Multicultural Children's Book Day

#ReadYourWorld

Raising Race Conscious Children’s favorite diverse children’s books

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Raising Race Conscious Children’s favorite children’s books…and what we say when we read them

by Sachi Feris and Lori Riddick

At Raising Race Conscious Children, people often ask us what exact words to use to talk about a variety of subjects around race and other identity-markers. We have created this post for Multicultural Children’s Book Day, sharing some of our favorite book titles along with the words we use when we read. That said, there is no one “right” thing to say. What we say will differ based on our children’s racial identities and interests—but we love to inspire adults to practice “the words they use” through the world of children’s literature. When we read a book dozens of times to a child, we can try on different words and engage in the practice of race consciousness.

Race Consciousness Book Picks

What we say when we read:

“I love how her aunt always has her hair in braids which is a really important part of our culture as Black people. I think she looks beautiful. And it reminds me how beautiful you look when you wear your hair in braids. I love how when the aunt goes to learn about another country and culture, she always brings something back for the little girl…but she also always keeps her hair in braids. I really like that she is proud of who she is and always remembers who she is because she keeps her hair in braids.”

-Lori

STRATEGY: Name race

What we say when we read:

“This little kid if going to visit their grandma and grandpa…in our family, we call our grandparents Baba and Zedo….every family has different names for grandparents. This family calls them Nana and Poppy. And Nana has darker brown skin and Poppy has peachy skin, and the kid has skin that in between like we have different skin colors in our family.”

-Lori

STRATEGY: Name race

Corduroy

What we say when we read:

“This is one of my favorite books from when I was little…but I didn’t remember that the character of Lisa was a girl with brown skin. When I was little, we didn’t really talk about skin color. And most of the books I had when I was little had characters with White skin. Sometimes when we read books at home, I notice that a lot of books still have more White characters which isn’t fair—so I really like to try to find books like Corduroy with characters who have brown skin.”

-Sachi

STRATEGY: Name Whitenes

Swimmy

What we say when we read:

“I wonder how Swimmy feels to be the only black fish…if I were Swimmy, I would feel proud because being the only black fish would make me special—but I also might sometimes want to find a friend who looked liked me.”

-Sachi

STRATEGY: Consider feelings

What we say when we read:

“It’s not very nice that the other animals are judging the pig and making assumptions about him before they even get to know him. They are stereotyping the pig—that’s when you say that ‘all pigs’ are a certain way without even getting to know him first.”

-Sachi

STRATEGY: Challenge stereotypes

Grandpa's Corner Store (Hardcover)

“Sometimes, when a big, new store opens, the smaller stores in a neighborhood close, which means people might lose their jobs and have to move to a different neighborhood. This is really, really unfair.”

-Sachi

STRATEGY: Fairness/Unfairnes

We March

What we say when we read:

“Bum, Bum, Bum, that’s the sound of people marching. The men in this picture are really important leaders who worked to make things fair for people of all different skin colors. (There are also a lot of women who worked to make things fair, but they’re not in this picture.) There were White men (and women) and Black men (and women) who worked together to make things fairer.”

-Lori

STRATEGY: Take action for change

About Raising Race Conscious Children

Bloggers, workshop facilitators and moms, Lori Taliaferro Riddick and Sachi Feris created Raising Race Conscious Children as a way to support parents and teachers who are trying to talk about race and diversity with young children. The goal of these conversations is to prepare young people to work toward racial justice. If we commit to collectively trying to talk about race with young children, we can lean on one another for support as we, together, envision a world where we actively challenge racism each and every day. Many of the blog’s posts are geared toward White people but a community of guest bloggers that represent diverse backgrounds and the strategies discussed may be helpful for all.

Each post models conversations that are transparent, concrete, and non-judgmental. Additional issues will be addressed that often intersect with race including class, gender, sexuality, disability, religion, etc.

Connect with Lori and Sachi via Facebook G+, and Twitter.

 

 

 

 

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When the Majority Remains the Minority in Children’s Books

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{Guest Post by Author Sonia Panigrahy}

On a Saturday afternoon, I found myself rushing through Manhattan in preparation for a trip to Chicago to visit my best friend. I was searching for a gift for her five-year-old daughter. I opened the doors to a lovely two-storied children’s bookstore. I skimmed the shelves and struggled to find a book with a main female character that was not a princess. Seeking the help of an employee, I request a girl’s adventure book. She pulled out a book and described the plot, prompting me to purchase the book without having the time to read it. I figured the little girl and I would read it for the first time together in Chicago.

