Learning About Cultural Differences and Fairness

All we need is air, water, things to learn, a home, food, friends.  All we need is to share. This beautifully illustrated books shows a multi-racial neighborhood where adults and children care for each other with joy and ease.

One friend, then two. Two friends, then more. This is how a circle of friends grows. Children of many colors, some with visible differences of abilities, play with “circles” – a ball bounces, wheels roll, hula hoops spin, bubbles pop. The reader gets to count along in this joyful celebration of play and diversity.

A young Dominican American girl moves from jealousy to compassion as her parents provide overnight child care for parents who work night shifts. Raquel’s Dad works nghts at the hospital. Eduardo’s Mom sings in a night club. Lisa’s grandmother works nights cleaning offices. Each visiting child gets to sleep on the cot in the living room—and the child narrator never gets to sleep there. “It’s not fair” she wails. Finally, Mamita and Papi finally agree she gets a turn—and the child experiences the room as dark and scary and doesn’t smell or sound like her room, and it’s lonely without her big sister. So—when Raquel comes back again—they move the cot into the two sisters’ bedroom—where it is not lonely at all. A wonderful story about a working class family taking care of other families in their community.

Daniel lives in a multi-racial neighborhood filled with interesting people who all have different ideas about what makes a good day. Gorgeous illustrations support the story as Daniel and his grandmother meet and talk with everyone – ending safely back home where his mom and the baby wait – with hugs and ice cream that make this good day a perfect day.

This is a gorgeous book about children finding the courage to speak up in class about their lives, histories and experiences. It is a response to the common first-week-back-at-school question “What did you do on your summer vacation?” that all too often marginalizes and shames working class children. Written like a poem, illustrated with sensitivity and beauty. Woodson and Lopez at their best.

Lili lives in an apartment house with her Nai Nai (grandmother in Chinese), and together they prepare some delicious Baos. But oh dear, they are out of cabbage! So Lili goes up to the fifth floor to get cabbage from Babcia (Polish), who needs some garlic from first floor Granma (Jamaican), who needs cumin from second floor Nonna (Italian), who needs some olive oil from fourth floor Teta (Lebonese), who needs some… well, you get the story!

This is a beautiful photo book about family diversity. Families are big, small, look alike, look different, have different numbers of parents and/or grandparents, live together, don’t live in the same place. It is simply written and filled with joy. What is your family like?

Wonderful photographs of children being “thankful” for friends, family, food, playtime, teachers, rain, sun, moon. The photos include children who are African American, bi-racial, multi-racial, White, Asian American and Latino American.

Men and women, Latinx, Black and White – the firefighters rush to a fire and with hard, dangerous work put out the flames, save the family and the cat, and then wearily head back to the fire station. The bomberos are taking care of their community and keeping people safe. Written in English with many Spanish nouns (bomeros, corozones, humo, maguero…). Bright, bold artwork.

This is a funny, rhyming book about many of the favorite things various grandmas like to do. The grandmothers play ball, study bugs, fix cars, dance to Caribbean music, play cards, and use their cellphones to keep in touch. The Grandma’s most favorite thing of all  – is spending time with a grandchild. Action filled illustrations of a multiracial community.

A glorious celebration of highly diverse families doing all the things that families do (eating, playing, celebrating, working, traveling…). Each two-page spread is filled with detailed illustrations of families living in so many different ways. Lively drawings illustrate families in their varied splendor: gay, straight, two parent, grandparent, single parent, working at home or away from home, with many or few cousins, siblings, relatives, with plenty of money or very little, with pets or not. The book ends with the perfect statement and question: “So families can be big, small, happy, sad, rich, poor, loud, quiet, mad, good tempered, worried, or happy-go-lucky. Most families are all of these things some of the time. What’s yours like today?”

Diversity exists within a family too! In this exquisite and tender book, a child describes how each person in the family has hair that looks and acts different. Papa’s hair is like a broom, Kiki’s is like fur, Carlos’s hair is thick and stright, Nenny’s is slippery – and Mama’s hair has the smell of warm bread. Written in Spanish and English and taken from the author’s adult novel “The House on Mango Street”.

Two young girls, Margarita & Margaret, (the same duo from the book “Margaret & Margarita”) are best friends, but they each like to do things in their own unique manner (“a mi manera”!). Yet sometimes, they like to do things the way that the other does it (“a tu manera!”!). Each girl likes themselves – and likes the other. Across language, culture, and personality – they are always best friends.

Omu has cooked the best thick red stew she ever made…but one by one, everyone in her neighborhood smells the stew, knocks on her door, and she gets out a bowl and shares the stew. When dinner time comes, there is nothing left in the pot for Omu. But then, there is another knock on the door, and all the people – the little boy, the hot dog vendor, the police officer, the cab driver, the shop owner, the actor, the dancer, the baker – have come baring food to share. Beautiful images of a multi-racial community. Wonderful use of words like “wafting” and “scrumptious” and “delicious”.

International photographs tell the story of young people being artists – dancers, singers, actors, painters, instrumentalists. Each photo is titled with the country in which the children live. The text simply and clearly talks about the many ways humans are creative. This is one of the few global photo books in which pictures from the U.S. portray children of many racial identities.

Tall, short, dark, light, athletic, artistic…these 21 Latino American cousins are  so different from each other, and each one is so important in “la familia”. Their roots come from  indigenous people, from ancestors from Spain, France and Africa, and each cousin is unique … and deeply loved.

“I once knew two Mrs. Gibsons,” begins this true story in which a child compares her African American grandmother with her Japanese American mother. One Mrs. Gibson cooks pots of rice, the other cooks pots of greens. One catches fireflies with the girl, the other makes paper cranes. A lovely, thoughtfully written story about family life, the book ends with “I once knew two Mrs. Gibsons. They were very different, but they had a lot in common. They both loved my Daddy, and they both loved me.”

Everywhere on our planet, babies are welcomed into their families – with naming ceremonies, songs, religious rituals, family gatherings, parties. Whether born into their family or adopted – human beings have specials ways of saying “we are so glad you are one of us”.