Fatima's Great Outdoors, by Ambreen Tariq and illustrated by Stevie Lewis

 

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library!)

One Plastic Bag, by Miranda Paul and illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon

 

BUY HERE (or, even better, request from your local library!)

Hello, Crochet Friends!, by Jonah and Jennifer Larson and photographed by Erin Harris

 

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library!)

Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen and illustrated by Lucia Soto

 

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library)

Serena: The Littlest Sister, by Karlin Gray and illustrated by Monica Ahanonu

 

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library)

Carpenter's Helper, by Sybil Rosen and illustrated by Camille Garoche

 

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library)

The Boy Who Grew a Forest, by Sophia Gholz and illustrated by Kayla Harren

 

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library!)

Kaia and the Bees, by Maribeth Boelts and illustrated by Angela Dominguez

 

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library)

Rocket Says Look Up and Rocket Says Clean Up, by Nathan Bryon and illustrated by Dapa Adeola

 

BUY HERE (Look) and BUY HERE (Clean) (or, even better, request at your local library)

The Day You Begin, by Jacqueline Woodson

The Day You Begin focuses on children who feel different, for reasons such as the way they look, how much money their family has,  or the language they speak. It truly captures the feeling of aloneness and otherness, as well as the courage it takes to announce your otherness to the world and go forth and find commonality with others.  This isn't the type of book I'd typically recommend - it doesn't have a linear plot - but my son and I were both entranced by the emotions so perfectly captured in this book that, for once, it didn't matter.  

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library)

Don't Touch My Hair, by Sharee Miller

Aria loves her hair but is fed up with everyone attempting to touch it.  She devises elaborate avoidance techniques, hides in the bushes, and even runs away to the tallest castle, but people (or fantastical creatures) STILL try and touch her hair. She finally gets fed up and yells "DON'T TOUCH MY HAIR!" and elaborates that people need to ask permission and respect her wishes.

It's simple but effective. To be honest, I somewhat reluctantly picked up Don't Touch My Hair by author-illustrator Sharee Miller, thinking my son probably wouldn't be interested and there wouldn't be much of a story involved. We've read a lot of books (seriously, so so many) that celebrate Black hair, but don't go beyond that and tell any sort of story to grab a child's interest. This and Bippity Bop Barbershop are the only two that my son has actually enjoyed and requested again.   

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library)

Kaia and the Bees, by Maribeth Boelts

We read Kaia and the Bees as part of a bee study I did with my son, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Kaia is shown as having a Black father and a white mother - something that isn't otherwise discussed in the story.  My son strongly identified with this story because of Kaia's fear of bee stings, and it's a quick engaging read.  

Kaia's dad keeps bees on the roof of their apartment building, though Kaia never helps because she was previously stung by a bee.  Though one day she brags to her friends about how much she helps with the bees, only to panic - right in front of them! - when a bee lands on her arm.  Their laughter goads her into actually going on the roof with the bees.  It's great, until . . . she takes off a glove and is stung AGAIN.  The book ends with her overcoming her fear and also learning a bit about bees.  

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library)

Silent Night, by Lara Hawthorne

This book combines the words to Silent Night with beautifully illustrated pictures of the Nativity, a Nativity scene full of people with black and brown skin.  I was thrilled when we came across this book at the library, and given that Silent Night is one of our favorite lullabies to sign at bedtime it's already been read repeatedly.  A simple, lovely Christmas story.

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library!)

Amazing Grace, by Mary Hoffman

Sometimes I shy away from checking out classics from the library, they frequently tend to be dated or dull.  That was not the case with Amazing Grace.  When Grace's class decides to put on the play Peter Pan she announces that she'll play the lead, but is told by her classmates that she can't because she is neither white nor a boy.  Grace's mom and grandmother discuss with her, and when Grace auditions the class unanimously agrees that she's the perfect Peter!

It's a straightforward, realistic story is easily applicable to the current political climate - just look at what happened when Disney announced Halle Bailey (a Black woman) would play Ariel.  The story is easy to follow and doesn't condescend to children. 

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library!)

Sergio Sees the Good, by Linda Ryden

I don't know how it's possible we hadn't come across this book previously - I love it, my son loves it, and it teaches an amazing lesson - it really should be a classic.  Sergio comes home fuming about his awful day at school, but his mom proposes a test of sorts - why don't they take a scale and put marbles on the 'good' and 'bad' sides representing everything that happened to him during his day.  The details are ones that will engage kids, such as mean kids stealing a basketball at the playground.  Sergio takes his mom through his day and realizes that maaaybe things weren't so bad after all.  There's a bit of an over-explanation of the concept of 'negativity bias' at the end of the book that I rush through as my son's eyes glaze over, but maybe an older child would be more into the concept - which is nicely illustrated through the story.

A couple times when we've read this book my son has enthusiastically tested out his own day - stacking magnatiles to represent 'good' and 'bad' things that happened to him and marveling at how much taller the good pile is!  This would be an especially good book if you happen to have a 'glass half full' type of kid.  

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library!)

