Black Is Brown Is Tan Arnold Adoff (Author), Emily Arnold McCully (Illustrator) First published in 1973, this book marked the first acknowledgment of an interracial family in children's book publishing. The author uses lyrical text--an African American mother, "the skin color of chocolate," and a Caucasian father, "who's skin is not white, but light in color with tans and pinks and all the colors of the rainbow,"--to paint a portrait of a loving and natural family setting. McCully has updated the illustrations with watercolor paintings to show the brown-skinned momma, the white daddy, and the two children in a 21st-century setting. [Grade Level: 1 - 3]
