun and free” way, and that’s not exactly your vibe? What if you think that you’re very happy with your life and the role that you play in your family, and then you’re thrust into a new and uncomfortable situation where you feel you have to prove yourself? What if you pride yourself on being “strong” and you now have to be vulnerable in small, daily ways?
After some of those changes, Bo begins freeschooling. This learning method was new to me! Can you tell us more about it and why you included it in the book?
When my daughter was young, we were kind of homeschool-adjacent, even though she was also in a traditional school setting. I think that New York is such a resource-rich, dynamic, and beautifully diverse city.
In the book, the Dwyer-Saunders family calls it “freeschooling” because the parents want to raise the girls to be “free within themselves” to paraphrase Langston Hughes, to love who they are and who they can be. Many Black parents who have the resources and opportunity to homeschool do so because the educational systems and structures in the U.S. do not affirm Black lives. Even though I was never officially homeschooled and went to a lot of different types of schools, my parents believed in a kind of schooling outside of school, learning about Black history and culture in ways that were not available to us in school; learning in the context of everyday life in a way that is grounded in an understanding that Black children are capable, curious learners with a rich heritage to draw from.
Storytelling and preserving history are themes throughout Operation Sisterhood. What advice would you give to those looking to do this for their own communities?
I grew up really being nourished by stories from my parents and family members, of “back home,” of immigration, of my heritage and multiple ethnicities. Those stories helped me to understand that Black lives are beautiful, powerful, dynamic, and come in infinite flavors. Black people have a legacy of stories that is deep and wide and high and long, and our stories are a blessing to anyone fortunate enough to connect with them. Across the Diaspora, we have such deeply rich and powerful stories of ingenuity and innovation, endurance, triumph, struggle, and infinite joy.
Reading aloud was a big thing in my family as well. We loved stories, and valued many different kinds, and many different forms. My family went out of their way to make sure we had access to an extensive experience with theatre, museums, music, etc. I had a lot of time and space for imaginative play, and that was invaluable. I also had Black educators who went the extra mile. In the classroom, and in conversation, teachers and college professors were among those who shared Black playwrights, thinkers, filmmakers, artists, and more. It was so important to have them champion and cherish our experiences and imagination, especially in a world that so often did not.
You can start the way my sister and I did, asking “Tell me about when you were little!”. I think letters, the old snail mail kind, can be a lovely way to share and preserve family stories. I learned a lot about my dad by recording him as he talked about his experiences coming to the U.S., and then learned more when my daughter did the same many years later. My mom spent the last few years of her life mostly in hospitals, and sometimes we’d read Scriptures, and those stories would trigger memories of stories in her own life, like jumping Double Dutch with her favorite nun in Catholic school. I think it’s important to be curious, to listen, to be patient – to show that you honor the stories of the people in your life, no matter how “glittery” or “ordinary” they seem. And be generous with your own; sometimes it means being vulnerable, and sharing a bit of yourself. I believe that we can be enriched by each other. Each and every one of our stories is precious.
operation sisterhood gbemi quote
Operation Sisterhood highlights Black Lives Matter and the importance of taking up space. What books do you see Operation Sisterhood in conversation with on these topics?
The stories we encounter, and the stories we create, end up in conversation with one another no matter what. I think that in much the same way that all Black lives matter, we can make room for all kinds of stories by and about Black life. You can look at any book and ask: what is this saying about Black people? Who does this story value? What message is this creator sending about Black power, community, and humanity? I’d start with a visit to The Brown Bookshelf and go from there!
If you weren’t an author, what would your career be? What inspired you to become an author?
I’d be a voiceover artist for animation, a puppeteer, a toymaker, a preschool TV host. Oh, and since I was a kid, I’ve been pretending to have my own cooking show.
I was always surrounded by stories and books, encouraged to read widely, allowed to be a “free-range” reader, and supplied with plenty of paper, pens, and markers that I used for doodling, writing stories inspired by what I overheard about the tv shows I wasn’t allowed to watch, journaling. Writing became a very important form of self-expression for me as a shy kid, a way that I could be all of my selves. I started out writing little plays and show scripts at a very young age because of that.
