suenos Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Suggestions of titles and/or authors? I'm not looking for books about diversity/tolerance/justice issues. Rather, just for books that have non-white main characters. Something along the lines of Jack Ezra Keats' books. Picture books preferred - longer/more complex is good. These will be read-alouds for DS 7 - a very beginning reader. Any chapter book suggestions would be appreciated too. I'd file them away for the future. I've found some that meet this requirement - but most of these are set in other countries, not in the US, and are really 'about' other countries/cultures/myths/etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5wolfcubs Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Aliki is the author/illustrator of My Visit to the Zoo. She has written lots of books, many of which probably fit your critera. Check your library! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73349 Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 http://www.whatdowedoallday.com/2013/07/21-picture-books-with-diverse-characters.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanaqui Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Do you know, my sister just asked me to compile such a list. I'll make it and c+p it here for you. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haanz Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 The Apple-Pip Princess by Jane Ray John Phillip Duck by Patricia Polacco 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalmia Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 http://www.amazon.com/Alejandros-Gift-Richard-E-Albert/dp/0811813428/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422124594&sr=1-1&keywords=alejandro%27s+garden 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandra Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Here is one list. We have read a lot of these, and I think it is a pretty good list. http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/10744.African_American_Picture_Books 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Children Just Like Me-beautiful long picture book about children, one child featured from each of many cultures all over the world. My ds loved that book at 7! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanaqui Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Okay, this is the edited version of the list I sent to my sister. I cut out or italicized (depending on length and complexity) all the short books that are more appropriate for younger children than to read aloud to a seven year old. Some of these I've given away, so I don't quite remember the age level. Books by Ezra Jack Keats Ben's Trumpet The Umbrella (Jan Brett) Paperboy On My Way to Buy Eggs Down the Road Wings Lookin' For Bird in the Big City Metal Man The Moon Over Star My Cat Copies Me Matthew and Tilly The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County Bright Path: Young Jim Thorpe Charlie Parker Played BeBop The Old Man and His Door Too Many Tamales Two Mrs. Gibsons Bee-Bim Bop! Where on Earth is My Bagel? Many of the Munsch books The Name Jar No Dinner! The Jamela books Do Like Kyla Lon Po Po The Hello, Goodbye Window Pinkney's The Nightingale Pinkney's Red Riding Hood Sam and the Tigers The Story of Little Babaji (this one and Sam are retellings of, um, a book by Helen Bannerman, but with updated language illustrations. Sam is by far the better one, if you ask me.) Talkin' About Bessie Tallchief: America's Prima Ballerina Misty Copeland's Firebird Apple Pie Fourth of July The Ugly Vegetables Bigmama's I, Matthew Henson The Other Mozart Baseball Saved Us Shortcut Visiting Langston Dad, Jackie, and Me Wilma Unlimited Umbrella by Taro Yashima Nothing But Trouble Lily Brown's Paintings Precious and the Boo Hag The Quilt A Coyote Columbus Story Sukey and the Mermaid Mirandy and Brother Wind Flossie and the Fox The Rain Stomper Jingle Dancer Come On, Rain The Talking Eggs Coyote in Love With a Star Sam and the Tigers Little Babaji Sugar Cane Just Us Women The books by Rachel Isadora, especially the fairy tale books Pretty Salma The Apple-Pip Princess Big Red Lollipop There Are No Scary Wolves A Chair for my Mother I Like Myself! Ten, Nine, Eight Max Found Two Sticks Cherries and Cherry Pie How My Parents Learned to Eat Corduroy Chicken Sunday Jojo's Flying Sidekick Jazz Baby Aunt Flossie's Hats The Wonderful Towers of Watts Raising Dragons Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm On Mother's Lap Mama, Do You Love Me? (and sequels) I Love My Hair! Feast for 10 Jordi's Star More, More, More Said the Baby Elizabeti's Doll The Hatseller and the Monkeys I can later compile a list of chapter books if you like. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 This one is beautiful. http://www.amazon.com/Tan-Tamarind-Poems-About-Color/dp/0892392274/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422133735&sr=8-1&keywords=tan+to+tamarind 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murmer Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 There is a free iPhone app called We Read Too that has lists of books with children of color by authors of color. