Embrace Race: Where to find “diverse” children’s books: https://medium.com/embrace-race/where-to-find-diverse-childrens-books-5bc8c8bc971b#.knz156fia
Looking for lists and reviews of great books for kids featuring cultural diversity? Try Melissa Giraud’s website “Embrace Race,” and her collection of websites listing suggestions. She is the co-founder of EmbraceRace, “a community of support about race and raising kids.” Users of her site can even suggest links to books, booklists, and other online material that would be useful to her site.
The site suggests many of the best resources on diverse children’s books, including We Need Diverse Books and Latinz in Kid Lit. There is also a list of books called “Kids of Color Being Themselves, Because That’s Enough.” The books on this list show ethnically diverse children in a variety of everyday activities, without focusing on racial history or struggles. Librarians often see this in preschool picture books, using the example of Ezra Jack Keats’ A Snowy Day, but this list includes books for upper elementary age readers as well.
Many librarians have called for more diversity in easy readers; there is a list on the Ten Best Multicultural Easy Readers that can help, although there is clearly more work that needs to be done in this area. And the resources are not just on ethnic diversity, there are lists on LGBTQ books, too.
The site also lists useful articles, such as Louise Derman-Sparks “Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children’s Books.” You can sign up receive updates, just like a blog, making this a dynamic, evolving site that is very easy to use.
Penny Peck, San Jose State University iSchool
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