Review: I Am Brown by Ashok Banker, illustrated by Sandhya Prabhat

This joyous picture book features a confident brown-skinned Asian girl with glorious pigtails and a face full of cheer. She’s joined, throughout, by lots of friends: brown-skinned Asian boys and girls from all around the world who exude happiness from head to toe. 

Theirs is a world full of endless possibilities, unfettered by the traditional Hindu caste system. Through their imaginative/adventurous play we learn about the children's wide-ranging everyday preferences: their hobbies, food, hairstyles, clothes and religions. We also see their career aspirations which span the creative arts, rocket science and everything in between. 

It's all depicted delightfully in engaging group scenes with authentic cultural referencing from illustrator Sandhya Prabhat. Her beautiful muted colour palette—browns, burnt oranges, deep blues and olive greens—has the unexpected effect of drawing you in to examine the well-observed detail on every double-page spread.  

Internationally renowned author Ashok Banker's debut children's book, with its striking blend of free verse and non-fiction, has a clear Asian emphasis. Black cultures are intentionally not represented here, so do bear this in mind if you intend to read it with Black children who identify as brown-skinned.

Non-Hindu, non-religious Banker, who is of mixed Irish-Portuguese-Sri Lankan-Indian heritage and from a lower caste, offers readers a more fluid and diverse representation of contemporary brown-skinned Asian identities. In his view, children's texts from the Indian sub-continent focus largely on white people or the Hindu upper classes/upper castes. You can read more via Lantana Publishing's blog.) Banker celebrates a broader more inclusive view of brown-skinned Asians from all levels of society, living worldwide, which powerfully counteracts outdated portrayals. 

Indeed, Banker and Prabhat's thoughtful and nuanced casting is a real triumph. They avoid Asian shopkeeper/restaurant-owner stereotypes while gently addressing society's imposed gender roles. For example, the children's role-play reinforces the fact that many girls loves STEM subjects as well as artistic activities while, similarly, many boys enjoy helping people and playing dress-up as well as coding computers. There are subtle nods to atheism and same-sex relationships which also work extremely well. 

The repetitive single-clause 'I am...' sentences make the text well-suited to early readers in EYFS and KS1. The text promotes talk about similarities and differences, likes and dislikes and jobs people do (PSED), while raising awareness of other countries and cultural traditions (UW). It could also be used as a stimulus for drawing self-portraits, exploring flesh-coloured crayons or pencils (EAD). If you intend to use it for storytime, you may wish to practise reading beforehand, as some of the pages have a quirky textual layout. Personally, I feel it would work well as an individual reader, paired reader or an adult-led story with a small group.  

I Am Brown is a must-have for home and school libraries. It's a positive, affirming mantra for all children, encouraging them to be proud of the skin they're in. It also serves as a reminder that no matter where you start from in life, anything is possible if you love yourself and others.

Crayola: new skin-tone colours coming soon!

Guide for teachers and parents 

Genre	Poetry: free verse
Child-led interests	my body, ourselves, my family, jobs people do, role play/hairdressing/dressing-up, cooking, art
Age group (EYFS, KS1, KS2)	EYFS and KS1
Curriculum links (EYFS/NC)	EYFS: Literacy PSED UW EAD
Suitability	whole-class reading, school/class library or home-reader
General language features	present tense; repetitive text; single-clause sentences, e.g. I am brown.

All the Black children's books that I review are checked against my Jericho Benchmark.