Keeping on: Toni Trent Parker's legacy is the vast array of books now available to black children and all children.

Toni Trent Parker, founder of Black Books Galore! and a beloved figure in the world of children's book publishing, died after a long illness on September 15, 2005, on what was her 32nd wedding anniversary. More than 300 people attended her funeral services in Stamford. Connecticut. Randle interviewed her in August 2005 and was preparing to write this article when wont came of Parker's prosing. Her book festivals are continuing.

PROUD AS ANY PARENT BRAGGING about an offspring, Toni Trent Parker eagerly talks about her latest book, Sienna's Scrapbook: Our African American Heritage Trip (Chronicle Books LLC, October 2005).

"I'm thrilled--absolutely," she says about the finished product. The book, which is written as part diary, part scrapbook and part travelogue, tells the story of a young African American girl named Sienna who feels her summer vacation is ruined because her parents have decided that en route to this year's family reunion they'll tour famous black history sites. In true storybook fashion, Sienna finds the traveling and learning fun (and so will readers).

Parker has been busy putting her personal affairs in order, donating books from her collection and most importantly, making sure that the company she helped found more than a decade ago, Black Books Galore!, continues. It was decided that her friend and business associate Sharon Jerry-Collins will take over as the new owner.

This is not what we've come to talk about on this particular day, a picture-perfect mid-August afternoon. Parker, 58, had agreed to an interview at her home in Stamford, Connecticut, to talk about a subject that she loves second only to her family: African American children's literature and publishing.

In 1992, Parker and Sheila Foster, a friend and member of the Stamford moms' playgroup her daughter belonged to in Stamford, cofounded Black Books Galore!, later to be joined by Donna Rand. The business grew out of a playgroup activity--organizing a book fair that featured children's books with positive black images and themes.

In 1998, Kids Cultural Books was launched as a nonprofit wing of the book company. Its goal was to organize book fairs around the country that give the public the chance to meet children's book authors, illustrators and publishers, while promoting literacy and encouraging reading.

Parker eventually took on sole ownership of the company. It grew and soon became known in the publishing industry for promoting African American children's literature, and pushing for an increase in multicultural books targeting children of different races and ethnic groups.

The company has published four bibliographies of African American children's literature that have become industry bibles: The first, published in 1991, Black Books Galore's Guide to Great African American Children's Literature, was compiled by the three partners. The last three, published in 2001, were compiled by Parker and Rand: Great African American Books About Girls, More Great African American Children's Books and Great African American Children's Books About Boys.

Along the way, Black Books Galore! collected numerous awards, among them citations from Parenting magazine and the NAACP, as well as accolades from parents, teachers, librarians, civic leaders, politicians and, of course, children, who were enthralled at meeting the authors and illustrators who had written the books they loved.

"They can learn that they, too, could maybe do this kind of work someday," says Parker.

Children were also thrilled to hear celebrities like the late Arthur Ashe (his wife, photographer Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, was a member of the Stamford moms' playgroup), Tatyana Ali, Ruby Dee, Roberta Flack, Robert Guillaume, Tia and Tamera Mowry and Pauletta (Mrs. Denzel) Washington read to them.

Born in Winston Salem, North Carolina, the youngest of three girls, Parker grew up in New York City. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1970 with a degree in history, and later did graduate work at the University of California at Berkeley. Married to Judge Barrington Daniels (Danny) Parker Jr., she has three daughters--Christine, Kathleen and Jennifer (ages 27, 18 and 16, respectively)--to whom she dedicated Sienna's Scrapbook.

Each year, the company organizes two mega festivals (now called the Toni Trent Parker Multicultural Book Festival): the Kennedy Center's Multicultural Book Fair, which is held the first Saturday in November and attracts upwards of 8,000 people; and in April, the fair takes place at Harlem's famed Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine and attracts thousands, as well.

The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presented Parker with a plaque commending her advancement of diversity in children's literature and her development of the multicultural book fair.

Parker says there have been major changes in the book-publishing world since her playgroup moms went searching for books for their children.

"The industry has changed a lot since we started out. It's publishing more multicultural books, but it's still not enough" she says. For example, "there are" she says, "around forty-five hundred children's books published a year. If you take African Americans as approximately ten percent of the population, there should be four hundred and fifty African American books--and it's more like eighty."

Book publishers are also finally catching on to the buying power of the "multicultural" or "ethnic" market. The Chicago-based Target Market News, which tracks African American spending, reported in its latest The Buying Power of Black America report, that black households earned $656 billion in 2003, up almost 4 percent from the previous year, and of that income, about $326 million was spent on books.

"Toni and Black Books Galore! did something unusual and wonderful--they helped create a hunger" comments Denise Lewis Patrick, author of Red Dancing Shoes (HarperCollins, 1993). "She practically forced the (book) industry to recognize our market. That is her legacy"

Parker says publishers should increase the offerings of literature for black and multicultural children. "Publishers really need to publicize what they've got," she adds. "I don't see a lot of that. And how are those kids going to know about those books and how are teachers going to know about them if they aren't publicized?"

She told a reviewer once, "We need more than Dick and Jane. We need Tameka and Tom, too".

Moving Forward

Sharon Jerry-Collins says she feels "extremely honored and humbled" that Parker chose her as her successor.

The two women, both residents of Stamford, met in 1992 shortly after the book company started. Their friendship deepened during the past three years when Jerry-Collins started working with Parker on book festivals and writing a how-to manual on producing children's book festivals.

As executive director of Kids Cultural Books and a mother of four, Jerry-Collins is committed to continuing Parker's vision of creating a world of diverse books for all children.

"My vision for Black Books Galore! is to fulfill Toni's dream of bringing literacy back to the forefront of our culture for all children" she says, adding that she plans to do more festivals nationwide, as well as expand sales through the company's Web site, www.blackbooksgalore.com.

As for Parker, Jerry-Collins says, "she taught me a lot about this business, so knowing how to operate [it] is not the difficult part." What is, she says, is working without Parker. "Sometimes, I can still her hear voice sharing knowledge, answering questions and having a great conversation:'

Wilma Jean Emanuel Randle is a communications consultant for African-focused, nonprofit organizations.