About the book
Tiny Teal Learns to Color: A Little Crayon’s Search for Purpose is a children’s picture book. It is full of poetry and introduces diversity from the lens of a colorful character. Tiny Teal is a young crayon. His mom is blue, and his dad is green, but he is something in between. At home, he always feels out of place. Will Tiny Teal ever find anything he can color?
Why did I write this book?
I wrote this book because I wanted to share Tiny Teal's story to help families of all sorts and shades have meaningful discussions. When people have children, genetics, lifestyles, and sometimes cultures, religions, and ethnicities can blend. Growing up as a brown-skinned kid, I identified as Black as long as I could remember, but I always knew that my family was different. My father's lineage spans the African Diaspora—he's from Brooklyn, New York by way of Virginia, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic. My mother is from the Bay Area in California, but she traces her ancestry to the Philippines, France, and the Indigenous Arctic. Debates (and by that, I mean teasing) around race and color started at a very early age, yet I never felt equipped to have these conversations. Books like this one about Tiny Teal are the stories I wish I had as a kid to understand and appreciate diversity.
I also wrote this book with and for my children. I want them to discover their identity instead of allowing it to be impressed upon them by others. As a bedtime creative exercise with my little ones, I asked them what Tiny Teal would do and where he would go for many nights. I used this story to stir their imagination and to play with verse.
Lastly, I wrote Tiny Teal to remind my children, me, and other readers that they can become whatever they want to be, and there is no limit on the number of amazing places you can go to in your life. Whether you're a child, a parent, an uncle, cousin or grandmother, you can still chase your dreams and discover all the things God has created you to be.
About the Author
Searching for purpose, like Tiny Teal..
Semaj Rashad was born in Oakland, California and raised in P.G. County, Maryland. He is a husband and father to his two little boys. Inspired by his childhood and raising his sons, Tiny Teal Learns to Color: A Little Crayon's Search for Purpose is his debut children’s book.
Semaj is also a man in search of his purpose. As an engineer, he turned his love for solving problems into a career helping organizations address worldwide dilemmas as a strategy and technology consultant. He has also used his creative voice to write for a family and parenting blog, Living as we Are, the On Success blog for the Washington Post, and co-hosted the Men Toward Fathers podcast to educate, train, and equip men to become effective leaders and fathers.