The Great Cake Mystery, by Alexander McCall Smith

Precious Ramotswe, an observant young girl in Botswana, is positive she would make a fine detective.  Luckily for her, a mystery quickly presents itself - a piece of cake goes missing at school.  Precious avoids jumping to conclusions about the culprit (unlike some of her classmates, to her dismay), and slowly pieces together that in fact the monkeys are the guilty ones!

We were thrilled to discover this easy to read chapter book set in Botswana - we always keep our eyes out for books set in any African country and our son (5 years old) was instantly engaged.  He guessed early on that the monkeys had stolen the cake - but this only made him want to keep reading (to confirm his hunch) and we finished the book quickly over the course of two days.  This is a great book for kids just getting into chapter books and for parents who are sick of poorly written easy reader books with annoying characters and dull plots (or is that just me?).

BUY HERE (or even better, request at your local library!)

Edited to add that we've since read The Mystery of Meerkat Hill and The Mystery of the Missing Lion and that my son was equally thrilled by these mysteries, while I was thrilled by how the author thoughtfully wove in lessons about kindness and poverty.

Not Norman, by Kelly Bennett

I've been so focused on writing about newer library books that we're into that I neglected a long-time favorite we just came across again!

Not Norman follows the story of a young black boy who desperately wants a pet, but is not so thrilled to receive a goldfish for his birthday.  He has various plans to get rid of Norman, but in the process finds himself enjoying Norman's company.  It's a straightforward well told story that we both enjoyed reading over and over, and one that I would highly recommend to all families.  Absolutely no downsides to this wonderful book!

BUY HERE (or request at your local library!)

The Bat Boy & His Violin, by Gavin Curtis

Reginald, a young black boy who excels at the violin, lives with a father who prefers baseball, and in fact manages the Dukes - a team in the Negro National League.  His father signs him up to be bat boy, a task Reginald is largely uninterested in.  However, it turns out that the players love Reginald's music and it even seems to inspire them to play better!

This book was a natural fit for my sports (and music) obsessed son.  It does require that your child have a basic understanding of discrimination - the book is set in 1948, when baseball teams are becoming integrated but at the same time the Dukes aren't able to find a hotel to sleep in the night before their big game (with one clerk stating "We don't exactly cotton to coloreds sleepin' in our beds").  If your child loves Jackie Robinson as much as mine, this will deepen their understanding of his bravery and historical significance.

An added bonus is that this book is both written and illustrated by black men!

BUY HERE (or request at your local library!)

I Am Jazz, by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings

I grabbed this at the library, grateful for a book that would help explain what it means to be transgender but at the same time honestly not expecting much (given that we haven't generally liked many children's books written by celebrities - though Jazz Jennings is perhaps better viewed as an activist).  However, I was pleasantly surprised by this story!  While there isn't really a story - there is a clear narrative of Jazz's experience as a transgender child and my son really, really just got it on the first reading. 

One minor caveat - the book does present gender very simplistically, in that it seems to point to Jazz's interests in princesses, mermaid costumes, and dresses (versus trucks or tools) as a reason that she is a girl.  Problematic when my son is at an age where he is starting to come home from school and make pronouncements like "I hate princesses" (despite his obsession with Moana).  And while these may be specific things that Jazz is (and is not) interested in I didn't want to convey the message to my son that girls like these things and boys like these other things, and so I ended up changing a few of the parts of the book when I read it aloud to my son.  However, overall this book is an excellent introduction to what transgender means for younger readers.  

BUY HERE (or request at your local library!)

Wild About You, by Judy Sierra

Another cautious recommendation for a book that touches on adoption.  Cautious because there are many problematic elements (as there nearly always are), but a recommendation nonetheless because there are also some wonderful lessons that I haven't seen elsewhere.

In Wild About You, all the animals are having babies!  Except for the tree kangaroo and the pandas - who desperately want babies and even attempt asking the crocodiles if they can have theirs.  A zookeeper offers up an abandoned egg and while all of the birds refuse to adopt it (saying it's too small or they don't have space), the tree kangaroo steps forward.  Eventually, out hatches a penguin.  The tree kangaroo is surprised but loves him completely, while acknowledging that she needs help from other animals to raise her penguin "because penguins eat fishes."  And the community steps up!  The penguins bring fish, the flamingos invite the penguin over for a playdate, but the bond remains between the penguin and her adoptive mother.  Meanwhile, the pandas adopt a kitten they find and similarly, the tigers bring fresh milk and the meerkats set up playdates.  The lesson of the book is summed up at the end: "To bring up a baby . . . IT TAKES THE WHOLE ZOO."

Obviously, there are problems with this narrative - the big two being focusing entirely on the deep desire of the parents for a child (and ignoring the child's loss and point of view) and the refusal of the other animals to adopt the egg.  However, as a adoptive parent, and in particular a parent with a transracially adopted child, I really appreciated that the book celebrated adoptive animals reaching out to other animals who were better suited to help their child when it was necessary.  There is a nice parallel to best practices for adoptive families, as they reach out to people of the same race of their child, as well as finding a community of other adoptive families and adopted individuals for their child to relate to.

BUY HERE (or request at your local library!)