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| Bernette Ford | |
Bernette Ford, "who as an author and editor was a leading advocate of making children's books more diverse and making sure that people of color had opportunities to write and illustrate them," died June 20, the New York Times reported. She was 70. Ford, whose résumé included vice-presidencies at Grosset & Dunlap and then at Scholastic Books, where she founded the Cartwheel imprint in 1991, "was among the first Black executives at a major children's book publisher. In 2002 she formed her own company, Color-Bridge Books, which consulted on and packaged a range of books for young people."
Ford wrote or collaborated on several children's books, including Bright Eyes, Brown Skin, written with Cheryl Willis Hudson and illustrated by Ford's husband, George Ford. Published in 1990 by Just Us Books, a company founded by Hudson and her husband, Wade, the book was written in verse and featured images of four Black children doing ordinary things. The Times noted that with "its Black characters and subtle emphasis on Black pride, it was the kind of book that would have been hard to find just a few years earlier."
As head of Cartwheel, Ford was responsible for bestsellers like the Clifford the Big Red Dog books and the "I Spy" series. Her own writing included books for the very young that used animal characters, including No More Pacifier for Piggy! and No More Blanket for Lambkin!, but "with Color-Bridge Books, she was particularly interested in books with diverse characters that were written and illustrated by people of color," the Times wrote. One series she created, called Just for You!, featured both established authors and relative newcomers.
Wade Hudson called Ford "an unsung hero in the push to bring more people of color into children's book publishing."
After graduating from Connecticut College in 1972, Ford worked as an editorial assistant at Random House, rising to senior editor and then becoming editorial director at Golden Books before moving to Grosset & Dunlap. In 1989, she joined Scholastic.
Grace Maccarone, who is now executive editor at Holiday House, was among those assigned to Ford's staff when she was given charge of the Cartwheel imprint. "She was really great at pulling great work out of people," Maccarone recalled, "not only her staff, but also the authors and illustrators she worked with. If you had a weakness, she worked with you on it." Maccarone "now gets to complete the circle" by posthumously publishing Ford's picture book Uncle John's City Garden, which is due to be released next year.