All Mixed Up

Hat tip to Evia.

Although she’s better known as the Wayans’ brother only sister, Kim Wayans is an actress, comedian, and comedy writer in her own right.  Now we can add author to her list of accomplishments.

Co-authored by her husband, Kevin Knotts, the couple tells the story of Amy Hodges, a fourth grader who has decided she was ready for the real world of elementary school instead of being homeschooled by her mother.  Her first day gets off to a bad start when the school bully places a sign on her back and the popular girls make fun of her dress.   By lunchtime she is feeling completely out of place because the popular girls make fun of her because she’s a melange of racial/ethnic mixes.  She is befriended by classmates who also have a diverse heritage, but where they have at the most three Amy Hodges has four (she is Korean, Japanese, African American and Caucasian). 

The easy to read story is cute and engaging and girls with mixed racial heritage will be glad to have a spunky heroine like Amy to look up to.  Kim Wayans said she was inspired by relatives to write the series.

“My nieces and nephews are mixed-race children,” Wayans said. “They were my inspiration. I’m also in a mixed marriage, so that’s another source. Just listening to my nieces and nephews and their little stories, about something mean some kid said in school, I thought, ‘The world is becoming so much more (integrated) like this, wouldn’t it be great if they had books that reflected them in positive ways?’”

The first two books in the series, “All Mixed Up” and “Happy Birthday to Me” are now available.  The other two books (“Lost and Found” and “Playing Games”) will be available this fall.