Children’s author Derrick Barnes’ latest picture book, “I Got You,” takes him back to his roots, where his passion for storytelling began.
Barnes, who now lives with his family in Charlotte, North Carolina, grew up near Swope Park, in southeast Kansas City. He lived with his older brother, Anthony, and his mom, a certified nursing assistant who often worked two jobs.
“When we were growing up (in the 1970s and 80s), you had to imagine yourself being Luke Skywalker, or Michael Knight, or, you know, Huck Finn,” says Barnes, who is Black. “If you were a person of color, you had to imagine yourself being these characters, because there was no proper representation of you.”
That missing piece sent Barnes on a mission.
“I said: If I'm ever blessed to have the opportunity to write children's books, I want to erase that stereotype of Black boys,” he says.
Books back then often featured Black characters playing basketball, living “in the projects,” or being enslaved, he says. They were depicted as meek, and weren’t written with enough “range or space for them to just be human.”
But Barnes’ family provided encouragement and support to chart a different path.
“My mother was a hard-working woman, and she always left a warm meal,” he says. “I was a latchkey kid through elementary school, middle school, high school, and my brother was pretty much like a father figure to me. We had a lot of men in our lives — uncles, neighbors. But my brother was a constant.”
Fifth grade at Marlborough Elementary School was a “pivotal year,” he says, “not only for my writing career, but to my life.”
Barnes was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, a chronic condition that requires him to closely monitor his diet and activity. That year was also when his brother introduced him to hip-hop music.
“I knew a lot of the East Coast rappers before a lot of my friends did, so I started my own little rap group,” he says.
His teacher Miss Shelby noticed.
“She knew that hip-hop was just akin to poetry,” he says. “So she did a whole segment on the Harlem Renaissance; writers like Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes — who's my favorite writer of all time, one of my homeboys, he's from Missouri — and I just started studying everything he wrote.”
It prompted him to start writing his own stories. The first one, written shortly after watching the 1955 animated film “Lady and the Tramp,” featured dogs traveling the country in search of a magic bone.
“I was extremely shy,” he says, “other than when I was reading or when I was doing my raps out in the playground against the other fifth grade boys.”
From second grade to high school, Barnes attended different schools almost every year, including Hale Cook, Marlborough and Blenheim elementaries. Having a teacher like Miss Shelby tap into his interests helped him feel seen.
“That was my first opportunity to stand up in front of the class and share my talent,” he says. “I discovered my superpower that day: I could create characters and tell stories. And I've been writing ever since.”
A refrain of brotherly support
“I Got You” draws from Barnes’ early years, his older brother — who “introduced me to this crazy little thing called life,” he says — as well as his own experience as a father bringing up four sons with his wife, Dr. Tinka Barnes.
“I was raised without a father, but I was blessed to be the father of four amazing boys,” he says, “and I've been privileged to be able to see how their relationships have grown, and how they've created bonds over the years.”
In the book, released July 15, Anthony teaches his younger brother Rasheed how to build a tower with blocks — and then knock it down. He shows Rasheed how to ride a bike, and they brave a storm and jump in puddles.
Barnes has garnered numerous children’s book awards since his first books were published in 2004. He’s the recipient of a Newbery Honor, a Coretta Scott King Honor, the Kirkus Prize, the Ezra Jack Keats Award and a finalist for the National Book Award.
“I Got You” is illustrated by Shamar Knight-Justice, a mixed-media artist and educator, and layered with textures and patterns.
“I always try to look for people who are either outside of the children's book industry or people who just entered the children's book industry,” he says. “And I just love his use of color, his use of collage and mixed-media.”
A throughline for Barnes is uplifting the Black experience. But he also wants to continue to “write stories that everybody can see themselves in,” he says.
“I want children to understand that we have so much more in common than the things that divide us,” Barnes says. “So, I feel like that's my job, and I'm going to do that for as long as I can type.”
Derrick Barnes will discuss “I Got You” at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, July 15 at the Kansas City Public Library’s Plaza branch, 4801 Main St., Kansas City, Missouri 64112. The event is free with RSVP. More information at KCLibrary.org.