You’ve published fiction and non-fiction children’s books. What’s your writing process like and how do you decide what to work on next?
I usually start with my characters, just living with them for a long time. Then I ask questions. It’s often my way of trying work things out for myself, about myself, about the people and cultures around me, of creating more questions. And for each project, I think about how I would like to serve my reader, what I’d like to give them, how I might hope they feel, with the full understanding that each reader brings themselves to a story and makes their own meaning, creating something new.
How do I decide what to work on next? Usually that has to do with deadlines! Or sometimes when I’m struggling with something, I put it aside to simmer and work on something different. But sometimes that’s just procrastination. And I love to challenge myself as a writer—right now I’m working on some easy readers, and that’s been a lot of fun. I’d love to write for kids’ TV one day as well.
If you could tell your younger self anything, what would it be? What would you like to tell Bo?
I would tell my younger self and Bo that it’s OK to be and love all the selves that we are, that we don’t have to try to be the “best.” That we are worthy of being loved, just as we are, that we have so much to offer this world, and we can keep figuring that out and working toward it, a little bit at a time.
What was your favorite childhood book? What books do you recommend to young readers?
There’s a literal treasure chest of recommendations and resources at The Brown Bookshelf, starting with anything by the phenomenal members!
Right now, I am recommending some chapter book series to everyone I know: the Ryan Hart series by Renée Watson, the Jada Jones series by Kelly Starling Lyons, and the Dyamonde Daniel series by Nikki Grimes. The 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Renée Watson, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and Nikkolas Smith is exquisite. The Year I Flew Away by Marie Arnold. African Icons: Ten People Who Shaped History by Tracey Baptiste. Not So Pure and Simple and The Last Last-Day-of-Summer by Lamar Giles. Timelines from Black History: Leaders, Legends, Legacies, edited by Mireille Harper. The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursu. Anything by Alex Wheatle. Almost There and Almost Not by Linda Urban. First Grade Dropout and Second Grade Holdout by Audrey Vernick. The Boys in the Back Row by Mike Jung. The Other Talk: Reckoning with Our White Privilege by Brendan Kiely. Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon. What Lane? by Torrey Maldonado. Your Name is A Song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow. I could go on…
******
olugbemisola rhuday-perkovich headshotOlugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich is the author of 8th Grade Superzero, It Doesn’t Take a Genius, the nonfiction books Above and Beyond: NASA’s Journey to Tomorrow and Someday Is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-Ins, and the upcoming Mae Makes a Way and Saving Earth: The Climate Crisis and the Fight for Our Future. She is the coauthor of the middle-grade novel Two Naomis, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and its sequel, Naomis Too. Olugbemisola is a member of the Brown Bookshelf and a former board member of We Need Diverse Books. She lives with her family in New York City, where she writes, makes things, and needs to get more sleep. You can also find her on Instagram, Twitter, and her website.
Day 24: Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich | Posted on February 24, 2024
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich is the NAACP Image Award-nominated author of several books, including: OPERATION SISTERHOOD, an IndieNext List Top Ten Pick and Black Caucus of the American Library Association Best of the Best Selection; MAKEDA MAKES A BIRTHDAY TREAT, a Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Book; IT DOESN’T TAKE A GENIUS, a Kirkus Reviews Best Children’s Book of the Year, SOMEDAY IS NOW, an NCSS-CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People, and MAE MAKES A WAY, a RISE Feminist Book List and CCBC Choices title. Olugbemisola has contributed to a number of anthologies, including WE RISE, WE RESIST, WE RAISE OUR VOICES, and is editor of the We Need Diverse Books collection THE HERO NEXT DOOR.
I still have the October 2009 email from Kelly Starling Lyons inviting me to join The Brown Bookshelf team. I was so excited and honoured that for once I ignored my usual instinct (which is to run and hide from my computer — you know, it can’t see me, if I can’t see it) and wrote back an incoherent variation on WOOOOOHOOOOOYESTHANKYOU!
“WE ALL, WE ALL, WE ALRIGHT”
The love, friendship, mutual respect, and sheer brilliance of the other members of the Brown Bookshelf family are gifts that I will treasure for the rest of my days.
