“Write the Books You Wish You Could Have Read”

When Esau McCaulley read books to his four children before bed, he noticed that none of the characters looked like them. In these books, most of the characters were white. 

“My kids couldn’t see themselves in the books they were reading,” said McCaulley, the Jonathan Blanchard associate professor of New Testament and public theology. 

McCaulley said he’s always looking for books to help his children think through their faith and their cultural identity. “I found there were a lot of books that affirmed their Blackness. And there were a lot of books that also affirmed the spiritual side of who they were. But there weren’t as many books that combined those two things into one.”

“I never forgot the first time they got one of the kids’ books, and they opened it up and said, ‘That kid looks like me,’” he remembered. “That was something that allowed them to further enter into the story.”

In December 2024, Convergent Books published the children’s book “Andy Johnson and the March for Justice,” written by McCaulley. Although it is intended for children, the book addresses weighty issues of justice in the kingdom of God through the eyes of a young boy named Andy Johnson.

In the book, Andy Johnson goes to a march for justice in Chicago with his family. McCaulley explains that through this experience, “kids learn how the Black church has been a force for good in society, and they get to learn how to participate.”

McCaulley said he can count on one hand the number of picture books featuring biracial families. The Johnson family, however, is biracial — Andy’s mother is white, and his father is Black. 

“One of the things that happens as a writer is that you write the books that you wish that you could have read when you were a kid,” he said. With “Andy Johnson,” this is exactly what he did. 

His newest book is the second in a series of four children’s books about the fictional Johnson family — soon, there will be one book for each of McCaulley’s children. The third and fourth books are written but have not yet been published. McCaulley jokingly remarked, “In order to have peace in my house, we needed to have four books for four kids.”

The first book, “Josey Johnson’s Hair and the Holy Spirit,” was published in 2022, and was based on McCaulley’s experience taking his daughter to get her hair braided when she was younger. Through the process of getting her hair braided and picking out a new dress for her church’s Pentecost service, Josey Johnson learns about God’s creativity and the beauty of cultural and racial differences. McCaulley began work on the second book during the latter part of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

He hopes the book will help families talk with their children about how to confront injustice in the world, showing marches as an example of what historically the Black church has done to fight these injustices. “You don’t want to overwhelm your children with adult problems,” he said, “but children aren’t blind to suffering.”

He envisions parents sitting down to read the book to their children but said it could also be used in Sunday schools, church groups, libraries or other children’s ministry settings.

“I think we’re coming into a moment where, despite the clear teachings of Scripture about the Church’s responsibility to care for those who are suffering, and despite God’s picture of the kingdom of God as being multicultural and multi-ethnic, there is a suspicion of some of these ideas,” he explained.

These principles, however, are basic to Christianity, McCaulley said.

Amy Peeler, professor of New Testament, said McCaulley has the ability to discuss weighty issues with clarity and warmth across his writings. “From ‘Reading While Black’ to his New York Times opinion pieces to ‘Andy Johnson and the March for Justice,’ McCaulley has invited countless readers to think about race in America with more nuance, with both honesty and hope,” she said.

Andy Johnson’s story does just that. “The whole point,” said McCaulley, “is to help kids think through how, even now, the God they serve, believe in and follow is the God who cares about suffering people.”