Guest Post by Catie Santos de la Rosa
Saturday Magic Review by Classroom Educator Catie Santos de la Rosa
Saturday Magic is an invitation to the deeply spiritual and steeped traditions of generational veneration through the normalized joy and community of young Dayo. It is the book I will buy for both children raised in deep historical connection to those who came before and those families who yearn to do so. It is the gift I will give to celebrate Black Joy for BIPOC children and their allies authentically. It is the book I will give to other teachers who, like me, have that special box full of books that create the revenant moment of silence as words and illustrations wrap around the imagination of five-year-olds during a read-aloud. This is one of those books you make space for in that special classroom library box!
There is so much to love about this book, but what makes it magic for me is the centering of childhood as part of Dayo’s lived experience, the depth of Black Joy celebrated in every illustration and detail, and the not just normalizing but authentic honoring of generational veneration in this book. As you journey through young Dayo’s Saturday, you feel these elements of magic.
The Magic of Childhood
Dayo is the central character in Saturday Magic. Her/his/their day starts with a dream she/he/they tries to hold onto as she/he/they awake as a yellow bird matching the one in her/his/their dream follows her/his/their throughout her/his/their day. Dayo is wrapped in community, love, and adventure in the book. Authors Nyasha Williams and her Mother-in-Love, Kenda Bel-Spruill, normalize their agency in the world, and the care is given to ensure they can navigate the world with curiosity and confidence. Dayo’s curiosity is treated as important to adults, and she is given the freedom and safety to explore and learn. Dayo is given space to express her/his/their excitement, to showcase the abundance of her/his/their community, and both give and receive tokens of love. Dayo gets to build meaning for herself with the wisdom and support of those around her/him/them. All children deserve this childhood. I closed the book knowing that Dayo gets the soft childhood that will keep her/his/their curiosity alive and the community that will uphold her/his/their dreams as important. I may have also closed the book with misty eyes, but what can I say other than I am a Pisces with a tender heart and a soft spot for children’s books my students can see themselves in?
The Magic of the Illustrations and the Assumption of Black Joy
Each page of Saturday Magic echoes with the magic put forth by the authors’ vivid imagination, and in this case, also the illustrators’ nuanced and simultaneously bold and delicate artwork. The illustrations in Saturday Magicfeel like illustrator Sawyer Cloud dipped each page in whimsy and sprinkled it with depth and texture. The stylistic choice made for layering the illustrations with bold and bright patterns of kente reflects the connection between past and present. The small moments of Dayo happen with backdrops of centuries-old fabric prints that live on both the bodies and walls of the homes in which Dayo finds community. The past and present sit simultaneously interconnected as Dayo navigates her/his/their world. The illustrations assume Black Joy as an integral and natural part of Dayo’s life. I love to see space made for the small moments of joy to represent the BIPOC experience! This normalization of Black Joy showcases everything from waking up and going to bed in a bonnet, morning affirmations, Dad cooking perfectly golden hoecakes, sharing abundance through food grown in home gardens, and communal care. Cloud showcases these moments of joy with illustrations that vibrantly showcase textiles as artwork woven into life, demonstrating attention to hair texture, facial freckles, and layers of rich detail that show both Dayo’s home and her friend Anaya’s homes as exuding abundance and love. While illustrations often further the written word of a book, the illustrations and story here symbiotically assume that Black Joy in Dayo’s lived experience is so deeply embedded in her life that part of the magic you experience is in the space it makes for joy to be the whole story. That is not something I see often enough in books that center on BIPOC characters, and the magic the reader feels in reading Saturday Magic comes from Dayo’s story being told unapologetically with delight.
The Magic of the Hoodoo- ”The Ancestors are always with you!”
Hoodoo is broadly an expression of centuries of rich connection to multiple African spiritualities and indigenous botanical knowledge, as well as having been passed down by enslaved African Americans in resistance to the slave trade that sought to dehumanize and separate enslaved people from their spirituality. Nyasha Williams and Kenda Bell-Spruill show rather than tell Hoodoo as traditions, beliefs, and practices. Saturday Magic treats the Hoodoo traditions as both nuanced and every day, making clear that the spiritual practices, beliefs, and traditions are opportunities to connect and deepen bonds to the Ancestors and yourself. Rather than living in only a romantic or idealized spirituality, the authors capture the splendor of living it through action. Throughout her/his/their day, Dayo engages with moment after moment of a lived practice and the knowledge that with the support of her family and community, she can discover, build relationships with, and be guided by the Ancestors. The offerings at the altar, the cleaning away of the bad energies, and the botanical and apothecary elements, i.e., cowrie shells lining the mirror, camphor, etc., are some of the Hoodoo traditions that serve to enrich Dayo’s link to the generational wisdom of her/his/their community, past and present. Much like the woven fabric of the prominent kente, so is the profoundly spiritual link woven into life for Dayo as she practices and honors the traditions of Hoodoo. This matters because it serves as a decolonized space for spirituality and communal relationships to grow over time and through experience passed down from generation to generation. Knowledge is not gatekept or static; it is empowerment in small moments of magic when members of the community teach one another with love and care and when space is made for discernment. Dayo discovers that the ancestors are truly always with you!
I see the beauty and richness of Saturday Magic again, not just for those who already practice Hoodoo but also for those who yearn to feel connected to generations that have come before, for those who want to include Black Joy in the children’s experience of the world, and for the educators out there who want to ensure that the books we read kids show them at least snippets of decolonization of an unjust world.
Interested in learning more about why textiles should be acknowledged as art…
Author of Post: Catie Santos de la Rosa