In a world that continues to grapple with racial inequality, children’s books light the way for new generations to learn the value of differences from a young age. We will be talking to an author, Cerina Vincent, who strove to provide that education in her new release, Everybody Has A Belly Button—written on the day of George Floyd’s death.
About Cerina Vincent:
Vincent had acting roles to her name before she had books. She is known for starring as Maya in the television series Power Rangers Lost Galaxy and appearing more recently as Suzy Diaz in Disney Channel’s Stuck in the Middle. Her reach extends to adult audiences as well, with performances in comedies such as Not Another Teen Movie and horror films such as Cabin Fever.
She published a self-help book series with author Jodi Lipper starting with How to Eat Like a Hot Chick in 2007, followed by Hot to Love Like a Hot Chick and Live Like a Hot Chick. She became a mother in 2019, an experience she drew from when writing Everybody Has a Belly Button, her first published children’s book.
About Everybody Has a Belly Button:
Everybody Has a Belly Button uses rhymes and the artist Zoi Hunter’s digital watercolor illustrations to teach babies and toddlers about skin color and equality in conjunction with their body parts. The book states that everyone has eyes, hair, and skin, and the differences between people’s features “make everybody special, like a rainbow.”
Vincent said in her parenting podcast, Raising Amazing, that she was inspired to write the book when she saw the killing of George Floyd on television while feeding her son Nico, who was learning his body parts at the time. Tomorrow, we will be speaking with the author about her experience creating Everybody Has a Belly Button and the ways her writing connects to her life as an actress.
Join us on Thursday, April 14th at 3 PM ET/12 PM PT on @bookstrofficial for the Instagram Live.