By Grace Aigner
Justice Alan Page’s new children’s book, “Baking Up Love,” ignites curiosity and fuels empathy in young readers with a story about love, grief and multi-generational teamwork.
A southwest resident, Justice Page, said he wants his new book to connect families with the value of multi-generational relationships and a love of reading.
“Our goal is to put a smile on your face, if you will, and tug at your heart a little bit and speak to important values, certainly important values to us,” Justice Page said.
“Baking Up Love” is the Minnesota Vikings “Hall of Famer” and retired state Supreme Court Justice’s fifth children’s book. The book was released on Jan. 1.
Justice Page co-authored the book with his daughter, Kamie Page, to tell a story about a young girl named Esther who works with her grandpa to bake her deceased grandma’s chocolate cupcake recipe for her school’s “Literacy Feast.”
Ms. Page, a fifth grade teacher at Blake School in Hopkins, said she wants kids to connect and empathize with the unique family dynamic portrayed in the book.
“I really believe that our stories not only are mirrors for kids, but I think they’re also windows for maybe an atypical family, or a family that only has one mom, or she’s working and grandpa’s living with them,” Ms. Page said. “It just normalizes some of those differences that sometimes kids feel.”
Illustrator David Geister said he admires how the Pages’ books break stereotypes about what stories feature Black characters.
“The thing that I really admire about what Alan and Kamie are doing is they take these little slice of life stories, and they remain slice of life stories,” Geister said. “But that’s the world that the vast majority of us live in.”
Geister is a painter, sculptor and children’s book illustrator based in the Hale neighborhood. He has worked with Justice Page on his children’s books for the last 10 years.
Justice Page broke his own set of stereotypes as the first African-American Supreme Court Justice in Minnesota history, elected in November 1992 and retired in 2015. He earned his law degree from the University of Minnesota in 1978 while playing professional football for the Vikings.
Geister said that working with Justice Page is one of the rare times he gets to have a direct relationship with the author he illustrates a book for.
“It gives me a much greater insight into what the author is thinking,” Geister said. “How do they feel about the character? Maybe who’s the inspiration for the character?”
Justice Page’s late wife, Diane, inspired the story for his new book, “Baking Up Love.” She was also the person who first told him to start writing children’s books.
Justice Page said he had no clue how to go about writing a children’s book, so he recruited Ms. Page for their first book, “Alan and His Perfectly Pointy Impossibly Perpendicular Pinky” in 2013.
The pair have co-authored three other books since 2013: “The Invisible You” in 2014, “Grandpa Alan’s Sugar Shack” in 2017 and “Bee Love (Can Be Hard)” in 2021.
The Page couple founded the Page Education Foundation in 1988 to encourage students of color to get a post-secondary education through financial assistance and community engagement. The proceeds from “Baking Up Love” will directly fund the Page Foundation.
To honor Justice Page, a middle school in Tanglewood changed its name from Alexander Ramsey Middle School to Justice Page Middle School in 2017.
Justice Page said his daughter’s creativity compliments his technocratic writing style in the writing process for the five books they’ve written together.
“Over the years, I’ve sort of fallen in love with working with words,” Justice Page said. “So having somebody who knows me, who understands me, to be able to work with them, it’s really kind of special.”
Ms. Page, who resides near Theodore Wirth Park, said their father-daughter relationship allows them to encourage each other’s strengths as co-authors.
“We both complement each other really well, even when we disagree about a word or a phrase or what happens on this page, we can push each other and have conversations about it,” Ms. Page said. “It’s like a father-daughter (relationship), but also a working relationship that just feels really natural.”
Justice Page, who spent time in classrooms reading with kids throughout his career, said his motivation for “Baking Up Love” and as a children’s author comes from a lifelong love of reading and the joy it brings kids.
“In some respects what reading does is ignites and excites curiosity and fulfills curiosity,” Justice Page said. “The more curious we are, the better off we will be, and so it gives me a great sense of joy just to be a part of it.”
Grace Aigner is a University of Minnesota student majoring in journalism.
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