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Corduroy and A Pocket for Corduroy by Don Freeman A Chair for My Mother A Child's Book of Poems My daughter had several Native American story books as well. I don't recall titles right now and she's not sound enough asleep that I could sneak into her room at the moment. They sort of fall into the folklore/myth category though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertflower Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 We March by Shane Evans. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suenos Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 Wow - now I have several years' worth of reading, a new app and a brand new Amazon wish list! Many thanks y'all!!! Tanaqui - hope your sis loves your list, too! Now I'm off to my library website to place some holds! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanaqui Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 :) I cheated. I happen to have a list on my computer of books we own or owned, so I just took from there. I could come up with a more complete list if I included library books as well, or other books we just happened to enjoy (I think I forgot Seven Chinese Sisters, but, you know, Grace Lin is just generally awesome) but I thought I'd start off with the shortlist. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Just a question...Do you mean these are readers for your child, or books for you to read to him? It seems you may be using the word "read aloud" to mean books he reads aloud to you. The reason I ask is that picture books are not always easy to read, as a beginning reader may need. Just be aware that just because a book is a picture book does not mean it is necessarily for a new reader. They can be full of rich and even phonetically difficult words. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather R Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 We like the Akimbo series by Alexander McCall Smith. They are early chapter books. I read them aloud to all my kids when they were in the 5-7ish age range, though my daughter could have read them herself at that age. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Lee and Low is a publishing company that publishes diverse children's books. Their entire backlist is great stuff and will include a lot of newer books: https://www.leeandlow.com/ The Coretta Scott King Award is given to children's books that positively depict African-Americans. There is a middle grades winner and illustrated winner for each year it's been given: http://www.ala.org/emiert/cskbookawards In addition to authors like Ezra Jack Keats, who wrote about diverse characters, I like to also be sure I'm including books by diverse authors as well. Non-white Picture book authors I like include Carole Boston Weatherford, Kadir Nelson, Andrea Pinkney, Faith Ringgold, Grace Lin, Linda Sue Park, Uma Krishnaswami... just off the top of my head... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kubiac Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Tomas and the Library Lady by Mora All the Colors of the Earth by Hanamanka Trina Schart Hyman included people of color in her work a great deal, in part because she wanted to represent the faces of people who looked like her Cameroonian-American grandchildren. One book that comes to mind is her re-illustration of John Updike's A Child's Calendar. Pragmatic Mom covers this topic a great deal; here is her relevant blog category: http://www.pragmaticmom.com/category/my-best-book-lists/people-of-color-childrens-lit/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suenos Posted January 26, 2015 Author Share Posted January 26, 2015 Just a question...Do you mean these are readers for your child, or books for you to read to him? It seems you may be using the word "read aloud" to mean books he reads aloud to you. The reason I ask is that picture books are not always easy to read, as a beginning reader may need. Just be aware that just because a book is a picture book does not mean it is necessarily for a new reader. They can be full of rich and even phonetically difficult words. Hi Chris - I meant books I'd read-aloud to DS. Thanks for checking! The complex language in stories in picture books is something I really like - it means we can still be cuddling up reading beautiful books on the couch, even though we've started to add chapter books. DS is not "picking up" reading easily - so the books we go with for him to practice are mostly phonics based readers or simple stories with lots of words he knows. Keeping reading interesting and fun though is high on my priority list. And I can't help having a stealth agenda at the same time...hence this list! Yet more good suggestions y'all - thanks! Farrar - I really appreciate the authors list - I thought of the diverse books/diverse authors point, but just wanted stuff to choose from, so didn't want to restrict. Little did I know this board would produce so many great book suggestions! Another thing about pursuing author/illustrators is that consistency seems to go over well with DS, so we tend to find a good author/illustrator and read several of their books, until we've had our fill. