With a family heritage that is South American on my side and Germanic/British/American on my husband’s, we have quite a mix in our family that is reflected in hair color, skin tone and the like. And I have many friends from various ethnicities or those who are in biracial marriages, or raising a blended family via adoption. All that to say is that we are all very intentional of reading books that feature characters that actually reflect the world around us and I’ve led workshops with children’s author Lauren Ranalli on creating an intentional bookshelf (please contact me if you would like more information on that).
I grew up surrounded by the European/North American ‘ideal’ of blonde hair and blue eyes and while much has changed in the world of children’s literature, it is still staggering to note that only 13% of books in the last 24 years (1994-2017) contain multicultural content (source: Lee & Low Books). Representation matters and we can do our part by being mindful of what we put into the hands of our littles. With that in mind, here’s a short list of some of our favorite picture books and early chapter book series with diverse characters if you’d like to intentionally diversify your children’s summer reading:
Picture Books:
A Boy Like You by Frank Murphy
Ada’s Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay by Susan Hood
Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal
Charlotte and the Quiet Place by Deborah Sosin
Flossie and the Fox by Patricia McKissack
Hank’s Big Day: The Story of a Bug by Evan Kuhlman
Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall
La Princesa and the Pea by Susan Middleton Elya
The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi
Princess and the Peas by Rachel Himes
Steamboat School by Deborah Hopkinson
Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Mantchev
The Bake Shop Ghost by Jacqueline Ogburn
The Blacker the Berry (poetry) by Joyce Carol Thomas
The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson
The Very Last Castle by Travis Jonker
Early Chapter Books/Juvenile Fiction:
The Clubhouse Mysteries series
