Brown-skinned mama, the color of chocolate milk and pumpkin pie.
White-skinned daddy, not the color of milk or snow, but light with pinks
and tiny tans. And their two children, the beautiful colors of both.
For an all-American family, full of joy, warmth, and love, this is
the way it is for us / this is the way we are
When it was first published in 1973, black is brown is tan featured
the first interracial family in children's books. Decades later, Arnold
Adoff's and Emily Arnold McCully's picture book continues to offer a
joyous and loving celebration of all the colors of the race, now newly
embellished with bright watercolor paintings that depict a contemporary
family of the twenty-first century.
And the chorus rings true as ever:
black is brown is tan
is girl is boy
is nose is face
is all the colors of the race