Book Recommendations for Turbulent Times

There are a lot of great books that explicitly discuss race, and now, more than ever, they are flying off the shelves. Last week, Dr. Ibram Kendi shared on social media that “On the most recent New York Times list of best-selling nonfiction in e-books and print, five of the Top 15 titles address racism. . .The week before, there were none." And of course, this is a good trend.

The same is true for #kidlit, but I would recommend against buying every children’s book about the Civil Rights Movement for your kids and then calling it a day. Hear me out: Kids don’t really start to develop the capacity for nuance until age seven, and they also don’t yet have the historical context for the stories they’re hearing.

It's very easy to fall into a trap of only reading books that present people of color as victims in our society (let it be said and understood that people of color are far too often victims in our society). If Latinx people are most often written as downtrodden immigrants, if Black people only exist in kids’ books during Jim Crow or slavery, kids notice that. But they don’t yet have the skills to unpack it. It's easy for them to think, at a very deep and almost unconscious level, that people of color primarily exist within the narrative of oppression.

So what should we read? Especially if your home library is currently largely populated by white, male protagonists and you’re looking to change that, I strongly advise a twofold approach: buy books that explicitly discuss race and anti-racism with your kids, be sure to read and discuss with them AND normalize diversity in their daily lives and on their bookshelf.

Here are some books I highly recommend (these lean a little heavy on female protagonists – this is an opportunity to normalize diverse books with female protagonists, too!):

(The Spitfire Club financially benefits from purchases made using the below links)

Great books that explicitly explore racism and/or diversity:

• IntersectionAllies by Chelsea Johnson, LaToya Council, and Carolyn Choi

• The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander

• Peaceful Fights for Equal Rights by Rob Sanders

• Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña

• Firebird by Misty Copeland

• The Proudest Blue by Ibtihaj Muhammad

• Dreamers/Soñadores by Yuyi Morales

• Mae Among The Stars by Roda Ahmed

• The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson

• All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold

• The Sandwich Swap by Queen Rania of Jordan and Kelly DiPucchio

Great books that normalize diverse representation (bookshelf staples):

• Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal

• Mary Had a Little Glam by Tami Sauer

• Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love

• Monster Trouble by Lane Frederickson (this one seems to be out of print and it breaks my heart! Our kids LOVE this one. Grab a copy anywhere you can find it)

• Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio

• Sofia Valdez, Future Prez by Andrea Beaty

• Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty

• Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall

• Festival of Colors by Surishtha and Kabir Sehgal

• Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns by Hena Khan

• Mango, Abuela and Me by Meg Medina

• We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell

• Super Satya Saves the Day by Raakhee Mirchandani

• Under My Hijab by Hena Khan

Books about kindness and empathy:

• If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson

• Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson

• Adrian Simcox Does Not Have a Horse by Marcy Campbell and Corinna Luyken

• The New Girl ... and Me by Jaqui Robbins

• The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade by Justin Roberts