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June 2005
It's Time To Get Back To School
In many parts of the country, July means school, new shoes and back-to-school sales. For kids, it means it is time to finish your summer reading lists. Back in the day, those reading lists didn't offer many choices if you were looking for multi-cultural vhildren's books. If you wanted a children's book that featured other cultures, you went across town to the 'other' bookstore.
With that in mind, we wanted to pose the question: What are your coices for the best multi-cultral children's book? Drop a line and let us know. Here are some of our picks.
Ages 2-5 |
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The Colors of Us
Lena discovers that she and her friends and neighbors are all beautiful shades of brown. "I am the color of cinnamon. Mom says she could eat me up," says Lena. Then she sees everyone else in terms of delicious foods: Mom is the color of French toast. Lena's friend Sonia is the color of creamy peanut butter. Isabella is chocolate brown like the cupcakes they had for her birthday. Lena's best friend, Jo-Jin, is the color of honey. Katz wrote and illustrated the story in affirmation of her adopted Guatemalan daughter and her friends, and the diversity that surrounds them.
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Shades of Black
The beauty of African-American children is celebrated in this joyous picture book. Wonderful, clear, full-color photographs of youngsters illustrate a poetic, vivid text that describes a range of skin and eye colors and hair textures. ("I am the midnight blue in a licorice stick/and the golden brown in sugar/I am the velvety orange in a peach/and the coppery brown in a pretzel.") Both the photographs and text with its refrain of "I am Black/I am Unique" impart a sense of pride and well-being. An affirmative message for children of all races.
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Ages 5-8 |
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The Other Side
 A story of friendship across a racial divide. Clover, the young African-American narrator, lives beside a fence that segregates her town. Her mother instructs her never to climb over to the other side because it isn't safe. But one summer morning, Clover notices a girl on the other side. Both children are curious about one another, and as the summer stretches on, Clover and Annie work up the nerve to introduce themselves. They dodge the injunction against crossing the fence by sitting on top of it together, and Clover pretends not to care when her friends react strangely at the sight of her sitting side by side with a white girl. Eventually, it's the fence that's out of place, not the friendship.
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Life Doesn't Frighten Me
A unique book that combines the words of a renowned African-American poet laureate and the primitive, modern paintings of a young Haitian-American artist. With lines of verse that shout exuberantly from each page, a young voice rails against any and all things that mean to do her harm. Whether they are "Shadows on the wall/ Noises down the hall" or even "Mean old Mother Goose/Lions on the loose"-to one and all she responds- "they don't frighten me at all." In the middle, the pace and intensity quicken as "I go boo/Make them shoo/I make fun/Way they run." Despite the scary things around her, the poet's determined courage remains.
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Ages 8-12 |
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Nobody's Family Is Going To Change
"At 11, Emma has a mind like a steel trap and her heart set on becoming a lawyer, much to the disgust of Mr. Sheridan, himself an attorney, who favors Willie [her brother] for such a profession. But Willie yearns to dance...The clashes begin and grow in intensity until an Armageddon of sorts, occurs between Willie, Emma, and their father." --Booklist
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The Skin I'm In
Thirteen-year-old Maleeka, uncomfortable because her skin is extremely dark, meets a new teacher with a birthmark on her face and makes some discoveries about how to love who she is and what she looks like.
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Ages 13 and Up |
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Jazmin's Notebook
 With exuberance, passion, perception, and wit, 14-year-old Jazmin Shelby fills her notebook with glimpses of her life, neighborhood, family, and dreams in Harlem in the 1960s. Jazmin is an observer and a thinker. From her apartment stoop, she savors the rhythm and blues that drifts out of the Garden of Eden Bar & Grill next door and watches customers come and go. At school, she avoids a fight by locking herself in the bathroom and scribbling her anger in verse. When a high-school guidance counselor suggests pursuing a vocational career, Jazmin clings to her aspirations of being a writer and demands a college-prep schedule.
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The Blueprint for My Girls : How to Build a Life Full of Courage, Determination, & Self-love
 Yasmin Shiraz developed The Blueprint for My Girls to help young women discover who they are, develop a sense of self, and stay positive. In the book, Yasmin pairs her personal stories with 99 "expressions" designed to help readers deal with situations they may not feel comfortable discussing with friends and family. Each expression is accompanied by exercises to help readers progress on their journey.Staying real without being preachy, The Blueprint for My Girls will be a solution giver, a problem solver, and a friend in need for generations to come.
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Peace and good books,
Sherri
Blackliterature.com - July 2005
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