Author Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrator Frank Morrison almost can't stop joking with each other long enough to talk about their new picture book.
"Some like to think we're a winning combination," says Boston Weatherford. "Of course, it's all because of me," she laughs, but Morrison quickly agrees. "Of course, of course," he says. "You always keep me on my game."
Their first children's book together was 2019's The Roots of Rap. They were paired up because of Morrison's background in the hip-hop industry. "I started hip-hop dancing and then I started club dancing," he explains. This was back in the 1980s, and he went on tour to Europe. "That was a big part of my life and it kind of changed my scope on art as well," Morrison says, "because I had a chance to go to the Louvre while I was out there… looking at the 'Mona Lisa,' you think, 'Oh, I thought it'd be bigger,' but my gosh, it's beautiful."
Now, Frank Morrison and Carole Boston Weatherford have finished their sixth book together. In Family Feast!, the day begins early for Big Ma and Pops, who spend the morning peeling fruit for a pie and dressing the fish to fry. When aunts, uncles, cousins, sisters and brothers arrive, everyone gathers in the kitchen to cook, share recipes, gossip, catch up, shoot the breeze and lick the bowls. Boston Weatherford says that everyone brings something different to the party, "whether it's a dish or, you know, somebody got to be the joke master or the storyteller."
"Family Feast! is inspired by the gatherings in my own family," says Boston Weatherford. Even the little dog in the book is modeled after her beagle. And even though there's a turkey on the table, this book could be about Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter or even any old weekend. "It kind of shows the conversation, the chaos and the culinary creations that come out of these family feasts," she says.
Frank Morrison says his relatives used to gather for feasts just like this one every Sunday. "I felt like I was reading what happened over the weekend with my family," he adds.
Morrison illustrated the book in warm, earthy, autumnal colors. "It kind of looks like the leaves on the tree," he explains. "I just want it to feel warm [like] when you come into the house after a cold night."
The yellow kitchen is inviting, Pops has a Santa beard and a smile from ear to ear, there's plates and plates of delicious-looking food and kids bounce around the floor. It's crowded and chaotic: everybody is in everybody else's business and it looks like a really fun party.
"These family gatherings, they're not just about food, but they're about love," says Carole Boston Weatherford. "The food that's cooked is an expression of love, even if it's just ginger ale and paper cups from the grocery store. And everything that goes on in the conversations, even the chaos: it's all about love."
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