They are wonderful humans, full stop. I say the same about our extended family, including Just Us Books, I, Too Arts, Collective, the African American Children’s Book Project, and finally the Amplify Cohort that you’ve been reading about all month. Working with our friends at Highlights to develop Amplify has been a wonderfully enriching experience of community-building and creative exchange.
And then…not only do all of the above create an astonishing array of wonderful stories for all ages, they motivate and inspire so many, including me, to do the same.
“IT’S BEEN 84 YEARS…”
It’s hard to believe that my debut, 8th GRADE SUPERZERO, is ready for high school, so to speak — 2024 marks fourteen years since its publication date, and it’s still a thrill to hear from readers who are discovering it for the first time. Since then, my writing has taken me all over the place — to picture books, nonfiction, chapter books, anthologies, comics — even a dip into YA. 2024 has also brought my novel YOU’RE BREAKING MY HEART, out this month from Levine Querido.
You're Breaking My Heart cover art by Briana Mukodiri Uchendu
Cover by Briana Mukodiri Uchendu
It’s a book about the many ways grief really takes you through it; how it can mess with our memories, and the stories we tell ourselves. Harriet Adu blames herself for her brother’s death, and has isolated herself from her family and friends. She thinks she doesn’t deserve or need joy, and goes on an emotional journey that takes her beyond the world she knows. This was a hard one to write; I wanted to honour the fullness of Black girlhood and womanhood, the challenging emotions that we often have to mask or hide. Harriet’s story did not want to be told in a typical way. I’m really happy with how it turned out — no small thanks to my very patient, brilliant editor Nick Thomas. Check out the audiobook; the story is told in two POVs; I read the first third, then the incredible Channie Waites comes in and will blow you away.
“LIKE DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN”
I have two paperbacks out this Spring. First, in just a couple of weeks: SAVING EARTH, an MG-YA nonfiction title with art by Tim Foley, on how we grapple with the global past, present, and future of the climate crisis. Inspired by Nathaniel Rich’s groundbreaking LOSING EARTH, it delves into the science, politics, and culture of the movement. You can read an excerpt here.
Art by Tim Foley
SAVING EARTH seeks to shine a light on the ways that Black, Indigenous, and many other people of color have always been involved in environmental justice movements. And while I highlight the voices and work of young activists around the world, the book is careful to note that this is not a mess for “the kids” to clean up. As Alexandria Villaseñor pointed out: “Let’s cancel the Youth Climate Hope Industrial Complex now….If you’re relying on youth to save us, then you’re not doing enough yourself.”
Whose stories have been told? Whose voices do we listen to?
These are the questions that I asked myself while working on the book, the questions that I’m always asking as I dream and write new stories.
My other 2024 paperback will be June’s THE SUN DOES SHINE Young Readers Edition, a School Library Journal and Chicago Public Library Best of the Year book, written with Anthony Ray Hinton and Lara Love Hardin.The Sun Does Shine cover art
I was honoured to have had the opportunity to share a small part of Anthony Ray Hinton’s incredibly heartbreaking, infuriating, and remarkable story. Mr. Hinton and I discuss the adaptation process with Betsy Bird over at School Library Journal.
“SO FRESH AND SO CLEAN, CLEAN”
Also in June, the second MAKEDA MAKES I Can Read! book is coming: MAKEDA MAKES A HOME FOR SUBWAY! I have so much fun with this curious, creative Jamaican American Brooklynite. This time, she decides that the class guinea pig, Subway, is languishing in a BORING cage, so it’s up to her to build him some real fun. Oh, Makeda.
Makeda Makes A Home for Subway, cover art by Lydia Mba
art by Lydia Mba
Then just as the year ends and the new one begins, OPERATION SISTERHOOD 2: STEALING THE SHOW will be here! What a time I’ve had working with the wonderful Phoebe Yeh on the return to my beloved NYC sisters and their joyful ways. This time round, Sunday has decided to step out of her sisters’ shadows and get some solo shine by writing, directing, and starring in her own show — what could possibly go wrong? A new neighbor, self-obsessed superstar Talitha Thomas, has an answer to that. In another lifetime, I was around celebrities quite a bit, and I have to say that Talitha was a lot of fun to write.
