BrewsterConnections - Brewster Academy

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Noelle Lamperti ‘89
Children’s Book Author
Noelle was smart enough to avoid my sophomore
English class, and cleverly ditched my journalism class
as well, so I can’t claim that I had any influence on
her literary career, nor her pre-Brewster charming art
work. In both cases I wish I could have taken credit!
When I started searching for Brewster authors
for this column, I was surprised to turn
up less than a handful and several of those I’d
included in earlier articles. I can’t recall just
who mentioned to me that Noelle had written a
book, but I quickly phoned in an order. As I had
to wait about a month for the copy to make it
to the islands, I had lots of time to guess about
the plot. I recalled that Noelle was a good friend
and classmate of the late Trey Whitfield and
wondered whether her book would include any
references to Trey, as she was close to his family.
Emptying my weekly mailbag on the floor, I spied
the bookstore’s label on a package, but it was the
wrong shape, the wrong size. At first I was really
disappointed to see that it was a children’s book,
geared for 3- to 7-year-olds. “Hmmm ... How can I
review this? I don’t even know or care for anyone
3 years old, and I certainly don’t know what they
like!” And then I sat back and read it, over and
over again. I was hooked.
Brown Like Me (originally published in 1979 as
Noelle’s Brown Book and re-released in 2002 with
the new title) is an autobiography of a young
African-American girl who is encouraged by her
white adoptive family to seek out the beauty of
being brown-skinned. The book opens with a
close-up of a smiling Noelle and the text, “Hi,
I’m Noelle, a girl who likes brown. I like to look
for things that are brown like me.” And Noelle
does just this by taking the reader through photos
of herself “in action” – discovering brown items
from leaves to horses to her own self. The last
page shows Noelle flexing her arm muscles
with the text, “I am strong brown.” Noelle also
includes her own artwork, showing what she
discovers on her quest to overcome her sometimes
lonesomeness for brown.
Jacqueline Wallen, an associate
professor at the University of
Maryland, and a mental health
professional, wrote in the introduction,
“I recommend this book to parents and
children of all colors. In celebrating
families and the color brown, this
book enriches all of us and is sure to
delight a whole new generation of
‘strong brown’ children.” And it does
just that – I’ve shared Brown Like Me
with several Bahamian families whose
children have loved the book, turning
the pages back and forth, smiling at the
drawings, enjoying the story.
There is a great combination of
photography, artwork, and text at the
end of the book. One of the last pages
shows Noelle coming to the end of the
“path” that she’s been traveling in her
search for brown objects and on the
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BrewsterConnections • Spring 2007