Going Down Home with Daddy by Kelly Starling Lyons & illustrated by Daniel Minter | Beautiful Blackbird Children's Book Festival

Going Down Home With Daddy

By Kelly Starling Lyons & illustrated by Daniel Minter

“On reunion morning, we rise before the sun. Daddy hums as he packs our car with suitcases and a cooler full of snacks. He says there’s nothing like going down home.”

Down home is Granny’s house. Down home is where Lil Alan and his parents and sister will join great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Down home is where Lil Alan will hear stories of the ancestors and visit the land that has meant so much to all of them. And down home is where all of the children will find their special way to pay tribute to family history. All the kids have to decide on what tribute to share, but what will Lil Alan do?

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Kelly Starling Lyons &

Daniel Minter

Kelly Starling Lyons is a former journalist and the author numerous books for young readers including One More Dino on the Floor, Hope’s Gift, Ellen’s Broom, and the Jada Jones series.

Daniel Minter is a multi-disciplinary, painter, assemblage artist, illustrator, 2020 recipient of the Caldecott Medal and 2021 Joyce Award recipient. He is the illustrator of over fifteen books for children, including Going Down Home with Daddy, The Women who Caught the Babies and Ellen’s Broom, for which he received a Coretta Scott King Illustration Honor Award.

Minter’s work has enjoyed national and international recognition, with exhibitions being shown at venues such as the Seattle Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, Bates College, Hammonds House Museum, Northwest African American Art Museum, Portland Museum of Art to name a few. He lived in Chicago and Brooklyn before moving to Portland, where he now resides with his wife, Marcia. Together, they are the co-founders and creative visionaries of Indigo Arts Alliance.