Wednesday Wilson
Wednesday Wilson is so dear to my heart. The idea for the book came many years ago, when my boys (who are of mixed-race) were watching a Wimpy Kid movie, and asked, “why do you never see the inside of someone’s house unless they are white?” As a white person, I had a serious unconscious racial bias, where I never even thought of this, or the implications, due to the privilege of ALWAYS seeing myself reflected in media (books, movies, television). My young boys immediately thought it was because other people’s houses were dirty, or maybe they didn’t have a house at all. They opened my eyes to this problem, and I told them from that point on, I would use my platform as an author to amplify their voices and their experiences.
Very embarrassing mom-made-collage of my two muses/co-authors and the Wednesday Wilson Crew!
It was also around the same time that my younger son was being bullied at school, for everything from the colour of his skin, to the rainbows on his shoelaces, and the fact that he didn’t look like me. He thought he didn’t belong at school, or anywhere really. Sometimes he would take the day off for a Mental Health Day, and he’d watch Shark Tank and Dragon’s Den while I worked beside him (you will get the implications of this when you read the book!). These days allowed us to have conversations, and dream up all the ways in which we could celebrate everything that made him the amazing person he was (and is).
I started to write Wednesday Wilson with and for my boys, asking them to play a key role in character and dialogue development, editing, and in giving me the inside-the-school scoop. They lent their voices and ideas to the entire series, as I would always fall short of having an authentic voice for their lived experiences. One of their main goals was to share a protagonist who is mixed-race like them, but doesn’t have to exist as the spokesperson to educate people on the non-white experience, and could instead be a regular kid, a hero because of all the hero-like qualities they possess… or, as they put it, “be a normal kid, like in all the other books in the world.”
The process was cathartic (a fancy word for something that takes the bad feelings away). I will always look at Wednesday and Mister and see my children reflected on the page, and they will know their mom brought their stories to life.
Available at all major retailers: Amazon, Chapters, etc., at the Kids Can Press online store, and at your local bookshop!
Meet Wednesday!
Wednesday Wilson is an entrepreneur in the making. She is committed to becoming a kid-millionaire, and is never short of ideas on which business to start next.
I have been so fortunate in the process of writing this series to have worked in the classroom brainstorming ideas with kids from grades 1-4 on what kinds of businesses Wednesday should start. It’s been eye-opening to say the least!
Each character in the book is based loosely (and sometimes tightly!) on people in my life. They are also based in two kinds of research: Primary (real-life interviews/workshops), and Secondary (learning from other people’s research). I am lucky to pay homage to the amazing people I know, who emit love, thoughtfulness, and kindness above all else.
Here are a few things I learned while writing:
Do the research!
I ALWAYS defer to those in a better position to speak on a subject than me, and while developing my characters, I sought out many kinds of research, including articles in popular culture magazines, articles from inclusive organizations, and scholarly theses. I love learning, especially from those who are immersed in research that aims to support and amplify the voices of others.
Know the facts!
Please check this out! Diversity in Children’s Books 2018. sarahpark.com blog. Created in consultation with Edith Campbell, Molly Beth Griffin, K. T. Horning, Debbie Reese, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, and Madeline Tyner, with statistics compiled by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Avoid the tropes!
Literary tropes are plot devices or character attributes that are used so commonly that they become to be seen as commonplace or conventional. Some are useful, but some can be very dangerous, and can harm certain groups. I am thankful I was called-out by my editor at Kids Can Press when I wasn’t as aware as I should have been in some instances.
Who helped me write these books?
Meet my co-authors, no-nonsense editors, & inspiring muses, Dario + Oakland!
DARIO on helping write the Wednesday Wilson series: “It was important for me to help my mom write this book because when I was younger, I didn’t like how Chirag was the ONLY person of colour in the Wimpy Kid series, and he was basically a caricature, he didn’t have an accent in real life. I was annoyed he couldn’t just be portrayed as everyone else was. He always had to be the one that was “different”.
I wanted there to be a book about a kid who wasn’t white, and they didn’t just exist to either educate people on their background, or to be portrayed as a stereotype. That’s something that’s never done to a white character.”
OAKLAND on helping write the Wednesday Wilson series: “I wanted to write this book with my mom because I wanted there to be book that white kids would read and they could see things about the main character that they saw in themselves, and realize how alike we all are. I didn’t want it to be a book that felt like a lesson on being non-white because that’s not what kids want to read all the time and also those books sometimes make me uncomfortable because people ask me to confirm things or they make generalizations that all people with brown-skin have the same experiences.
It was important for me to help my mom with this book because I want to see all kids pick up this book and think Wednesday is a strong person with a mind of her own, and she has a ton of ideas and a great family that supports her to go far in life, and she’s mixed-race, like me.”
If you like making money, inventing things, pizza trucks, & bearded dragons, this series is for you!
The first two editions of the Wednesday Wilson series, Wednesday Wilson Gets Down to Business, and Wednesday Wilson Fixes All Your Problems are out now!
Meet the illustrator, Morgan Goble!
Morgan is an illustrator living in Oakville, Ontario with her husband and their cat, Noni. She’s been drawing since she could first hold a crayon, and now that she’s all grown-up, she’s happy to be working on several book projects and character design work.
Visit Morgan’s website to learn more about her awesome style, and to see more of her work!