The goal is to teach her “to identify her feelings and use her words.”
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:Shady Babyis inspired by your daughter, Kaavia James and her nickname, Shady Baby.
What inspired you to write this specific storyShady Baby Feels?
GABRIELLE UNION:In a nutshell, her tantrums inspired it.
The fact that we just kept saying, use your words, use your words, use your words.
And it was just screaming, biting, kicking.
Turns out she’s got a great left hook.
Use your words: Are you scared?
Because it’s the most helpless feeling there is, that there’s something wrong with your kid.
You have no idea how to help or what specifically it is.
So this book is for both of us.
What is different or new about thisShady Babystory versus your first picture book,Shady Baby?
Whether that be on a playground or in your home.
This book is just to give those additional tools as they are learning language and identifying emotions.
Tell me about your writing and collaboration process with your husband, Dwyane Wade, what was that like?
Kind of like our marriage.
It’s a lot of collaboration, cooperation and compromise.
I’m not much of a big baker.
But that was one of the things, it’s an homage to his grandma.
He learned his way around the kitchen and baking through his grandmother and older female relatives.
And that’s where he learned his voice.
The book is centered around the family baking and all of the emotions that can come with that.
Is baking something you all like to do as a family?
No, we like to eat baked goods together.
Do you have any advice for parents who are navigating their child’s big emotions for the first time?
So my advice would be to get in touch with your own emotions first.
Do you lash out when you’re frustrated?
Do you tend to go quiet when you’re overwhelmed?
Then we are better equipped to lead our children.
So we can start to identify what are we really trying to say, what are we really feeling?
How are those sentiments reflected in this book?
Well, it starts young, right?
So many of our children are going into daycare and preschool.
What do you hope parents and kids take away from this book?
And you have every right to express yourself as uniquely and as articulately as you might.
What do you see next forShady Baby?
Is there another story on the horizon?
Yes, there are more adventures coming.
We’re always planning the nextShady Babyadventure and how we can get Shady Baby into more homes.
So we’re looking forward to the nextShady Babyadventure, which should be coming soon.