We were in our pajamas in Chicago on the sofa as I cracked open this new adventure story. The main character has a dream where an adventure awaits her. I turn the pages to find that the adventure involves the main female character cleaning and cooking. What struck me in a very painful way was that no adventure book for boys would include cleaning and cooking. Why is it that children’s books are delineated into boys’ vs. girls’ stories that restrict what they can and cannot become? Why don’t books have storylines where pronouns can be interchangeable so that kids can just be kids?

This was memorably the last straw on the camel’s back. I had been brewing the idea of creating a children’s book with a young female superhero as the lead protagonist that I could not find. In the United States, half the population is female and in 2015, more than half of children ages 5 and younger are children of color. Yet, large portions of our population are excluded from the literature. There are statistics that prove this, but one simply has to browse the bookshelves of a library or store, or review bestseller lists to see that white boys and inanimate objects dominate storylines. Lee & Low published an article stating that in 2015, only 14% of books feature multi-cultural content. Children learn about the world around them by reading books, yet through characters that don’t reflect them. If children learn about a world that does not look like them, children feel the world does not see them. Not being seen is not being valued nor viewed as the norm. They need to see themselves in books.

While knowing that my main character needed to be a female to fill the gender void, I could not decide on the race of the character. All non-white children are under-represented and misrepresented in children’s books. I asked my illustrator, Hazel Quintanilla, to help by providing some sketches of character options. I instantly connected with the character you see in my book, Nina the Neighborhood Ninja (Spanish version available: Nina la Ninja del Vecindario).

Nina the Neighborhood Ninja (Spanish version available: Nina la Ninja del Vecindario).

 

To my surprise, children have shown their open minds by having a flexible interpretation of Nina’s race.

The fact the book is available in Spanish, enables households that speak or wish to speak Spanish the opportunity to build bilingual literacy and demonstrates an acceptance of non-English languages in the United States. What matters is that readers of all backgrounds find Nina as a relatable and inspiring role model. Parents of all genders and races tell me that their children aim to be like Nina. Through better stories, we can teach all children to include one other, helping them to adapt as global citizens in a multi-cultural society.

About SONIA PANIGRAHY

Author Sonia Panigrahy (Pah-Nee-Grah-Hee), is a public health professional, world traveler, adventure seeker, and fitness enthusiast. Her motto is that life is too short to be bored!

Nina the Neighborhood Ninja was created out of Sonia’s lifelong love of reading. As her family and friends begin to have children, she looked forward to sharing this love with them. She believes that books are a powerful way to empower impressionable young minds.

Sonia was surprised that she could not find books for kids ages 3-6 years that realistically identified females as intelligent, physically tough, brave, and adventurous. She was disappointed that girls continue to be excluded from the heart of the superhero story.

After unsuccessful attempts to find a young girl superhero protagonist on the pages of a book, especially one of color, she gave up. Then she created her own.

Connect with Sonia via her website, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram

 

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Hungry for Food, Hungry for Books {Guest Post by Padma Venkatraman}

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Guest Post by author Padma Venkatraman

I’m twenty and in graduate school when I first hear the expression “food fights.”

I refuse to picture what my classmate, Heinz, has described: children throwing food on one another, for “fun.” As a young woman who’s left behind her not-exactly-wealthy single mother and journeyed alone overseas, I cannot even begin to comprehend this. Instead, my brain conjures up an Oliver-Twist scenario.

“You mean you were hungry because they didn’t give you enough food, so you protested?” I ask.

Raucous laughter surrounds me. The two others in my study group (both young white men from well-to-do backgrounds, like Heinz), explain that no, food fights are when kids fling food at one another.

“Cafeteria food’s tasteless,” they tell me. “Not worth eating.”  

I’m stunned into silence. I don’t know how to explain why the concept of throwing away something edible – wasting food for the sake of play – shocks me to the core.

Now, decades after that incident, the idea of a food fight still appalls me.  

Perhaps it’s because I spent my first nineteen years in India, where I saw hungry children on the streets, every single day. Maybe it’s also because my grandfather faced hunger as a child. And in part, it’s probably because I was raised by a single mom and for several years our economic situation was fraught.

Then again, I always had enough to eat. But although I never went hungry, I came into close contact with children who had – because my mother volunteered at several schools that were attended by children who’d faced dire poverty. I was befriended by two Roma girls, one of whom ran away from her family and hid in a graveyard until a school gave her refuge. At a homeless shelter, I met children who were fiercely independent and proud of their ability to support themselves.