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibraryLover Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 In addition to great books also mentioned, I'd add Dumpling Soup, How My Parents Learned to Eat, More, More, More, Said The Baby. (Edited. I see this last one has been mentioned. :)) Books by Miriam Cohen (these are older, and some take place in school. But the children are lovely and diverse.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanaqui Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Actually, so has How My Parents Learned to Eat, but I know it's a super long list :P Dumpling Soup, now, that's a new one by me. I'll add it to my list next time somebody asks for it :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wishes Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Anything by Allen Say, Walter Dean Myers (he does picture books and chapter books), and Jacqueline Woodson. JW does young adult as well but they cover a wide range of topics so you may want to preview them. Her picture books are sweet and poignant. I love Show Way. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HejKatt Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Sleeping Bear Press has two picture book series which are beautifully illustrated; the writing is of even, thoughtful quality. 1) Tales of Young Americans - stories of American children from different pivotal moments. Some titles fit your criteria - l"Paper Son" (Chinese immigrant experience), "Pappy's Handkerchief" (an African American family's move to Oklahoma), The Listeners (life on a plantation), The Tsunami Quilt (Japanese Americans in Hawaii). http://sleepingbearpress.com/series/82-tales-of-young-americans 2) Tales of the World - told from the viewpoint of children in different parts of the world. http://sleepingbearpress.com/series/81-tales-of-the-world 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suenos Posted April 9, 2015 Author Share Posted April 9, 2015 Just wanted to come back to this thread to say thanks - we've been having fun with books on the lists y'all have generated all year! (And kept my county's interlibrary loan busy..) Lots of the trickster tales have been really fun - like Precious and the Boo Hag, Flossie and the Fox. My boy loves reading about kids getting the upper hand in life! So many of the suggestions here have been so good - we have read intentionally about racial/ethnic equality and struggles (well, lightly - for a 7 yo) [inter-racial family here] - but I really wanted a wealth of books with non-white/non-American characters just going about life - like 'mainstream' characters get to do. Thanks everyone for taking the time to contribute to this list. I've made my own master copy to pass on to others when the time comes! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted April 9, 2015 Share Posted April 9, 2015 Recent article about Latino Children's books published in 2015: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2015/04/03/the-rise-in-latino-childrens-literature-a-2015-accounting/ (I'm currently reading Echo and its REALLY good.) An Expanded Cultural Diversity Booklist -- books for all different grae levels. Not specifically picture. http://www.slj.com/2014/05/diversity/an-expanded-cultural-diversity-booklist-slj-readers-respond/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted April 9, 2015 Share Posted April 9, 2015 We got one from the library this week called Last Stop on Market Street by Matt De La Pena. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Jessica* Posted April 9, 2015 Share Posted April 9, 2015 http://weneeddiversebooks.org/where-to-find-diverse-books/ is a good resource. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pehp Posted April 9, 2015 Share Posted April 9, 2015 We like Amazing Grace (about a girl named Grace;)). There are several books about Grace. When my babies are babies I love reading "Please Baby Please" to them. Adorable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistyMountain Posted April 9, 2015 Share Posted April 9, 2015 Why Mosquito's Buzz in People's Ears Cherries and Cherry Pits Carlos Light the Farolita Seeds of Change Dumpling Soup Planting the Trees of Kenya The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind I have read quite a few lately but I cannot think of the titles. My local library is good about putting diverse books and books on different culture on display recently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly Posted April 9, 2015 Share Posted April 9, 2015 molly bang books storm in the night corduroy mrs. katz and tush --these are used with FIAR...I always liked their inclusion of different cultures and ethnicities. They have several others, but I'd say they focus more on slavery or different countries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renai Posted April 9, 2015 Share Posted April 9, 2015 The Carlos books (set in New Mexico): Carlos and the Squash Plant Carlos and the Cornfield Carlos Digs to China They are written in English and Spanish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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