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Francie at Frugal

by Elissa Gershowitz
Dec 10, 2018 | Filed in Articles & Opinion


On Saturday, I went to Frugal Bookstore for Francie Latour's "Auntie Luce Holiday Book Event." Francie is the author of Auntie Luce's Talking Paintings, illustrated by Ken Daley (Groundwood), inspired by Haitian artist Luce Turnier (1924-1994). She's also one half of Wee The People (with Tanya Nixon-Silberg):


Wee The People (WTP) is a Boston-based social justice project for children ages 4-12. Launched in 2015 by two Black mothers, WTP organizes free, interactive workshops and events that explore activism, resistance, and social action through the visual and performing arts: music, dance/movement, theater, graphic arts, spoken word, and storytelling.



You might have seen Francie and Wee The People at the Boston Book Festival this year -- she and illustrator Ken Daley did an Auntie Luce storytime in the library, and Wee The People held two interactive workshops called "Everywhere and Nowhere" on the theme of immigration and identity. Other workshops they facilitate include "Detecting and Decoding the Narrative in Children's Literature," "Whose Trash Is This?," "Anatomy of a Protest," and (my favorite, because my kid loves both) "Tutus for Batman."

Children's books, social justice, independent bookstores, mothers containing multitudes...what's not to love?

Elissa Gershowitz

Elissa Gershowitz is editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc. She holds an MA from the Center for the Study of Children's Literature at Simmons University and a BA from Oberlin College.

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