Why No Faces?

One thing that stands out about the cover of Why Daddy Works and Why Mommy Works is that there are no faces. During my publication journey of this story, I was given some suggestions about illustrating this story that was not aligned with who I am. The first option that I was told was that I should make the characters animals because children’s books with animals on the cover sell better. That was an automatic no for me because even though I can use my imagination and say that the daddy and mommy elephant work to take care of their baby elephants…it just lost its value to me if I had done that. Next, I was told that if I put a person of color on the cover of the book that there would be people who wouldn’t buy the book. After hearing that there was a part of me that wanted to put a person of color on the cover anyway for principle, but I took a step back and remembered why I wanted to write the book in the first place. I wanted to write the book to help working parents. Therefore, the cover of Why Daddy Works and Why Mommy Works has characters with multiple jobs/careers and no faces. I want the reader to see themselves in the story. The reader and their family are the main characters.