What Makes Our Family Special - Guyana - Danielle Clarke

Story number seven is here! 😃 The next story is part of a series of books where two sisters learn about their diverse heritage through adventure! It’s called: “What Makes Our Family Special” and I’m reading the Guyana story 😃 🇬🇾 Written by the lovely Danielle Clarke @bluestellabooks for her daughters Evie & Isla and beautifully illustrated by Lily Carver @liustrationz Danielle Clarke: 2020 was a year that will go down in history! One that will never be forgotten! 
Me pre-2020: I knew all the ‘ism’s’ still existed. I’m not all-knowing but not totally ignorant either. But for me I felt lucky. I felt that the people around me were lucky too! We are a family and have a circle of friends of mixed cultures and heritages who love each other. Who we are as a unit is our norm. To introduce us: Jon is Bajan/Guyanese and I am White/Irish. Evie and Isla are a beautiful mix of us both.

This is the beginning…
Jon and I had an instant connection, spark, electricity, whatever you want to call it. We had similar views, goals and ambitions. We were and are pretty much on the same page. We decided to have a child. Evie. And then Isla came as a beautiful surprise. Jon also has a daughter from a previous relationship, Ruby.   Our main thoughts on raising the girls were to teach them to always be kind, well-mannered, happy, have a great work ethic, love who they are, to always find a solution, and to be positive and proactive. For me, this is the aim for our future generations. Never taking away from their heritage and the part that plays in their identity. These characteristics are the overriding factors of how they are perceived by the world and not by the colour of their skin. I never thought about how society would treat them being female and of dual heritage. I always thought because of the love of our family and friends, how multicultural we all are and how multi-cultural London is. I ignorantly didn’t think they would be looked upon in any negative way! An idea started to form around the end of August 2020. What if I