Is your welcome mat out for everyone?
Books that illustrate and talk about diversity can easily lead to conversations on topics that deserve discussion. Topics that involve cultural diversity, inequality, poverty, race, gender identity or other characteristics children may not be familiar with are more likely to be greeted with acceptance and understood when discussed in advance. Preparing children for a multicultural society promotes justice and respect for differences. Prejudices and biased thinking are learned but so is acceptance and tolerance.
I love children's books because they contain simplistic stories to hard truths. Stories allow the reader to consider the situation and discuss what happened and why. Discussion starters should include open ended questions such as: What did you like/dislike about the story? How do you feel about the characters? What makes a person likeable to you? Books are a great way to learn differences are okay! Learning about differences might help prevent ignorance, embarrassment, fear or awkward reactions later.
In 2014 a grassroots organization, We Need Diverse Books, (WNDB, diversebooks.org), recognized and petitioned publishers for more diversity in children's literature. Because all people should be represented in book.
The images below link to books in the catalog representing diversity.
Board Books
Picture Books
Juvenile Nonfiction
A few of my favorite older titles;
