The Future Possibilities of Children: An Interview with Gwendolyn Wallace

Interview by Karla Mendez

“To celebrate the publication of her second children’s picture book, The Light She Feels Inside, author Gwendolyn Wallace discusses the importance of community, taking care of each other, and celebrating the light within ourselves.

“The greatest honor of writing children’s books is that you get to be one of their many entrances into the world.”

For Gwendolyn Wallace, growing up she saw books and libraries as sites of independence, possibility, and safety, something she still deeply believes in. The stories found within the pages of books not only offer a portal into worlds beyond our own but also an opportunity to see representations of ourselves, something that is especially crucial for Black Americans. For Black children, to see themselves in books is to be introduced to all the possibilities of who and what they can become, the people that came before them, and their value. Unfortunately, until recently, there has been a dearth of children’s books by and about Black people. According to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, by 2021 that number had risen to 22%…”

To read the rest of the interview, visit blackwomenradicals.com.