Close Menu
www.crackingthecover.com
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    • Home
    • Picture
      • Ages 0-3
      • Ages 2 and up
      • Ages 3 and up
      • Ages 4 and up
      • Ages 5 and up
      • Ages 6 and up
      • Ages 8 and up
      • Author Interviews
      • Bedtime Stories
      • Gift Guide
    • Middle Grade
      • Author Interviews
      • Ages 6 and up
      • Ages 7 and up
      • Ages 8-12
      • Ages 9-12
      • Ages 10 and up
      • Gift Guide
    • YA
      • Author Interviews
      • Reviews
      • Adult Crossover
      • Gift Guide
    • Seasonal
      • Back to School
      • Christmas
      • Earth Day
      • Easter
      • Fall
      • Father’s Day
      • Mother’s Day
      • Gift Guide
      • Halloween
      • Spring
      • Valentine’s Day
      • Winter
    • Diversity
      • AANHPI Heritage
      • Autism Month
      • Black Experience
      • Chinese New Year
      • Hispanic Heritage
      • Pride Month
      • Women’s History
    • Crossover
    • About
      • Review/interview policy
      • About our reviewers
    www.crackingthecover.com

    Cedella Marley brings her father’s lyrics to children with ‘One Love’

    0
    By Jessica on October 14, 2011 author interview, picture books
    Cedella Marley (Peter Dean Rickards)

    Music and culture have always been a part of Cedella Marley’s life. Growing up with Jamaican singer-songwriter Bob Marley as a father made it impossible not to.

    As Marley’s oldest child, Cedella has worked hard to keep her father’s memory alive, with her most recent foray being that of a picture book based on her father’s song “One Love.”

    “One Love is not only one of my favorite of my father’s songs, but it’s one that children love to sing as well,” Cedella told Cracking the Cover. “I loved the idea of giving them a new way to experience the song, and also spread the message of ‘One Love’ to a new generation.”

    “One Love” the book follows a little girl as she recruits her community to help transform their neighborhood into a better place to live.

    Though she had been thinking about adapting her father’s lyrics into a book for a long time, Cedella says once she sat down to work, the book happened quickly — over the course of several days.

    Cedella, who is also a musician, wanted to keep the spirit of her father’s song alive, but make it accessible to very young readers. ” I reviewed the lyrics line by line and made changes I thought would be fun to read and sing, but still be recognizable and respectful of the original,” she said.

    “The message of one love guided my writing. I knew as long as I was true to my father’s vision of love and community and working together to create a better world, that the new lyrics would capture the essence of the original song.”

    Cedella invested a lot in her book and she found letting the lyrics go and giving them over to the vision of the illustrator, Vanessa Brantley-Newton, hard. “Would she understand what I was trying to convey? Would the book look like I had envisioned it?”

    Turns out her fears were unfounded. Cedella and Vanessa collaborated for several months. “I could not be more thrilled with the beautiful illustrations. Vanessa is an amazing artist and truly brought the words to life,” Cedella said. “She (Vanessa) brought so many wonderful things to the project that I didn’t expect,” Cedella said. “Like several appearances of my father, the words woven into the bedspread and the house No. 56 on the townhouse, which was the number of our childhood home.”

    The final version of “One Love ” turned out better than Cedella thought it would. “I love the joy in the characters faces and the story of the multicultural neighborhood coming together to restore their local park.”

    It’s something she says would make her father very proud. In fact, when her mother first saw a finished copy of the book that’s the first thing she said. “Reaching children through a combination of reading and music would have pleased him very much.”

    Chronicle, the publisher of “One Love,” and Cedella have already begun work on another Bob Marley favorite, “Three Little Birds.” It’s another one of Cedella’s favorites. “I’m really looking forward to seeing children reading and singing the line, ‘Every little thing’s gonna be alright.’”

    *Cedella took a lot of time and care to answer Cracking the Cover’s questions. Read a complete transcript of her answers.

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Jessica
    • Website
    • Facebook
    • X (Twitter)

    Jessica Harrison is the reviewer behind Cracking the Cover. She loves books and worked as the in-house book critic at a daily newspaper, writing reviews and interviewing authors for two years. When the company cut back, she lost her position covering books, but that doesn't mean she stopped reading. If anything, the whole experience made her more passionate about reading and giving people the tools to make informed decisions in their own book choices. She has been featured on NetGalley's Blogger Spotlight and is on Kindleprenuer's Ultimate List of the Best Book Review Blogs. Contact her at jessica(at)crackingthecover(dot)com and follow Cracking the Cover on Bluesky, Instagram,  Facebook and Twitter (X) @crackingthecovr. You can also read scaled down reviews on Jessica's Goodreads review page. Jessica is also a reviewer on Amazon.

    Related Posts

    It’s Busy Down in the Woods Today is delightful search and find

    Explore sea habitats in There’s an Ocean in This Book

    The Wild Robot on the Island is beautiful picture book

    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    • bluesky
    • twitter
    • instagram
    • facebook
    • goodreads
    • amazon
    • bloglovin
    • mail
    Subscribe by email
    Follow
    Recent Posts
    July 3, 2025

    Astrid Lindgren’s The Children of Noisy Village is delightful

    July 2, 2025

    Brittney Morris’ This Book Might Be About Zinnia explores identity

    July 1, 2025

    The Extremely Embarrassing Life of Lottie Brooks is MG gold

    July 1, 2025

    E.L Starling’s Bound by Stars is fast-moving sci-fi romance

    June 30, 2025

    Return to Neverland with Wendy’s Ever After, by Julie Wright

    Archives
    Categories
    On Writing

    “The dance with words and the way the hair on the back of my neck raises when it works right is what I live for.”

    —Gary Paulsen

    “I write because I exist. Because I read. Because I breathe.”

    —Lindsay Eager

    “Books are kind of like the sense of smell: inhale one page and memories come rushing back.”

    —Keir Graff

    Cracking the Cover is a website dedicated to picture, middle-grade and young adult books. It features reviews, author interviews and other book news. PLEASE NOTE: We are not currently accepting self published books for review.

    Copyright © 2010-2022 Cracking the Cover. Unless otherwise noted, all books — digital and physical — have been provided by publishers in exchange for honest and unbiased reviews. All thoughts and opinions are those of the reviewer.

    Reviews Published Professional Reader 2016 NetGalley Challenge 100 Book Reviews

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.