“She’s a woman of high substance and extraordinary storytelling. “I’ve known Cynthia for a while, and I truly admire her and the way she highlights women and has such a powerful voice of good,” Burch said of Erivo. She approached the actress about holding the reading in her newly opened retail location in SoHo because of her belief in the book’s message and in Erivo as a role model. Tory Burch herself is a huge fan of Erivo’s first children’s novel. “The illustration means just as much to me as the story, and I was lucky enough to have Charnelle translate that for me.”
“ managed to pick out all the details and all the colors and on each page, there are little easter eggs,” she said. I want it to feel like a gift,” Erivo said. “I need someone to really understand the story I want to tell, I want these characters to come to life, and when you turn the pages I want it to feel really special. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Tory Burch) NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 02: Cynthia Erivo’s first book Remember To Dream pictured as Tory Burch and Cynthia Erivo celebrate at Tory Burch Mercer Street store on Octoin New York City. Ebere also wears various colorful eyeglass frames throughout the pages of the book. The story’s illustration, drawn by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow, beautifully depicts an unambiguously Black mother and daughter, each with natural hair. Even the main character’s name, Ebere, is Erivo’s sister’s middle name which means hope and mercy. “I just wanted to share what I believe in, which is about dreaming in detail and putting all the nuances and colors you possibly can into your dreams and seeing them happen in real life.” “One day, I was getting ready for a meeting, and the idea just sort of fell into my head fully formed,” Erivo said of writing the story. However, the story also serves as a child’s guide to manifestation, encouraging them to dream the biggest and brightest dreams possible and helping them realize that their vision is in their own hands. On the surface, the book is a simple tale of a young girl with trouble staying asleep, periodically climbing out of bed to tell her mother what she saw in her dreams. This is about love.NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 02: Cynthia Erivo reads her book, Remember To Dream, Ebere to children as Tory Burch and Cynthia Erivo celebrate the new title at Tory Burch Mercer Street store on Octoin New York City. This book shows what it means to ask questions while listening and giving support. BORN READY says it best: “‘Not everything needs to make sense. I love that this story acknowledges different questions of what it means to be trans and gender nonconforming that both children and adults have at times (such as Grandpa G exclaims that there aren’t any gender pronouns in his native language or when Penelope’s principal asks him if he is feeling embarrassed about the other kids asking him about his school uniform). You’re a ninja – and what you’ve come here to do is important.īarlow: I want kids to see that they have the freedom to be who they were born to be and belong in this world as they are.
You can even fly over obstacles because you are bigger than obstacles. Kids: You can move through any problem or person, any construct or system that stands in your way. I want kids, especially trans identified and gender nonconforming kids to know they were born ready, ready for anything that comes their way. He’s not a mean kid, he just needed the space to express himself and be seen. The easiest part was showing Penelope’s joy as it really shines through in the writing and illustrating all of the fun ninja sequences. I think Charnelle Pinkney Barlow captured the essence of each of us beautifully.īarlow: The most difficult part about illustrating BORN READY was visually showing Penelope’s frustration without making him look like a mean kid. But as with writing, illustrating is a layered process and as that process moved forward and the details began to come through, I realized that the key is to capture our essence. At first I was focused on each character looking exactly as we do in real life. Trusting that an illustrator will capture your family precisely can be nerve wracking. But in the end, with the help of my kids, we were able to pull out key memories that highlight our journey. There are so many moments that make up the gradual shifts in family dynamics – and choosing the few that resonate the loudest almost felt impossible. Patterson: Condensing years into just a few stand-out moments was challenging.