Kaavia James, Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union’s baby girl, keeps us smiling when she pops up on social media. Now, we have the chance to further support her through the book Shady Baby, which was released May 18 through Harper Collins Publishing.
Kaavia was born in 2018 and has garnered a social media following of 1.7 million.
“This is our first children’s book we did together and we’re so excited for the world to read Shady Baby,” Wade and Union shared with People in a statement. “Inspired by our daughter, Kaavia James, we wanted to create a children’s book that not only had a little Black girl as the main character but that also reflects the global community we live in.”
The duo has written two books each–Wade penned A Father First: How My Life Became Bigger Than Basketball (2012) and Dwyane (2020). In 2017, Union’s debut book, We’re Going to Need More Wine: Stories That Are Funny, Complicated was released. She also debuted a picture book called Welcome to the Party in 2020.
In Shady Baby, Kaavia sees some children being picked on and she springs into action, holding firmly to her belief of doing what’s right. The story was illustrated by Tara Nicole Whitaker, who is also currently working as a director of the Proud Family reboot.
Understanding how important it is for Black children to see themselves reflected in literature, Wade and Union allowed Kaavia to serve as the inspiration for the special book. In the aforementioned statement, the family also expressed how they wanted to switch up the connotation that “shady” has. “We hope to give the word ‘shady’ a more positive association and use it to represent one’s moral compass to do the right thing and stand up for themselves and others,” they shared. “It’s important that little Black girls and boys get to see themselves in these fairy tales and for children of other races to see us in leadership roles.”
Order Shady Baby here.