Frustrated by what she sees is a lack of books for young boys and children of color, Detroit librarian and mom S.F. Hardy decided she would help fill that void. She’s on a mission, she says, to “create more content that will create that joy for reading for everybody but that includes people of color.”
Her newest picture book, Dancing Monkeys in My Soup!, was published in September and features a young boy named Jabbar who discovers pygmy marmosets in his soup on a visit to Peru. Hardy introduces Afro-Peruvian and West African dances and Salsa in the book.
A self-described kid at heart, she wants books to bring people together. “I really want to help the world by sharing and celebrating differences. … I want people to understand that as much as we are different, we are a lot alike,” she says.
