Book recommendations needed (diversity)

[Amethyst]

Hi Folks! I homeschooled for many years and always found this site so very helpful. 

One of my daughters got her first teaching job (yay!), and it’s all online. I thought it would be nice to set up the bookshelves that will be in the background when she does video lessons with books appropriate to her fourth grade class. No problem - I have tons of children’s books around my house even though my youngest is 20.

I was shocked to discover how very White our children’s books are! The class my daughter is teaching is about 75% Nepalese and the remainder Hispanic and Black. 
Can anyone recommend some fourth grade books that have main characters that have some diversity?  TIA

[Mommalongadingdong]

The books are fluff, but the Upside Down Magic series is really diverse and my kids love them. They just made a Disney movie too. 

[Amethyst]

Thanks for this link! I’ll look through it. 
 

And just to clarify for everyone, I’m notnlooking for books ABOUT diversity, per se. Just books where the characters are non-White. You know, a boy and his dragon, but the boy is Hispanic, something like that.

[Amethyst]

9 minutes ago, Mommalongadingdong said:

The books are fluff, but the Upside Down Magic series is really diverse and my kids love them. They just made a Disney movie too. 

Great. Thanks. I’ll check them out!

[Noreen Claire]

You should definitely check out Here We Read. I follow her on instagram, and she has ALL THE BOOKS.

[vonfirmath]

1 hour ago, Mommalongadingdong said:

The books are fluff, but the Upside Down Magic series is really diverse and my kids love them. They just made a Disney movie too. 

And my kids both love this series -- we started getting them when my son was 4th or 5th grade adn they still look for new books to come out now that my daughter is 4th grade

 

Edited September 17, 2020 by vonfirmath

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and its sequels are lovely, all characters are Chinese.  

Holes- main character is white, but many others characters are black, plus it's an amazing book!

Esperanza Rising

The Cay

 

[Amethyst]

On 9/17/2020 at 12:59 PM, Noreen Claire said:

You should definitely check out Here We Read. I follow her on instagram, and she has ALL THE BOOKS.

Thanks for this. I followed it on Insta. 

[Amethyst]

6 hours ago, Monica_in_Switzerland said:

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and its sequels are lovely, all characters are Chinese.  

Holes- main character is white, but many others characters are black, plus it's an amazing book!

Esperanza Rising

The Cay

 

Never heard of this first one. Thanks. I never even thought of Holes, great idea. Love that book! I had already put Esperanza Rising on hold at the library. I'm pretty sure my own kids read this years ago, but I never did. And The Cay is a great idea too. Another one that I read, but never thought about regarding non-White characters. Thanks!

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

11 hours ago, Amethyst said:

Never heard of this first one. Thanks. I never even thought of Holes, great idea. Love that book! I had already put Esperanza Rising on hold at the library. I'm pretty sure my own kids read this years ago, but I never did. And The Cay is a great idea too. Another one that I read, but never thought about regarding non-White characters. Thanks!

 

Where the  Mountain Meets the Moon and its sequels are favorites here.  They are just beautifully done.  The books are also gorgeous, with color illustrations from time to time.  But its the story that is truly remarkable.  It's actually similar to Holes, in that all things come full circle in an amazingly satisfying way.