Finding Joy In the Roots

Article by Danielle Buckingham

“Earth has a heartbeat just like you do, little one. Can you feel the Earth’s rhythm along with your own? - Joy Takes Root, Gwendolyn Wallace

The closest I’ve been to actually working in a garden was out on my aunties front porch shelling peas. Or sitting out in the grass with wide eyes and a wet mouth full of fresh watermelon. I didn’t know it then, but I was so close to the earth. Being fed by it, my little running feet carried by it, I even wore the scent of it on my skin, or as the old folks would say, I smelled like outside.

I don’t remember reading any books about nature and, especially not Black kids in nature, so I was ecstatic to learn about Gwendolyn Wallace’s forthcoming children’s picture book, Joy Takes Root. In this book, a little Black girl named Joy visits her grandparents in South Carolina and discovers her connection to the earth and her ancestors through her grammy’s garden…”

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