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What are your favorite multicultural / diverse books?


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My girls are biologically Mayan. I've always made an effort to have a variety of races and cultures represented in the things they see / use, e.g., dolls, books, etc. Books designed for little kids and representing various races are easy to find. But books for older kids? Not so much.

 

My dd5 is at a level where she's reading Charlotte's Web, Little House books, and the like (and she'll also read books for younger kids provided they are challenging). She also likes biographies and biographical fiction.

 

Do you have any suggestions of really good books involving characters (shown in a positive light) that are non-white? Bonus points if they are also non-black.

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What about?

 

Secret of the Andes (Clark) - alot of detail about life in the Andes and the Incas - difficult reading, tho. It was a read-aloud for us.

 

The Big Wave (Buck) - about a tidal wave in Japan - pretty easy reading

 

Pocahontas and the Strangers (Bulla) - the main character is a Native American princess. My daughter thought this was the greatest book ever written.

 

The Sign of the Beaver (Speare) - alot of detail about Native American life in Maine. We actually did a huge unit study with this book. My son thought THIS was the greatest book ever written. :D

 

Little Pear - about a small boy in China long ago - easy to read

 

I haven't read these, but these seem popular:

 

House of Sixty Fathers (DeJong) - we plan to read this at some point - about China during a Japanese invasion

 

Tales of a Korean Grandmother: 32 Traditional Tales from Korea - this is high on my booklist, but we haven't gotten to it yet

 

Om-kas-toe - about the Blackfeet in the 1700s

 

Naya Nuki - got good reviews

 

Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman - this is on our list for next year

 

Rickshaw Girl - about a girl in Bangladesh

 

Like the other poster said: Look at Sonlight's Core F. Your daughter is probably a little too young for those books right now, but you'll be there soon.

 

Here's a link to 50 Multi-cultural books every child should know. Website seems to be from University of Wisconsin-Madison:

 

http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/books/detailListBooks.asp?idBookLists=42

 

I hope something out of that list helped!

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My children aren't early readers, but they do like a good story. Two I can think of immediately from our bookshelf are:

 

El Chino and How My Parents Learned to Eat. Wow, we've had both of these books since 2005. (Thank you amazon for that snippet of info!) They are just 32 page, illustrated stories. Decent vocabulary.

 

Probably my alltime favorite "multicultural" book is Come Over to My House which has been republished under the Dr. Seuss name, but I gave you a link to the original. I still have my 1968 copy. Definitely for littles, but I still delight in it, as do my children.

 

Oh, and how about Surf's Up for Kimo? Again, not a chapter book, but a good story.

 

Good luck!

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