About the Book
Book: Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown
Author: Xochitl Dixon
Genre: Children’s Picture Book
Release date: October 1, 2024
Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown, follows a young boy on a joyously affirming adventure that celebrates all shades of brown, from the darkest to the lightest.
From new school desks to freckles and moles, from fresh pastries to cedar canoes, brown is everywhere around us. God created and used brown to color the giant California redwoods, the Grand Canyon walls, busy beavers building dams, great horned owls hoo-hooing, and his image-bearers.
Everywhere that I go
I’m searching to see
something wonderfully, marvelously
brown—just like you and like me!
Illustrated by Pura Belpré Honor Award artist Sara Palacios and written by Xochitl Dixon, Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown takes kids on a tour of the U.S. to seek and find all the brilliant and beautiful shades of brown—from ivory to ebony—that God created. Readers will be encouraged to love the skin tone God chose for them as they observe how the spectacular shades of brown are reflected in their communities and the world around them.
Click here to get your copy!
About the Author
More from Xochitl
I’m a first-generation Mexican American raised by Spanish-speaking immigrant grandparents and parents, who taught me to be invisible and believed assimilation would lead to a better life for me. The racism and colorism I experienced throughout my life caused me to grapple with my identity, self-worth, and my sense of belonging. However, I was in third grade the first time I stood against injustice. In my teen years, my passion for celebrating ethnic diversity and standing against injustice while advocating for disability awareness and inclusion grew.
Then, in 1994, I married a man who shared my passions. As a first-generation Mexican American raised by immigrant parents and grandparents, a wife to a Black man, a stepmother to a Black son, and a mother of a biracial son, my commitment to stand against racial injustice became even more personal.
I submitted my life to Christ in 2001 and began asking the Holy Spirit to make me more like Jesus. That same year, after a student used a racial slur toward our biracial son, I wrote Different Like Me.
As God empowered me to love Him and my neighbors with a healthy and holy perspective, God began to grow our beautifully diverse family. My youngest granddaughter, whose father is Black, shared that kids teased her because she doesn’t look like her sisters, who share the same white father. I assured her that the melanin God uses to color all skin is brown, from the lightest to the darkest shades. Then, I told her that I would be writing Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown.
In 2020, Our Daily Bread published Different Like Me. As I edited What Color is God’s Love? and Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown, God continued affirming that He did not create the divisive and oppressive systems that label His image-bearers as “white” or “black” and feed the ignorance of racism or colorism. Instead, He designed melanin to include every spectacular shade of brown from the darkest ebony to the lightest ivory, even in those He created with birth marks, vitiligo, and albinism.
God intentionally selected every skin tone for every person He created and loves, His image-bearers. He calls every shade of brown good, including the shade of brown He used when He created you and me. As we celebrate our God-designed ethnic diversity, we can share the Good News of Jesus Christ as we love God and all our neighbors together.
Blog Stops
Simple Harvest Reads, October 28 (Author Interview)
Library Lady’s Kid Lit, October 29
Lots of Helpers, October 30
Guild Master, October 31 (Author Interview)
Vicky Sluiter, November 1
Leslie’s Library Escape, November 1
Texas Book-aholic, November 2
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, November 3
Fiction Book Lover, November 4 (Author Interview)
Mary Hake, November 4
Happily Managing a Household of Boys, November 5
Locks, Hooks and Books, November 6
A Reader’s Brain, November 7 (Author Interview)
Artistic Nobody, November 8
Labor Not in Vain, November 9
Life on Chickadee Lane, November 10
Giveaway
To celebrate her tour, Xochitl is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon card and a signed copy of the book!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/00adcf5480/
My Review
Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown by Xochitl Dixon is a sweet little book. It shows different things that brown just like humans who are also, brown. It was fun travelling all over from land to sea, forest to river, and mountains to ranches to see what else are brown all around me. I thought it was a cute little book to read and enjoyed it.
Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown by Xochitl Dixon is beautifully illustrated by the talented Sara Palacios. The pictures helped bring the story to life. I loved seeing a visual of it.
Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown by Xochitl Dixon is no doubt a five star read. I believe that readers between the ages of three and seven.
I received a hard cover copy of Xochitl Dixon's Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown from the publisher, but was not required to write a positive review. This review is one hundred percent my own honest opinion.
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