I have been feeling a growing frustration lately at how hard it is to find children's books that feature a main character that is any race other than white. I want my kids to grow up in a home where differences in color, race, and ethnicity are celebrated and admired. David and I think often about the possibility of adopting a child someday, probably of another race. If that ever happens, I want our home to already be a sort of everyday UN...in the dolls we have, books we read, movies we watch, etc. Open-heartedness should be taught first at home.
Anyhow, the real purpose of this blog entry is to ask: does anyone know of any children's books you love that feature a main character who is not white? I'd appreciate any suggestions.
Oh, and Happy Autumn. Isn't it delicious??
Anyhow, the real purpose of this blog entry is to ask: does anyone know of any children's books you love that feature a main character who is not white? I'd appreciate any suggestions.
Oh, and Happy Autumn. Isn't it delicious??
10 comments:
The last two times I was in the library I had a horrible time finding children's books with humans. They were primarily animal based! I hope you are successful.
We just read a great one called The Umbrella Queen by Shirin Yim Bridges. I guess the characters faces are white in the illustrations, but they are asian.
i'll have to think about this one. for now, i will suggest "yoko" by rosemary wells. the characters are all animals (which kids adore - so i don't have issues with that), but it is a sweet story about a girl who brings sushi to school for lunch and how all her classmates react. it's one of my favorites.
most of the books that are coming to mind are animal books which i would like to point out are "ethnic-free".
Our compilation of Curious George (Rey) stories has supporting characters of various races.
Come On Rain! (We own this book, but I can't think of the author off the top of my head.) main character is a black little girl. Her friends: one black, one asian, one white. Watercolor illustrations are georgeous. The language is lilting and southern and when the rain finally comes, you rejoice with them.
Baby Says (John Steptoe) The main characters: a baby and his older brother are black, beautiful, heart-warming illustrations. A good story using maybe 10 words. Love the sibling bond depicted.
A version of Stone Soup (written fairly recently) main characters are Chinese monks and the story is set in a Chinese village. Love this story always, but really like this particular retelling of it.
Sorry I don't have an author. It is at the library and Barnes and Noble.
Snowy Day (Keats) a Newberry Award winner. S'good. We like it at our house. And it's a good lead in to: talking about having a new baby OR states of matter (snow melting to water.)
If I think of any more I'll let you know. BUT, in response to your post, "I know, right?"
The Cordoroy books have a Latina MC. (And they are super fun books too). I've been trying to think of another one but none come to mind. Most of the books I can think of have animal main characters.
The new girl and me. I got it out of a cheerios box, and it's actually really good.
Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats. Mahon library has a huge cut-out display of the main character boy in their children's section. Ellen really likes that one.
Here's another one for you--Coco Can't Wait--don't know the author but has an Asian family. Julianna still loves this one--we've had it since she was little. Also Tomie De Paolo books--he's latino.
One of my favorite children's books is titled The Empty Pot, it is about a chinese boy.
"Here are my hands". It covers just about every ethnicity, is very playful, goes through body parts and is a nice rhyming book!
One of my favorites! : )
Taggart could stare at the illustrations in Jan Brett's books for hours. We've recently borrowed 2 from the library that had children that were not Caucasian: The umbrella and The three snow bears. I also saw this link on the library's website: http://kids.nypl.org/reading/recommended2.cfm?ListID=61
It looks as though there are quite a few multicultural books there. Good luck!
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