Children's Books and Diversity

In this time, honor the fact that your child is a child. I have been reminded several times that my daughter is sheltered. I disagree. I don't believe she needs to see the news, hear about the sadness or darkness in order to learn about the past. At least not at her current age. What our children need now is to see our actions and growth and to see how we move to love and embrace others.

Books! So many books written that talk about diversity or share a view into another child or families world are written by one race. I discovered this while teaching and wanted to make sure I was sharing diverse literature that was written by those that truly lived what they were sharing. These books aren't focused on racism. They offer a look into the way others live, the way we are born different, and our lifestyles and skin color that may differ from our own.

While I have books on racism, many of them are written by white authors and while I am not judging this (and they are full of great information), I am pushing myself beyond that and don't want to share that right now. A book that I do reccomended that is more recent is So You Want to Talk About Race, by, Ijeoma Oluo. I would start with it to have your heart and mind awakened, challenged and changed.

For our children. Having books on our shelves that share the diversity of our world on a regular basis is one way to support open conversations with our children. To show the beauty that exists and not only the darkness. It's so important to highlight the good when talking about the "bad." But, it's just a piece of the puzzle, don't let books do the hard work.

Here are some of my favorites. Please share yours, but I challenge you to check out the authors and share more than white authors! I'll try to do a story and share a few images from the books, soon!

*LITTLE LEADERS, Bold Women in Black History and Little Leaders, Exceptional Men in Black History By Vashiti Harrison and Kwesi Johnson.

*Saturday By Oge Mora

*A chair for my mother, by Vera B, Williams.

*Mixed Me By Taye Diggs

*Fry Bread By Kevin Noble Maillard

*My Brother Charlie By Holly Robinson

*Imani's Moon By Janay Brown-Wood

*The Family Book By Todd Parr

*A Day with Yayah, by Nicola Campbell (or any of her books).

*Kamik Joins the Pack By Darryl Baker

*My Heart Fills With Happiness By sâkaskinêw nitêh miywêyihtamowin ohci

*The Seeing Stick By Jane Yolen