The authors of a new book, developed for pre-K and elementary-aged children, aim to dispel prejudices about race by talking about the science behind skin color. The book, It’s Just Skin, Silly!, is the product of a collaboration between author Dr. Nina Jablonski, author Dr. Holly Y. McGee, and illustrator Karen Vermeulen.

Jablonski has taught anthropology at Penn State University since 2006; she was named to an Evan Pugh university professorship in 2014, and is retiring this summer from active teaching at PSU. McGee is a history professor at the University of Cincinnati, where she focuses on narratives around the concept of race in modern society. Vermeulen lives in Cape Town, South Africa, where she teaches and practices art and illustration.

The book uses an engaging tone as it introduces its narrator, Epi Dermis. This patch of skin, which is colored in an ombre style from pale to dark, tells young readers about prehistoric humans, whose deeply pigmented skin protected them from the direct rays of the sun in the region of Africa where Homo sapiens originated. The story blends science and social commentary, explaining the role of the skin pigment melanin and noting, “Skin color can only tell you where someone or their ancestors have been living, not what kind of person they are,” and, “The only link between different shades of skin color is latitude – not attitude.”

Several years ago, Jablonski worked with author Sindiwe Magona and illustrator Lynn Fellman to create a book for South African children, Skin we are in, about the evolution of skin color. When she wanted to write a similar book for US audiences, Jessica Powers of Catalyst Press introduced her to McGee, then helped the pair find Vermeulen.

“I’m not a children’s book author,” Jablonski says. “I give Holly [McGee] full credit for the nature of this work, because the character Epi is […] lively and upbeat and has something interesting to say.” Their collaboration used both writers’ strengths: “I wrote out a simple narrative about the importance of sweating, the importance of melanin, and all of that, but it’s Holly who made this book sing.”

Illustrator Vermeulen understood the writers’ desire to have Epi not take a single human form or a single color. “The pages are uncrowded,” Jablonski notes. “Epi takes center stage, and if you look deeply into it, you realize, Epi isn’t any one of us – Epi is all of us.”

The motivation to write the book came from Jablonski’s desire to share the scientific knowledge of her core area of research with children at an age when this information can protect them against developing racial prejudices. Jablonski hopes that children who grow up understanding the biological and evolutionary basis of skin color will be able to talk honestly and openly about the historical background of the concept of “race,” and will recognize the inherent, functional beauty of every skin tone. “I play the long game in my work,” she says. “I count on the fact that the kids who will read this book, when they grow up, and are in influential positions, things will be different. It has taken us 300 years to get into this profound mess of a racialized and racist world […] If we don’t work to get out of it, we will continue to reinvent incorrect scientific ideas, biological misconceptions, and misperceptions about how people behave.”