Naturally Me! *Book Review* by Crystal Swain Bates

First let's talk about the Author. Crystal Swain-Bates is a native of Atlanta Ga. She is an author and owner of Goldest Karat Publishing, a boutique black-owned publisher that aims to fill the diversity gap in traditional publishing by providing readers with high quality books featuring characters of African decent.

The book that we are reviewing today is Naturally ME! This book can be purchased HERE!

Brown Girl with her autographed book Naturally Me!

I love, love, love this book! Mainly because it includes our BOYS!! Yeay!! It instills confidence in our natural girls and boys by showing them in beautiful illustrations that it's perfectly ok to be you!

The story line is fabulous, the pictures are fabulous, this BOOK is totally fabulous! We are huge Crystal Swain-Bates fans and she has certainly done a great job once again. This book was written in a fun whimsical kind of way that keeps kids interested from page to page.

It is a very easy a quick read for kids of all ages. And did I say the pictures are totally awesome? You can't go wrong buying this book because the message is what every kid needs to understand that it's ok to be you. You don't have to be like everybody else to be perfect and great!

The video review done by Brown Girl, (posting soon) will show you a few of the beautiful pictures in the book as well as give you here opinion of the book!

If you haven't purchased a Crystal Swain-Bates book for your little one, you are really missing a treat. Crystal's books include the self-esteem boosting children's books "Big Hair, Don't Care", "The Colorful Adventures of Zoe & Star", "The Colorful Adventures of Cody & Jay", "Supermommy", the natural hair inspired coloring book "Color My Fro", and the natural hair resource guide "How to Go Natural Without Going Broke".

We have reviewed several of her other books HERE.

Here's where you can connect with Crystal Swain-Bates:
Buy Her Books HERE
Like Her on Facebook
Read Her Blog 
Tweet Her @CSwainBates
Follow Her on Instagram @goldestkarat

Crystal Swain-Bates Books Reviewed

My daughter had the pleasure of receiving 3 books from an awesome lady named Crystal Swain-Bates!
She is the author of 5 books that fill the much needed niche in the African American literary market. My daughter was so excited when she opened up the package and saw books that featured characters that look like her!

It was so much fun capturing her discovering these books on camera. I will post the video version to this review later in the week! It will be very fun to watch, I promise! You will get first hand how my daughter feels about each book!

This written review is more of my point of view. The video will be solely my daughter's point of view.

I took some pictures of the front and back covers of each book so that you can see how beautiful and creative the characters look!

The first book that we will review is called Color My Fro!

Color My Fro by Crystal Swain-Bates

This is a coloring book that caters to women and girls of all ages! All of the characters have cute natural hair styles. The fashion is very chic and fun! It's even better that you can color them to look however you desire!

My daughters choose this book first to explore. I'm sure it's due to the fashion! She loves clothes! If your little one is a fashionista, I'm sure she'll love this one too!

Color My Fro: In celebration of the beauty of black women with natural hair, 31 big-haired fairies, mermaids, warriors, models, cheerleaders, and fierce divas grace the pages of this coloring book. Fun for any occasion, “Color My Fro” is perfect for natural hair lovers of any age.

Brown Girl Enjoying Color My Fro

One of my favorite pages in Color My Fro

SUPERMOMMY by Crystal Swain-Bates

Suppermommy is about how a little girl feels about her single mom! I must say when we first opened up this book, I didn't think my daughter would relate to it because she's not in a single parent home! To my surprise, she totally could relate to it because GREAT Mom's are great single or not! We both loved the story line in this book. It captured both of our attention as we read it! This is a must have for all households that have a Supermom involved!

This is a very easy to read book and the illustrations in it are awesome!

Supermommy: Perfect for children in single-parent homes, this picture book celebrates a single mother’s seemingly supernatural ability to care for her children, at least in her daughter Miadora’s eyes as she attempts to showcase her Supermommy at her school’s show and tell.

The Colorful Adventures of Zoe & Star by Crystal Swain-Bates

This is the perfect coloring/activity book for Spring Break and Summer Vacation! It carries you through and adventure with the girls while giving fun and exciting activities to do along the way! I love the way this book encourages girls to have self confidence and to explore all of the positive possibilities that life has to offer not to mention the natural hairstyles that they are rocking in this book!

The Colorful Adventures of Zoe & Star: This book follows the afro-sporting Zoe & the braid-wearing Star as they imagine themselves as scientists, veterinarians, fairies, princesses, and more! Follow them throughout over 45 fun-filled coloring and activity pages that inspire creativity, promote self-confidence, and celebrate diversity.

Crystal didn't forget about our boys, she has also written a book that is especially for them. We didn't get a chance to review it, but for those of you who have little boys, buy it for them! I'm sure based on the books that we have, they won't be disappointed! The description of the book follows:

The Colorful Adventures of Cody & Jay: This book follows Cody & Jay as they imagine themselves as scientists, race car drivers, superheroes, artists, and more! Follow them throughout over 40 fun-filled coloring and activity pages that inspire creativity, promote self-confidence, and celebrate diversity.

All of Crystal Swain-Bates books are published by Goldest Karat Publishing.  You can purchase them on that site or on Amazon.com. They are all less than $10 each!!

We are sure you will enjoy them as much as we are!! Stay tuned to our YouTube channel for the video version of this review!

Click HERE for the video!