When Why Is My Hair Curly? came out in 2020, I wasn’t sure there would be another. It began as a commissioned book and set the tone for the kind of books I wanted to see my children read.
Six years later, there’s a new one.
Why Is My Skin Brown? is a middle-grade novel about Sarayu, who lives in Malvern, Pennsylvania, swims at the Y, and is the youngest in her class. Then hateful emails start arriving at school, telling Brown kids to go back where they came from. When her mother takes a four-month work project in Bengaluru, Sarayu flies out of the mid-December cold expecting, for once, to look like everyone else.
She doesn’t.
Nani ma cups her face and says kaali, not bothering to lower her voice. Neha mami, who means well, readies the haldi face pack every night so the tan will fade. Her swimsuit goes missing from the wardrobe. And her cousin Viveka, the one person she came hoping to get closer to, is keeping a secret on her phone that is too big for either of them to hold alone.
It is about what happens when a girl who doesn’t fit in at home discovers she doesn’t fit in at “home” either: colorism across continents, mothers and daughters carrying the same old wounds, online safety, cousin-sisterhood, and the moment a kid figures out that belonging is not the only worthwhile thing to want.
Also: BTS gets name-checked, and there is a promised puppy. I am not going to apologize for either.
Why Is My Skin Brown? comes out from Red Panda, an imprint of Westland Books, in Summer 2026. It is a companion to Why Is My Hair Curly?, but you don’t need one to read the other. Ages 10 to 13. Buy links will be here the day they’re live.
If you have a middle-grader who has ever wondered why they look like they do, this one is for them.
Read more about Why Is My Skin Brown? →
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