The characters born in Jacqueline Woodson’s imagination sometimes find new lives off the page. They have sung and danced in theatrical adaptations of her picture books; they have roamed the streets of Harlem in a live-action mini-series based on her novel “Miracle’s Boys.”
But now some of Woodson’s favorite creations are frolicking through Brooklyn in a medium she has never worked with before: animation.
The result is “The Day You Begin,” an hourlong television special that debuts on Friday on PBS Kids. Inspired by Woodson’s best-selling picture book of the same title, the show follows four children on their first day of kindergarten: Angelina, a fictionalized version of the young Woodson, who’s already a voracious reader; Rigoberto, a baseball fan and recent immigrant from Venezuela; Minjin, who’s proud of her Korean heritage until her packed lunch surprises her classmates; and Andre, a dedicated artist to whom school seems a bit overwhelming.
“I love the expansion of story,” Woodson, 63, said of turning her literary work into television. And now, she added, “we really have to think broadly about story, because this is what this country, right now, is attempting to erase, right?”
She added: “It’s banning books. It’s getting rid of D.E.I. It’s saying that the civil rights movement shouldn’t be in school — like, all of these ways in which it is saying that your stories don’t matter.”
The children in “The Day You Begin” find that their stories do matter. Despite moments of feeling that no one else is remotely like them, they discover that their diverse backgrounds and passions contribute to their community’s richness.
“For me, ‘The Day You Begin’ is so timely,” said Woodson, who writes for children and adults. (Her prizes include the National Book Award — for her memoir in verse, “Brown Girl Dreaming” — a MacArthur fellowship and multiple Coretta Scott King Book Awards and Newbery Honor medals.) “I think I like to think of it as timely and timeless.”
Sitting at a long dining table in the Brooklyn brownstone she shares with her partner, Juliet Widoff, and their 18-year-old son, Jackson Leroi (their daughter, Toshi, 24, has her own apartment), Woodson discussed the roots and development of the special, which she wrote with Dana Chan, the story editor of the PBS Kids series “Alma’s Way.”
These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
I’ve read that “The Day You Begin” was inspired by a poem in “Brown Girl Dreaming” about your great-grandfather William Woodson. What made you turn his experience into a book?
He was the only Black boy in this all-white school in Nelsonville, Ohio. I felt like William’s story was its own story, and that’s how I started shaping it into “The Day You Begin.” Because, of course, it’s my story. Everyone has been in a space where they feel very alone, or like they’re the only one like themselves. And then I had to figure out, of course, what do we learn from being in these unfamiliar spaces that oftentimes try to crush us for our quote-unquote outsiderness? It is a certain kind of strength. What you’re bringing to that space is the gift of yourself.
How did you come up with the characters?
I wanted to create a character who loved to read. And I just remember going back to school in September, and the teacher always being, like, “Write about what you did over summer vacation,” and people had these stories. Mostly, either I was down South at my grandparents’ house, or I was in Brooklyn, and to me that didn’t feel like anything huge. So that began the journey of my creating the character Angelina. I wanted to speak to those kids who are home, who maybe don’t have the money to go to summer camp.
And then the character Rigoberto came from growing up in a very mixed neighborhood, and there was always someone new coming from another country who was struggling with this country’s language. Minjin is based on the fact that a lot of my family is Korean.
I thought the character Andre wasn’t in the book until you pointed out that he is the nameless, wordless little boy who appears in some illustrations and that he’s based on Rafael López’s son. [López is the book’s illustrator.] Andre is very sensitive to noise and to touch, and he can be obsessive. Even though it’s never said directly in the script, he seems to be on the autism spectrum. Why did you decide to develop this character for the special?
First and foremost, out of deep respect for Rafael, because he did put that character into the book. And I really wanted to pay homage to the young people and their parents who live in that world. I have such a deep love for the people I know who are on the spectrum. I have the best conversations with them, and I feel like there’s so much to learn from them.
You’re an executive producer of “The Day You Begin” as well as the co-writer and, briefly, a narrator. Was it important to you to have a major creative role?
Definitely. I love what I’m trying to do in that book so much, and I didn’t want it to become something that I didn’t recognize. At one point, Andre’s dad [a white man] was in a vest, and Angelina’s dad was in a hoodie. I’m like, You know what? Let’s switch this up. Let’s get imaginative about this and not just do what you think you know. So, in those kinds of things, I was glad I was in the room.
The work of Atomic Cartoons [the show’s animator] closely reflects López’s illustrations. Did you seek that continuity?
One hundred percent. In the show, the mural on the school wall is actually Rafael’s art.
What I didn’t have in this book and that I held fast to [for the television special] was that Angelina’s books are all written by real people. So there’s “Bee-bim Bop!,” by Linda Sue Park. There’s “Knoxville, Tennessee,” by Nikki Giovanni. We had to get permissions. It meant taking a few extra steps, and I’m like, “No, books are way too important for me to have fake books in a show about someone who loves to read.”
What were the other changes made for the special?
We see all the kids’ families in a way that we don’t see in the book. So, suddenly, grown-ups are in the show. And it’s very, very, very Brooklyn. The book is mostly interior scenes, so you don’t see the outside playground. But I really wanted Brooklyn to be front and center.
You mentioned that you initially pitched “The Day You Begin” as a full-length series. Do you still hope it will become one?
I think with PBS Kids, there is always the possibility. I’m open to it if they’re open to it. So many things happen during a school year in kindergarten and first grade and second grade, and it would be nice to see that explored.
What do you hope young viewers will take away from seeing the special?
It would be so cool if they just ran off and did what they love — like, if some kid sat at the table and started drawing, and another one went and got their favorite books, and another one went and found someone they were too shy to talk to and started talking.
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