Summary:

Noon gets home from school, sad and angry. Someone made fun of her dark skin and wild curls. He told her she should leave. But Noon doesn’t want to leave. And she shouldn’t, because Noon is perfectly fine the way she is. In fact, she’s MAGICAL.

Growing up as a brown girl in the West comes with its own set of challenges. You rarely get to see yourself reflected in the images presented to you. On television, in movies and even in books it is still a struggle to find characters that look like you, that deal with the same issues you do. Brown Girl Magic wants to help fill that void. It’s a book for, by and about brown girls. About kinky hair and golden skin, about bullying and loving, about all different kinds, shapes and forms of brown girls. This book is an attempt to (further) empower those girls. Because let’s admit it: they are quite magical!

Info on the author:

Dalilla Hermans is a Belgian author, journalist, and columnist, born in Rwanda. In 2014, she published a text about her experiences with racism in Flanders. In 2017, her Letter to Cooper and the world came out. She wrote the children’s book Brown Girl Magic and she regularly works as a columnist for De Standaard.

Info on the illustrator:

Fatinha Ramos is an award-winning Antwerp-based illustrator and visual artist originally from Portugal. After working in art direction and graphic design for twelve years, she took a giant leap and followed her dream, working full-time as an illustrator. Since then, her work has appeared all over the world and received awards from the Society of Illustrators NY, 3×3, Communication Arts, Global Illustration Award, World Illustrations Awards, White Ravens and many more.

Open-minded and full of creative somersaults, she tears down all the classic conventions avoiding the dangerous pitfalls of clichés. She takes us on a journey through her poetic imaginary world of singular textures and rich colors. Her strong conceptual illustrations and surreal compositions create a unique universe.

Fatinha has worked her magic on children’s books, covers, posters, editorial, murals, ceramics, theater, advertising, fashion, music albums, animation and diverse personal projects.

Page of a book with dutch text and an illustration of houses on the background.

Page of a book with dutch text and an illustration of leaves on the ground on a rainy day.

Page of a book with an illustration of rain puddle, reflecting the image of a brown girl.

Awards and nominations:

. Award of Excellence: Communication Arts
. Winner Creative Quarterly 55, New York
. Selected Book and Children’s Book show 61 at the Society of Illustrators New York
. Honorable Mention 3×3 International Illustration Annual Nº16
. Selected illustration for “The Children Spectators” for Bologna Children’s Book Fair – partner of the four-year project “Mapping . A map on the aesthetics of performing arts for early years “, an artistic research, supported by the European Union, dedicated to the relationship between early childhood (children from zero to 6 years) and the performing arts.

Media mentions:

https://www.festivalgelijkheid.be/programma/brown-girl-magic

https://www.een.be/van-gils-gasten/dalilla-hermans-brown-girl-magic

http://www.booksandwords.be/brown-girl-magic-dalilla-hermans/

https://www.charliemag.be/zin-in/brown-girl-magic/