The food provided in these places was certainly not superior to American school cafeteria food – but I can’t remember any child ever wasting even a grain of rice. What I do remember is how carefully and attentively they’d savor the sweet treats they were served on rare occasions. And these children weren’t just hungry for food – they were hungry for books, too. To them, school was a place of safety in an otherwise violent and unpredictable world.

My memories of these children provided the inspiration for my 4th novel, THE BRIDGE HOME.

Recently, when Grace Lin honored me by interviewing me for her kidlitwomen podcast, she asked me to dream big. Since then, I’ve realized that my biggest dream specifically for THE BRIDGE HOME is that it shall raise awareness about hunger and homelessness, which children face not just in India, but also in America, and across the globe. I hope that by laughing – and crying – with my characters, my readers will form a bond of empathy so strong that they will never engage in a “food fight.”

About Padma

Award-winning American author, Padma Venkatraman, worked as a chief scientist on oceanographic ships, explored rainforests, directed a school, and lived in 5 countries before settling down in Rhode Island. Her middle-grade debut, THE BRIDGE HOME, a contender for the Global Read Aloud initiative, is available for pre-order and scheduled 2019 February release. In a Starred Review, Kirkus calls it “a blisteringly beautiful book.”

Pashma Venkatraman

Life is harsh in Chennai’s teeming streets, so when runaway sisters Viji and Rukku arrive, their prospects look grim. Very quickly, eleven-year-old Viji discovers how vulnerable they are in this uncaring, dangerous world. Fortunately, the girls find shelter–and friendship–on an abandoned bridge. With two homeless boys, Muthi and Arul, the group forms a family of sorts. And while making a living scavenging the city’s trash heaps is the pits, the kids find plenty to laugh about and take pride in too. After all, they are now the bosses of themselves and no longer dependent on untrustworthy adults. But when illness strikes, Viji must decide whether to risk seeking help from strangers or to keep holding on to their fragile, hard-fought freedom.

Her previous 3 novels, A TIME TO DANCE, ISLAND’S END and CLIMBING THE STAIRS, were also released to starred reviews and won numerous honors and awards.

ONE MORE THING…

Our 2018/2019 Classroom Poverty Kit is ready for download!

Our Poverty Doesn’t Discriminate: Understanding Poverty in America kit is ready to be downloaded and enjoyed by parents, librarians, and educators. This free classroom kit includes:

~Over 2 dozen poverty in the U.S.-themed books for ages 4-12,

~Two classroom or home activities

~Our official “Poverty Doesn’t Discriminate” Classroom Poster thanks to the talents of award-winning illustrator, Mehrdokht Amini

~ Helpful Poverty Talking Points for Teachers

~ Links, resources and services available to under-served families in the U.S.A.

Link to sign up on the website: https://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/multicultural-reading-resources/teacher-classroom-poverty-kit/

Link to Blog post: https://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/free-downloadable-classroom-poverty-kit-understanding-poverty-in-america/

As always this non-profit thanks you for helping us to continue our mission of getting diverse books into classrooms or the hands of young readers while also helping authors and publishers shine the spotlight on their work.

Our official hashtag is #ReadYourWorld

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Diverse Kidlit as a Creative Educational Tools

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Guest post by Wiley Barnes from Chickasaw Press

Children innately love books. They have certain stories that become favorites, and they want to look at them or read them time and again. Books from our childhood have a way of staying with us and becoming a part of who we are.

I kept this concept in mind all through the process of writing the children’s book, “C is for Chickasaw.” I wanted every element of each page to continue to draw young readers back and make it their own much-loved book.

After the book’s release through White Dog Press in 2014, I began to develop a vision for realizing the full potential of the book as a creative educational tool. Dreaming beyond the paper page, I imagined what it would be like to bring the characters and words to life, packing as much action as possible into a simple, but exciting digital book-app format for young readers.

The project took almost two years of conceptual development and 18 months of programming, but the “C is for Chickasaw” app finally became a reality and was released in the spring of 2017. The app is now available at the Apple App Store, Amazon and Google Play for $2.99. There are over 10 separate components of the app, including an expanded version of the “C is for Chickasaw” children’s book.

C is for Chickasaw

I wanted this app to be more universal than the book. When you strip the alphabet away, you touch on Chickasaw history and culture and are able to use it as an early childhood developmental tool.

