Tameka Fryer Brown

Is Spreading Holiday Cheer with Young Readers

by Lindsey Giardino

Tameka Fryer Brown was in a joyful holiday mood. So, what did she do? She wrote a fun story. Twelve Dinging Doorbells, illustrated by Ebony Glenn, celebrates Black family gatherings and is patterned after the Twelve Days of Christmas.

“There is a hashtag that I like to search out every year as the winter holiday season approaches: #ThanksgivingWithBlackFamilies,” Tameka explains. “I love to look at all the memes associated with it, just to laugh and feel in community with Black folks all over the country about the many things our families and get-togethers have in common.”

The cumulative all-holiday carol that is Twelve Dinging Doorbells shares these themes of family, food, love, and Black joy. The main character in the book loves getting together with aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and neighbors for holidays. But all she can think about is the sweet potato pie Granny makes just for her. 

As tables fill with baked macaroni and cheese, chitlins, and other sides a-steaming, she and Granny move the pie to keep it intact. The task becomes trickier as the room grows with dancing and card games and pie cravings. Just when all seems lost and there’s no more pie, Granny pulls out a sweet surprise.

In all of her picture books—seven to date—Tameka’s identity shines through. “I don’t know how anyone can tell stories without bringing all of who they are to what they create,” she says. “Our stories emanate from our lived experiences, our observations, our contemplations, our emotions. Whatever I write is intersectional to me on the page.”

In addition to Twelve Dinging Doorbells, Tameka had two other books put out around the same time. Not Done Yet: Shirley Chisholm’s Fight for Change is her first nonfiction book and highlights the traits and experiences that led Congresswoman Chisholm to become a trailblazing changemaker. “Her legacy continues to inspire us today,” Tameka says.

Tameka says she was motivated to tell Chisholm’s story after an author friend alerted her to an editor’s tweet requesting a picture biography about her. At that point, there weren’t any other picture books about Chisholm, and Tameka thought it was a fabulous idea. 

“But I also believed fiction picture books were my lane and I needed to stay in it,” she says. “Fortunately for me, though, once the seed was planted, it never went away. It took me a few years to figure out how to effectively tell her story, but I guess I finally did because somebody bought it, and now I have my first nonfiction book, baby!”

Tameka’s That Flag, which is the story of best friends divided over the meaning and significance of the Confederate flag, will publish in January 2023. “I was inspired to write it in 2015 after nine church members were massacred at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, by a Confederate flag-flaunting white supremacist who was trying to start a race war,” she shares. 

In 2024, You Are (Ode to a Big Kid) will publish, which honors a child’s increasing independence. Other projects are in the works, too. One of Tameka’s biggest hopes is that she can hone her artistic skills enough to someday illustrate her own book as well.

Being able to live out her creative side is something Tameka never thought she’d be able to do. “When I was growing up, there were certain jobs you were supposed to aspire to if you wanted to be successful: a doctor, a lawyer, a businessperson, a scientist,” she shares. “Creative jobs were nowhere on that list, so they weren’t on my radar. I got my business degree and accepted a job as a medical supplies sales rep.”

Tameka later stayed home with her three kids and needed something outside of being a mom that she could focus on. “I had also been thinking a lot about legacy and accomplishing something that would survive me and, hopefully, make my kids proud,” she says. “One day, as I was reading a picture book to my youngest, the idea hit me—I can write picture books!”

That she can. And when it comes to her writing process, Tameka best describes it as “one word at a time.”

For more information about Tameka Fryer Brown and her books, visit tamekafryerbrown.com.