I have more OPERATION SISTERHOOD news! And other book news! And news news! But I think I can’t share yet. But when I can, I’ll be sharing Brown Bookshelf-ly, because this will always be home.
Thank you all for riding with us.
“IF YOU DON’T SEEK IT, YOU WON’T SEE IT”
Read Black stories. Share Black stories. Celebrate Black stories.
Connect with me online:
My web site (where you can sign up for my newsletter)
Rhuday-Perkovich, Olugbemisola OPERATION SISTERHOOD Crown (Children's None) $16.99 1, 4 ISBN: 978-0-593-37989-9
An 11-year-old only child must learn how to accept her new blended family.
Nigerian American Tokunbo Marshall thought life was perfect with just her and her Mum in their Bronx apartment. They had their special recipes, always discussed things, were planning to visit Paris and Lagos, and had a community Bo loved. Then Mum began dating Bill, and Bo noticed her smiling more, so she went along with the changes that ensued. Now, with Bill and Mum getting married and their moving in with him in his chaotic family's Harlem brownstone, Bo feels adrift. It is a major adjustment for methodical Bo to go from two people to eight--counting Bill's daughter, Sunday, plus Bill and Sunday's chosen family, twin sisters Lee and Lil and their parents--not to mention a slew of pets. She feels overwhelmed with learning to be a sister while maintaining her own identity, but she soon discovers that sharing parts of herself is easier than she thinks. Working together to plan the ultimate wedding garden party helps as well. Rhuday-Perkovich's love letter to New York City is brimming with heartwarming moments in which Bo discovers how she fits in with her new patchwork family amid constant changes. The limited omniscient narration allows the personalities of each sister to shine, adding depth to their characterizations, but it also makes for storytelling that is densely detailed. Most characters are Black.
A loving display of family and community. (Fiction. 8-12)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Rhuday-Perkovich, Olugbemisola: OPERATION SISTERHOOD." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Nov. 2021, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A680615812/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=50ee4c6f. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich. Crown, $16.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-593-37989-9
In a one-bedroom apartment in the Bronx, 11-year-old Tokunbo "Bo" Marshall, who is Nigerian American, engages in her passion for baking, her love of music, and her babysitting expertise while sharing special recipes with her single mother. But as her mom prepares to marry, Bo needs time to feel through the transition, the new sibling she'll soon gain in bookstore owner Bill's pianist daughter, and the chosen family also living in Bill's Harlem brownstone. Change comes quickly as Bo and her mother move from their community into Bill's building, Bo starts freeschooling, and finances put a hold on Bo and her mother's long-planned trip to Black Paris and Lagos. Despite the upheaval, Bo and her newfound family learn how to love each other and plan a "wedding block party" for their parents. Rhuday-Perkovich (II Doesn't Take a Genius) interweaves Black culture with a realistic depiction of what a transition to a blended family--and being raised by a village--can look like. Ages 8-12. Agent: Marietta Zacker, Gallt & Zacker Literary. (Jan.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 PWxyz, LLC
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"Operation Sisterhood." Publishers Weekly, vol. 268, no. 50, 6 Dec. 2021, pp. 137+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A686969391/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=d946fcd8. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.
Rhuday-Perkovich, Olugbemisola SAVING EARTH Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Teen None) $21.99 4, 5 ISBN: 978-0-374-31305-0
A caustic indictment of this country's foot-dragging response to the threat of climate disaster, paired with a rising international chorus of younger voices raised in protest.
