Diversity Matters: Three Recent Favorite Kids Books
Today I wanted to highlight a few of my recent favorite book purchases that focus on diverse characters. It’s important for all kids to be represented in books and for their libraries to feature characters that look like the way the world looks. Here are some of books that have been on constant rotation as of late in our house.
Amy Wu and The Perfect Bao by Kat Zhang - This is a very new purchase but already one of my daughter’s most requested books. This book tells the story of a Amy, a young girl on a mission to make the perfect bao. She wants hers to be as perfect as the ones her mom, dad and grandma make but it takes a lot of determination (and trial and error) to finally make the perfect one. I love the main character of the book, as well as her cute cat, and there is even a bao recipe at the end of the book that we’re excited to try.
The Proudest Blue - I am such a huge fan of this book! Written by Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad (also the first Muslim American woman in hijab to compete) and S. K. Ali, this beautiful book tells the story of two sisters on their first day of school. Faizah, the younger sister, is excited because it is her older sister’s first day of hijab. Not everyone understands her hijab but the story contains my favorite few lines in all of our kids books: “Don’t carry around the hurtful words that others say. Drop them. They are not yours to keep. They belong only to those who said them.”
Parker Looks Up by Jessica Curry - This book is based on the memorable photo that went viral last year of a young girl (Parker Curry) looking up at Michelle Obama’s portrait at the National Portrait Gallery. When young Parker sees Obama’s portrait she is blown away to see someone that reminds her of her mother, her sister and ultimately herself hanging along of the other wondrous images in the portrait gallery. This one is downright magical with it’s powerful message and it’s effortless magical realism. We’ll be reading this one on the daily for many weeks to come.
Happy reading!
-Callie
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