Stormzy's book imprint #Merky Books announces its first children's book celebrating 50 real-life British superheroes
It publishes in September this year and will challenge the norm for representation in children’s publishing
Stormzy’s book imprint #Merky Books has announced details of its first ever children’s book.
Superheroes: Inspiring Stories of Secret Strength will be published on September 16, and celebrates over 50 iconic racialised British public figures.
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With the aim of challenging representation in children’s books, the superheroes were chosen by Stormzy and the #Merky Books team. 8% of the proceeds will also be donated to the #Merky Foundation, a charity that Stormzy has set up that will donate £10m over the next decade to different causes tackling racial inequality in the UK.
Formatted like a comic book, Superheroes is illustrated by Denzell Dankwah, a 21 year old student of illustration at the University of Gloucestershire. Dankwah got in contact with the #Merky Books team via Instagram with his comic book illustrations and has since been commissioned to illustrate Superheroes.
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The stories of each of the superheroes are written by Sophia Thakur, an award-winning performance poet, author and songwriter. The book also features an introduction by Stormzy himself.
Superheroes: Inspiring Stories of Secret Strength follows on from Stormzy’s 2019 single ‘Superheroes’, which is taken from his album ‘Heavy Is The Head’. It celebrates the strength and successes of Black people and namechecks the likes of Mallory Blackman, Venus and Serena Williams and Nina Simone.
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Some of the 50 superheroes included are Olympic athlete Dina Asher-Smith, comedian Mo Gilligan, writer Candice Carty-Williams, Bake Off’s Liam Charles, Ian Wright, scietis Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon and mode Jourdan Dunn.
Superheroes is an important book for tackling the racial inequality in representation in children’s publishing. Between 2017 and 2019, only 7% of children’s books published in the UK featured characters of colour.
Preorder Superheroes: Inspiring Stories of Secret Strength here and see a full list of all the superheroes included below.
Stormzy’s superheroes:
Afrocenchix
Anita Asante
Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE
Basma Khalifa
Benjamina Ebuehi
Bianca Saunders
Bola Agbaje
Candice Carty-Williams
Cece Philips
Charlene White
Charlie Casely-Hayford
Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE
Dr Clifford V. Johnson
Comuzi
Shaun and Craig McAnuff
Danielle Carter
Dina Asher-Smith
Downie Sisters
Drew Spence
Ebony Salmon
Emmanuelle Lhoni
Prof. Frank Chinegwundoh MBE
George The Poet
Ian Wright MBE
Ikram Abdi Omar
Inua Ellams
Jordan Jarrett-Bryan
Joshua Buatsi
Jourdan Dunn
Katarina Johnson-Thompson
Kosar Ali
Lauren James
Leomie Anderson
Liam Charles
Luol Deng
Dr Mark Richards
Maro Itoje
Michael Dapaah
Micheal Ward
Mo Gilligan
Musa Okwonga
Omari McQueen
Princess K
Rapman
Reggie Yates
Reni Eddo-Lodge
Rinsola Babajide
Riz Ahmed
The Kanneh-Masons
Tanya Compas
Temi Fagbenle
Temi Mwale
Theresa Ikoko
The Triple Cripples
William Adoasi
Yinka Ilori
Jemima Skala is Mixmag’s Weekend Editor. Follow her on Twitter
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