In the author's view it's no longer an impending threat: "Unfortunately, long-term disaster is now the best-case scenario." In language as acerbic as the famously take-no-prisoners activist Greta Thunberg's, Rhuday-Perkovich draws from Nathaniel Rich's terrifying Losing Earth (2019) to point out evidence that scientists have been telling us what was in the atmospheric cards since the mid-1850s. She also traces the political failures--orchestrated in large part, she claims, by the petroleum industry's lobbying organization, "ironically called the Global Climate Coalition"--that culminated in the disastrous policy reversals of the Trump administration. Readers will be jolted out of any sense of complacency through the inclusion of success stories like New York's student-led Styrofoam Out of Schools initiative, quotes from Thunberg and dozens of other activists from numerous countries and cultures, descriptions of ways of coping with climate change anxiety, and too rarely made observations about how environmental issues are inextricably linked to issues of race, class, and gender. Foley, illustrator of the Epic Fails series, adds further sauce in caricature portraits ranging from President Donald Trump with fingers in his ears to climate heroes in spandex. Rich supplies an introduction.
Argues persuasively that it's not going to be a pretty future--or much of a future at all--without drastic action soon. (endnotes, resources, index) (Nonfiction. 12-16)
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"Rhuday-Perkovich, Olugbemisola: SAVING EARTH." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A696498739/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=e2368d7b. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.
Mae Makes a Way: The True Story of Mae Reeves, Hat and History Maker. By Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich. Illus. by Andrea Pippins. May 2022. 48p. Crown, $18.99 (9780525645856). Gr. 1-4. 646.5.
In her new picture book, Rhuday-Perkovich (It Doesn't Take a Genius, 2021) focuses on social issues and the importance of Black-owned businesses. This is the true story of milliner Mae Reeves. Born in Vidalia, Georgia, in the early 1900s, Mae lost her parents at a young age and was forced to grow up quickly and support her younger siblings. Over time, she held a variety of jobs that involved teaching or caring for others, aspects of work Mae found she enjoyed. It was in millinery work that Mae combined her love of art and philanthropy. Many of her beautiful, bespoke pieces are now being held at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The digital artwork in the story includes vibrant hues that make the beautiful hat pieces stand out. Though a bit text-heavy for new or prereaders, this biography is a vital piece of literature that documents an amazing woman who continuously persevered despite racial disparities.--Beronica Puhr
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 American Library Association
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Puhr, Beronica. "Mae Makes a Way: The True Story of Mae Reeves, Hat and History Maker." Booklist, vol. 118, no. 18, 15 May 2022, p. 40. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A704943068/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f91b7957. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.
Rhuday-Perkovich, Olugbemisola MAE MAKES A WAY Crown (Children's None) $18.99 5, 24 ISBN: 978-0-525-64585-6
A soaring tribute to a pioneering African American milliner whose shop is preserved in the Smithsonian Institution.
In effervescent prose--"She made sassy hats, classy hats, high headpieces, and low caps. She used bows and baubles, created ruffles and bustle"--Rhuday-Perkovich traces both Reeves' family life and her career, from early years as a schoolteacher and student at the integrated Chicago School of Millinery to fame as owner of a Philadelphia shop with a clientele ranging from "church ladies" to celebrities like Marian Anderson and Ella Fitzgerald. Along with dozens of examples of elegant, usually understated hats on the heads of dark- and light-skinned customers, Pippins uses bright, flat colors to portray her dignified, confident-looking subject through the years (she died in 2016, at 104) surrounded by both her children and the ribbons, spools, tools, and fabrics of her creative trade. Interviews with her daughter and a Smithsonian curator, plus photos and a source list that includes leads to video interviews made a few years before her death, "cap" this introduction to a successful Black designer, entrepreneur, and community leader. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A pleaser for younger readers, particularly fans of fashion and fashion design, in search of role models. (Picture-book biography. 7-9)
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"Rhuday-Perkovich, Olugbemisola: MAE MAKES A WAY." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A708486732/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=7038d864. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.
Makeda Makes a Birthday Treat. By Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich. Illus. by Lydia Mba. Sept. 2023. 32p. HarperCollins/Balzer+Bray, $17.99 (9780063217263); paper, $5.99 (9780063217249). K-Gr. 2.
