When we adopted our first Black child, my eyes were opened to the lack of diversity in my own world. I realized that not only did we live in a predominantly white community, but we also watched TV shows that featured mostly white characters, read books where white people were the main characters, and bought Disney movies where the princesses were almost uniformly pale-skinned.
I began a hunt through bookstores for books with African-American characters. I was a voracious reader as a child, but the only Black characters that I remember reading about were very stereotypically drawn Southern mammies with accents. I would wince to read such things to my children these days. Over the past few years, we have significantly increased the diversity of the people featured in our home library. But I am still in need of more good books featuring African Americans.
That’s why I was so happy today to stumble upon a set of three books at Amazon.com that seem custom-made to help a parent with this dilemma.
–Black Books Galore! Guide to Great African American Children’s Books about Girls
–Black Books Galore! Guide to Great African American Children’s Books about Boys
–Black Books Galore!: Guide to More Great African American Children’s Books
The books were written by experienced mothers Donna Rand and Toni Trent Parker. Each book feature one-paragraph reviews of over three hundred worthwhile books featuring African-American characters of both sexes. The books are sorted by grade level and reading level, which makes it easier to pick a book at a reading level that suits your child. There are also separate indexes for titles, authors, illustrators, and topics. The authors successfully pulled together a stellar assortment of books for Black children from birth through eighth grade.
Related Links
How diverse is your city?
A Black Disney princess
Minorities in the Media
So Mary, When do you start writing children’s books? Your beautiful daughters in their new dresses can be the princesses. Julia
http://www.blackbooksgalore.com/
there are shows that have korean, african and others. its called Happily Ever After:Fairy tales for every child. Me and My older brother watched them all the time. theres all the fairy tales like cinderalla(hispanic),pinochio(african) , princess and the pea(korean) and many others.