I wrote the book to teach children about Chickasaw history and culture. It is filled with little bits and pieces of Chickasaw history and language. The book has many elements, but as an app those elements have increased ten-fold. The purpose of the book is realized even more so in this format. The app takes the book to a level where I think kids will want to come back to it over and over.

The app looks as much like the original book as possible, but I wanted it to have a pop-up picture book look, as well.  It was bringing flat art to life and working across multiple types of software in a trial and error process. There were many pieces, such as, “How do we get this letter ‘B’ to look like paper and wad up and move across the page?”

We produced over 77,000 lines of code and worked with over 1000 images, and that’s not including adding the audio. The app designer and I tested the app out by sharing it with our own children during the creation process. It includes areas of discovery for the kids to explore. There are hidden elements and a lot of discoveries to be made.

In addition to the app, this year we released the paperback version of “C is for Chickasaw” and a “C is for Chickasaw Coloring Book,” that adds a creative element to the educational applications for “C is for Chickasaw.”

Watch the book trailer!

 

Author Wiley Barnes

 

AUTHOR INFO: Wiley Barnes, Chickasaw, holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Oklahoma State University. He has spent nearly eighteen years forging a career in publishing, writing, printing, and graphic design, with the last eleven years at the Chickasaw Nation. During that time he has had the pleasure of working on a number of projects that promote Chickasaw culture and celebrate Chickasaw people. Barnes lives in Ada, Oklahoma, with his wife and two children.

Connect with Chickasaw Press on their website, Facebook, on ChickasawTV and their Chickasaw Kids website.

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Emily: 10-Year-Old Champion of Rainforest Animals in Need

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As a publisher of beautiful children’s books, Crickhollow Books is committed to quality over quantity.

Crickhollow Books and Crispin Books are intertwined imprints of their indie book publishing house that is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They are also known for their amazing catalog of picture books that shine the spotlight on topics with social or environmental impact. With titles like Doyli to the Rescue, Tony and His Elephants, and Tortuga Squad, they have much to be proud of!

author Cathleen Burnham

Crickhollow also offers a lot of middle-grade fiction focused on good values and a variety of books for adults, including books for writers on how to write well and get published.

“We love all our books just like parents love their kids,” shared Crickhollow Editor, Philip Martin. “Our homepage is a great showcase of what we do. As an indie press, we are like a parent that helps to bring something new and fresh into the world and then works for years to help it find its place, to grow to be part of a literary community of caring readers. Although we are microscopic in comparison to the big mega-houses, we work hard and take risks to produce quality books that can make a difference.”

Crickhollow Books That Make a Difference:

Emily: 10-Year-Old Champion of Rainforest Animals in Need by Cathleen Burnham

(Available September 2018)

Meet Emily, a girl who is active in a youth conservation program to save rainforest animals in western Costa Rica. She helps care for an orphaned baby sloth at an animal sanctuary and participates in other activities from dramatic presentations and clean-up efforts to the sponsorship of rope bridges installed to help squirrel monkeys cross busy roads near her small town. The story highlights the impact young people can have on protecting local wild animals and preserving natural habitats.

Emily: 10-Year-Old Champion of Rainforest Animals in Need is a photodocumentary book by journalist and writer Cathleen Burnham, the fourth in her WAKA (World Association of Kids and Animals) series of books featuring kids involved in wild animal rescue efforts around the globe, praised by School Library Journal as “books about compassionate efforts by children that inspire readers to take positive action … a wonderful addition to most collections”.

This book introduces Emily, a ten-year-old girl active in a youth conservation program to save rainforest animals in western Costa Rica called Kids Saving The Rainforest (KSTR).

Emily helps care for an orphaned baby sloth at a local animal sanctuary and participates in other activities from dramatic skits for tourists and clean-up sweeps to the sponsorship of rope bridges to help squirrel monkeys cross busy roads near her small town.

The story highlights the impact young people can have on protecting local wild animals and preserving natural habitats.

The conservation message is clear and is skillfully blended into the glimpse of everyday life of active kids and their families who are involved in small-scale, grassroots animal-rescue efforts.

This is Book 4 in the WAKA series of books featuring kids involved in wild animal rescue projects around the world.

About the Author

Cathleen Burnham is also the author of the highly acclaimed books, Doyli to the Rescue, Tony and His Elephants, and Tortuga Squad.

For the past fifteen years, Cathleen has traveled the globe, bringing back stories of the world’s remote cultures, from the Hodzabe People of Tanzania to the hill tribes of Thailand to the peoples of the Amazon. Her work in all areas of television production has included stints at NBC, PBS, and Fox. For the past eighteen years, she’s also been a Wildlife Rehabilitator under New York state D.E.C. board member Barbara Hollands’ license. This experience has given her an insight into animal behavior that’s served her well in both her writing and photography of wildlife across the world.

