14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this year, Disney announced it was working on the first long feature, animated film featuring a black female character, “The Princess and the Frog,” a move received with applause by the mainstream audience. All chaos broke loose just weeks after the announcement, as the first photo from the film seemed to show the prince – meaning, the black princess’ love interest – was white, as we also reported at the time.
This was when author Monroe S. Tarver thought he couldn’t go forward with his plans of coming out with a fantasy story that also featured a black female character, his publisher tells Softpedia. All of a sudden, “Imagia and the Magic Pearls,” the first book from a series called “Tales from the Mapmaker,” which details the adventures of a lonely, black princess named Imagie, no longer had a place in the mainstream. However, Tarver and publisher Wizarding World Press decided to go ahead with the release of the book as it was: “Imagia and the Magic Pearls” becomes available in November this year.
Imagia, as noted above, is a princess who can only dream of being a normal child. However, if anything, this is the last thing she can accomplish: she’s a princess and must grow up like one. In isolation, Imagia discovers that imagination is actually her strongest ally, a discovery that will be reinforced once she finds a secret way out of the castle and embarks on a wonderful adventure that will also teach her the meaning of friends and foes. However, it is not the plot of the book that has the potential of making waves, the author believes, as it’s the fact that he’s chosen to make his character black.
“I am hoping it will open the door wider for me and other authors like me, but the book industry has been just as behind as the movie industry when it comes to the portrayal of ethnic characters.” Tarver says, referring to one particular instance when giant publisher Bloomsbury refused to put a black princess on the cover of a book on the grounds that the public was not yet ready for it. “The recent controversy over Justine Larbalestier’s cover reinforces that skin color still matters in publishing. My publisher and I both felt it was important to place my ethnic elf princess on the cover of my book. We are really going to be testing this.” Tarver adds.
Consequently, “Imagia and the Magic Pearls” will feature the initial artwork, anime-style drawings of the black princess Imagia and the friends she comes across in her first adventure outside the gates of the castle. “The timing might seem that Tarver’s and Disney’s projects were inspired by President Barack Obama’s success, but both began their work long before his race for the presidency. Therefore, those coincidences are not driven by hype but by a nation that has become truly multicultural. However, there is still the question of whether the book industry is ready for this cultural change.” WWP tells Softpedia in a press release.