Jamaican Nigerian New Yorker Rhuday-Perkovich introduces readers to Makeda, an adorable girl who wants to share traditional treats with her classmates on her birthday. But wait--her classmates are used to cupcakes! What if they don't like her "coconut drops and back home stories"? Undaunted, Makeda begins the baking project at home with the help of Momma and Nana. They sing and dance, and Makeda's excitement for sharing her birthday sweet builds. When Makeda brings her treats to school the next day, her classmates are at first apprehensive, but soon they realize how tasty Makeda's birthday treats are, and they are inspired to talk about their own family's traditional treats as they sing and share their own family stories. This cheerful celebration of food, storytelling, and diverse experience also explores concepts of bravery, identity, sharing, and open-mindedness. Mba's warm, soft artwork, depicting Makeda's joyful family and her initially skeptical class, nicely enhances this fantastic addition to the I Can Read collection.--Vivian Alvarez
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 American Library Association
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Alvarez, Vivian. "Makeda Makes a Birthday Treat." Booklist, vol. 120, no. 1, Sept. 2023, p. 95. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A766069881/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=bc02aa25. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.
You're Breaking My Heart
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich. Levine Querido, $19.99 (392p) ISBN 978-1-6461-4181-4
Rhuday-Perkovich (Operation Sisterhood) pens a darkly atmospheric love letter to siblinghood in this speculative foray into processing grief, guilt, and shame. Following an argument between the siblings, 14-year-old Nigerian American Harriet Adu's older brother Tunde dies in a school shooting, leaving Harriet with the sharp guilt of having wished his death upon him that same day. Admitting her remorse in Catholic confessionals throughout New York City has yet to resolve any of the lingering shame, and she lashes out at her cousin Nikka and Tunde's best friend, Luke, who are both Black. Attempting to rekindle their friendship, the trio visit a local pool where Harriet finds catharsis in swimming. But an intrusive, biting voice, coupled with terrifying hallucinations, glimpses of Tunde's ghost, and an unearthly near-drowning, shatters Harriet's peaceful release. After she receives cryptic information about a haunted underground world, Harriet realizes that the horrifying events at the pool may be connected. With Nikka and Luke, Harriet ventures into the mysterious realm beneath the city, seeking answers and--hopefully--absolution. Uneven pacing sometimes detracts from the captivating premise. Rhuday-Perkovich nevertheless employs Harrier's resolute narrative voice to relay the fantastical happenings, as well as her determined steps toward healing, with careful sensitivity and refreshing creativity. Ages 12-up. Agent: Marietta Zacker, Gallt & Zacker Literary. (Jan.)*
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 PWxyz, LLC
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"You're Breaking My Heart." Publishers Weekly, vol. 270, no. 44, 30 Oct. 2023, p. 100. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A773381028/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=79c3f98c. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.
Rhuday-Perkovich, Olugbemisola YOU'RE BREAKING MY HEART Levine Querido (Teen None) $19.99 1, 23 ISBN: 9781646141814
A guilt-stricken 14-year-old Nigerian American girl in Harlem travels with her cousin and her brother's best friend on an underground odyssey as she tries to make sense of her grief.
The murder of Harriet Adu's older brother, Tunde, in a shooting at their old school fractured her family. Attending a new school, where her reputation as "The Girl Whose Brother Died" follows her, hasn't made Harriet feel any less lonely. Even the presence of Nikka (her cousin) and attempts by Luke (Tunde's best friend) to support her can't blot out the guilt she feels over the last words she said to her brother during a fight on the morning of the day he died: "I wish you were dead." The swimming pool, once the only place where Harriet felt safe, becomes strangely malevolent when an unseen force attacks her in the water. Soon after, a new classmate named Alisia arrives and, with her talk of people living in subway tunnels and stories that are "different the second time around," seemingly offers Harriet a pathway to the absolution that she seeks. Visions of Tunde and a near-drowning lead Luke and Nikka to help Harriet figure out what's going on. Although the backstory of the underground world isn't sufficiently revealed, the genre-crossing elements and the story's surreal fun house vibe will keep readers on the edges of their seats.
A highly original tale exploring grief and weaving together the realistic and fantastical. (Speculative fiction. 12-18)
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"Rhuday-Perkovich, Olugbemisola: YOU'RE BREAKING MY HEART." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Nov. 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A770738935/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=41892511. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.