Cathleen is drawn to journalism because she believes in its paramount importance in a society and because she loves to learn the stories behind the planet’s people, animals, and places.

“Cathleen Burnham’s children’s book is a delightful book for all ages. It is the best kind of nonfiction – engaging as well as informative…. Burnham shows us how even young children can make a difference in the world. Young and old alike will be enthralled with this book.” – Natalie Kinsey-Warnock, Children’s Book Author

BONUS MATERIALS! To learn more about our WAKA (World Association of Kids and Animals) series and the stories behind each book, plus teacher’s guides and more resources, visit: www.WAKABooks.org

A Q&A with Author Cathleen Burnham

1. What inspired you to choose this story?

Cathleen: The ingenious, simple, and inexpensive solution of monkey bridges — that a child came up with!

The ropes strung across busy highways saved so many endangered monkeys’ lives. No big organization needed. No big studies launched. Just some kids thinking up an idea and putting it into action. I thought this story needed to be told to as wide an audience as possible.

In Costa Rica, as humans expand their towns into animals’ territory, many endangered animals are threatened by cars, or by eating foods given to them by tourists that make them sick. I also loved that Emily approached animal protection from several angles: creatively writing a play to educate tourists, helping at a wildlife rehabilitation center, and taking a few minutes now and then to help with clean-up sweeps with other kids. I want the message of these books to be that kids can do a few things in their free time to help local wildlife and make a positive impact. Emily was a great, real-life role model of ways kids can help.

I hope Emily: Champion of Rainforest Animals sparks excitement for kids and gets them thinking about how they can help the environment, wherever they live.

2. In your own words, tell us what the book is about?

Cathleen: Emily: Champion of Rainforest Animals tells about a real-life 10-year-old girl active in programs to save rainforest animals in western Costa Rica. She helps care for an orphaned baby sloth at an animal sanctuary and participates in other activities from dramatic presentations and clean-up efforts to the sponsorship of rope bridges to help squirrel monkeys cross busy roads near her small town. The story highlights the impact young people can have on protecting local wild animals and preserving natural habitats. This is Book 4 in the WAKA series of books featuring kids involved in wild animal rescue projects around the world.

3. If you were to let parents, teachers, and librarians know ONE THING about Emily: 10-Year-Old Champion of Rainforest, what would that one thing be?

Cathleen: Kids can have a real impact on the world around them! Kids are not just the next generations of caretakers of our planet, they also can do things now to make a difference. The WAKA series (4 books so far) are stories of kid power, stories about real kids to inspire kids and parent to empathize with the wild world around them, to see how we are all connected on this planet, and to find ways to make a difference.

4. If you were to give any advice to the those who dream of writing and publishing a book, what advice would you give?

Cathleen: Write often! Even if you feel your writing is terrible at first. It WILL get better and eventually get to be excellent if you just keep writing. Also, don’t limit your story trying to imitate what everyone else has already written or worrying about who will publish it. That can get in the way of your imagination. Just tell the story that spills out of your imagination, and then make it the best it can be.

5. What about Emily: 10-Year-Old Champion of Rainforest do you like best?

Cathleen:  I like all of the things that happen in the story, like the harrowing story of the baby sloth falling out of the tree, or the juvenile squirrel monkey saving the rest of its monkey troupe. But my favorite is the sloth walk — Emily taking the baby sloth for walks in the forest to help it learn about its environment. I loved that a kid got to do this, to hold a baby sloth and give it tons of love.

Kids Saving The Rainforest, featured in the Emily picture book, is such a remarkable organization.

It was started in Costa Rica by a group of kids and adults who had no qualifications except loving wildlife and wanting to protect it. I was so lucky to get to visit them, and I even got to take the baby sloth on a sloth walk myself. The sloth’s fur was very coarse. You really did have to hold a stuffed animal against your body, because those claws are sharp and they hurt when they cling to you – we humans don’t have thick, coarse fur to protect us. The little sloth moved very slowly, and it was adorable the way it would slooooowly turn its head to look at me with big, soft eyes. It was one of my favorite experiences.

To learn more about our WAKA (World Association of Kids and Animals) series and the stories behind each book, plus teacher’s guides and more resources, visit: www.WAKABooks.org

 

Connect with Cathleen and Crickhollow Books via their website.

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