Karen Vermeulen – illustratör

A 2024 Skipping Stones Honor Award WinnerHi!! I'm Epi Dermis, but my friends just call me Skin!Raise your hands if you sweat, tan, itch, have hair, or have freckles! I've been feeling pretty sensitive lately because everybody has something to say about me. But people don't always tell the truth.My color doesn't make me fast, strong, smart, or scary. I just want to shout, "It's just skin, silly!" "[A]n irresistibly brilliant, pitch-perfect page-turner that should be a must-read in every Pre-K and Elementary School in our country." — Henry Louis Gates JrAn illustrated children's book on the evolution of skin color, based on a collective 40+ years of peer-reviewed research from expert anthropologist Dr. Nina Jablonski and historian Dr. Holly Y. McGee, with a special foreword from celebrated literary critic and historian Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.Meet Epi Dermis, your kid's quirky, clever guide to the origin of skin color! Using simple science and interactive activities, Epi takes readers on an adventure through human history to find out why skin is the hardest working organ in the body business. Whether it’s how migration and climate changed our skin's need for melanin, to why sweat is your body’s secret superpower, Epi’s got all the facts—and uses them to challenge false narratives about race and give kids the information they need to do the same.

A Skipping Stones Winner, 2024Hi!! I'm Epi Dermis, but my friends just call me Skin!Raise your hands if you sweat, tan, itch, have hair, or have freckles!  I've been feeling pretty sensitive lately because everybody has something to say about me. But people don't always tell the truth.My color doesn't make me fast, strong, smart, or scary. I just want to shout, "It's just skin, silly!" "[A]n irresistibly brilliant, pitch-perfect page-turner that should be a must-read in every Pre-K and Elementary School in our country." — Henry Louis Gates JrAn illustrated children's book on the evolution of skin color, based on a collective 40+ years of peer-reviewed research from expert anthropologist Dr. Nina Jablonski and historian Dr. Holly Y. McGee, with a special foreword from celebrated literary critic and historian Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.Meet Epi Dermis, your kid's quirky, clever guide to the origin of skin color! Using simple science and interactive activities, Epi takes readers on an adventure through human history to find out why skin is the hardest working organ in the body business. Whether it’s how migration and climate changed our skin's need for melanin, to why sweat is your body’s secret superpower, Epi’s got all the facts—and uses them to challenge false narratives about race and give kids the information they need to do the same.

Jou velkleur maak jou nie vinnig, sterk, slim of gevaarlik nie. Ek wil sommer skree: “Dis net vel, my pel!”’n Geïllustreerde kinderboek oor die evolusie van velkleur, gebaseer op navorsing deur die antropoloog dr. Nina Jablonski en die historikus dr. Holly Y. McGee. Saam beskik hulle oor meer as 40 jaar se kennis wat spruit uit hul akademiese werk wat deur ewekniebeoordelaars nagegaan is.Ontmoet vir Epi Dermis! Epi se ander naam is “Vel”. Epi sal jou mooi vertel hoekom ons velle verskillende kleure het.Epi sal die wetenskap van velkleur op ’n eenvoudige manier verduidelik. Epi is die orgaan in die liggaam wat die hardste werk! Laat Epi toe om aan jou te verduidelik hoekom sweet jou liggaam se geheime superkrag is! Saam met Epi sal ons die geskiedenis van velkleur ondersoek en uitvind waarom velkleur nie jou gedrag beïnvloed nie.In Afrikaans vertaal deur Izak de Vries, met ’n voorwoord deur Michael Jonas, direkteur van die Afrikaanse Taalmonument en -museum.

A 2022 Skipping Stones Honor AwardeeNamed a Best Middle-Grade Book of 2020 by Kirkus Reviews2021 Outstanding International Books List, United States Board on Books for Young PeopleMercy lives in modern-day Pietermaritzburg, South Africa with her eccentric foster aunts—two elderly sisters so poor, they can only afford one lightbulb. A nasty housing developer is eying their house. And that same house suddenly starts falling apart—just as Aunt Flora starts falling apart. She’s forgetting words, names, and even how to behave in public. Mercy tries to keep her head down at school so nobody notices her. But when a classmate frames her for stealing the school’s raffle money, Mercy's teachers decide to take a closer look at her home life.Along comes Mr. Singh, who rents the back cottage of the house on Hodson Road. When he takes Mercy to visit a statue in the middle of the city, she learns that the shy, nervous “Mohandas” he tells stories about is actually Gandhi, who spent a cold and lonely night in the waiting room of the Pietermaritzburg train station over a hundred years ago. It marked the beginning of his life’s quest for truth…and the visit to his statue marks Mercy’s realization that she needs—just like Gandhi—to stand up for herself.Mercy needs a miracle. But to summon that miracle, she has to find her voice and tell the truth—and that truth is neither pure nor simple.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard SelectionA CBC Spring 2024 Showcase SelectionNo matter where she goes, or how big she grows, Wanjikũ knows her name.Librarian Favorites: Third to Fifth GradeIn the lush Kenyan countryside, a young Gikũyũ girl helps her grandmother with daily tasks. Here, as she tends to the cows, carries water, and plays in the fruit trees and sugarcane, she is called Wanjikũ.On the busy city streets of Nairobi, where she goes to school, she is called by her English name, Catherine. But at home with Wangarĩ, the maid who cooks and cares for her, she is again Wanjikũ.All grown up in boarding school, Catherine is the leader of her class, surrounded by friends from different cultural backgrounds. But at night, when she gathers with her fellow Gikũyũ sisters to speak her mother tongue, she is Wanjikũ once more.Gloriously illustrated, alive with the joie de vivre of girlhood, and based on the author's own beloved childhood memories, Wanjikũ, Child of Mine is an ode to the heritage that walks alongside us, and a love song for the sisters we make on the journey.

2026 Moonbeam Awards Silver Medalist – Family CategoryThe magical Council of Aunties are the only ones who can decide if Max and Meera can adopt a baby of their very own. To prove they can become parents, Max and Meera must complete three challenges–collect enough joy, love, and hope for the Aunties. Each task seems overwhelming, but a child is waiting, and they are determined to be ready, too.Everyday Magic is inspired by the adoption process, and recreates it in this fairytale, about what it means to build a family.

You know when I sitYou know when I standYou know every move I makeGod knows everything about you.God delights in you and watches over you for good.This powerful, poetic retelling of David’s beloved Psalm 139 encourages kids and adults alike in their spiritual journeys with an all-powerful, all-perceptive God.