"A couple of years ago, after his mom died, Fry Bread author Kevin Maillard found himself wondering, "but where did she go?" "I was really thinking about this a lot when I was cleaning her house out," Maillard remembers. "She has all of her objects there and there's like hair that's still in the brush or there is an impression of her lipstick on a glass." It was almost like she was there and gone at the same time."
"Maillard grew up in Oklahoma. His mother was an enrolled member of the Seminole Nation. He says many people in native communities use the phrase "walked on" when someone dies. It's a different way of thinking about death. "It's still sad," Maillard says, "but then you can also see their continuing influence on everything you do, even when they're not around.""
Kevin Maillard lost his mother and, while cleaning her house, noticed personal objects and traces that made her feel both present and absent. He imagined where she could have gone and shaped a children's story around those questions. And They Walk On follows a little boy whose grandmother has died and who wonders whether she went to the market, the garden, or became part of growing trees. Maillard grew up in Oklahoma and has family ties to the Seminole Nation, where people commonly say someone has 'walked on' after death. Rafael Lopez illustrated the book, connected the concept to Day of the Dead rituals, portrayed the protagonist as a young Kevin Maillard, and used pencil sketches, digital techniques, and handmade textures in the artwork.
Read at www.npr.org
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