Here it is!  The coloring book you’ve been waiting for!  Twenty-nine fun-filled pages of African American history and heritage! This coloring book is incomparable to others—it captures the child’s attention while helping him/her develop self-esteem, explore new ideas, learn more about their heritage, and encourage intellectual growth and development at an early age. 

The Origin of The Black Crayon

In 2002, while working at a daycare center, Erinn Sneed noticed that most African American children knew very little about their history.  In order to help children learn more about their rich and diverse culture, Erinn began drawing pictures for them to color, so as to help them learn about themselves and their heritage, while having fun.  When the children began coloring images of the Ankh symbol, pyramids, the Nile River, and other historical and cultural symbols, they became curious about what the symbols meant.  From these and other developments, Erinn knew this activity could be a useful tool for education and enlightenment.

It became Erinn’s burning desire to help African American children learn about their culture and improve their self-image through the simple, fun format of coloring book. This is the first coloring book in a series of the same name, The Black Crayon. This unique book exposes children to black inventors, highlights cultural traditions like Kwanzaa, and provides exciting activities such as word puzzles.

Captions help explain the images and spark the children’s imagination to encourage further exploration. In the author’s research on African American coloring books for children, she found that most coloring books depict historical figures, cartoon characters, animals or movie characters, but few show images of black children. The Black Crayon gives children tangible images with which they can identify. This coloring book is “picture perfect” to help parents and children turn off movies, video games, and TV to relax in a quiet love-filled, room enjoying precious moments together. Look for future publications in The Black Crayon series.