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More than 100 carefully selected lists of multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators. When you find a book at this site, please purchase it here. Our titles are linked to Bookshop. A portion of your book purchase helps sustain our work. New Releases Activism and Organizing Africa Afro-Latinx American Indians Arabs […]

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Choosing Diverse Texts for your Classroom

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Choosing Diverse Texts for your Classroom

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10 Criteria for Choosing Diverse Texts for Your Classroom - Writing Mindset

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Can you hear me clapping? Can you hear me screaming in happiness?

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Opening New Perspectives with Literature

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Opening New Perspectives with Literature

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Culturally Responsive Teaching

A multicultural collection of books can reflect students' lives, reveal other experiences, and help students expand their thinking.

©Shutterstock/Rawpixel.com

Students in classrooms across the United States are a reflection of the diverse people, perspectives, histories, and values in our society. Yet if we were to take an inventory of classroom texts, curricula, and literacy materials across classrooms settings, we'd find that these instructional materials do not reflect the diversity of our students, let alone the diversity of our society.

Multiple studies have shown the power of using multicultural texts to address critical topics in classrooms-not only for students of color but for all students. Rudine Sims-Bishop provides a pedagogical basis for this in relation to literature as windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors. She maintains that literature can serve as a mirror to those whose lives are reflected in texts that are read in the classroom. When students read about the lives and experiences of others, texts serve as a window.

Don't Forget About Sliding Glass Doors

Ideas of representation and cultural awareness are central to the concept of windows and mirrors, but critical reflection and thoughtful action are central to the idea of literature as a sliding glass door, a concept similar to windows in that both present different experiences, but sliding glass doors also can represent a change in perspective about the possibilities in the real world that a particular text helps the reader to consider.

For example, Nancy Johnson, Melanie Koss, and Miriam Martinez discuss a student who read Wonder, a young adult novel about a boy with unsettling facial abnormalities, and wrote in his journal, "Yesterday when I was at the grocery store with my mom I saw a man with no arm. I looked away and then I thought of Auggie. I looked the man right in the eye and smiled. He smiled back." Through such sliding glass door experiences, changes can happen in the minds and hearts of students, teachers, and thus the world.

Incorporating This Idea in the Classroom

When bringing the concept of literature as windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors into the classroom, it's imperative that you truly value the lives and experiences of all students. The goals are to validate students' identities through providing mirrors, to develop their understanding through providing windows, and to show them how they can be changed by literature through providing sliding glass doors.

Examine texts: Consider the texts in your classroom library and the books you use as mentor texts for teaching English language arts standards or content area topics. Do they mirror your students' lives? Do they reflect a diverse society?

Be mindful: Many texts represent diverse people and contexts, but have negative or deficit stereotypes. Bena Hefflin developed guidelines for selecting quality multicultural children's literature, and Eliza Braden and Sanjuana Rodriguez provide questions for teachers to examine texts with Latino families and stories of immigration that reflect real experiences.

Share various perspectives: It's important to share books from diverse perspectives. Texts that portray different family structures, young children that live in different places, and families that have different norms are affirming for students, especially those whose lives are not typically reflected during learning experiences.

For example, is a popular children's book about two cousins, one in Mexico and the other in the U.S., who write to each other about their daily lives. The Great Big Book of Families is a colorful book that describes different families across the world. Reading books about diverse families and home situations is important-doing so provides a window into different family structures.

Another way to share various perspectives is through content area literacy. Due to the lack of time to teach social studies and science, there has been an increased focus on this in elementary classrooms. Typically, standards and curriculum present historical accounts and scientific innovations from a predominantly Eurocentric perspective, limiting the understanding and reflection that literature as a sliding glass door provides.

When sharing the story of Christopher Columbus, for example, it's important to be honest about history by layering the common narrative with his diary and the perspective of the Taino natives-a good example of this is found in the book .

And when discussing the civil rights movement, the common narrative of Rosa Parks refusing to get out of her seat because she was tired is a deletion of important facts. Using supplemental sources to show that Parks and other activists had attended the Highlander Folk School to learn how to protest and resist oppression can lead to a change in students' perspective-a sliding glass door.

Use focused activities: When reading texts that present students with a sliding glass door, how do we engage them in rich, meaningful discussion? Discussion protocols such as QuICS or Sentence-Phrase-Word help students reflect on larger themes while focusing on individual words or events. QuICS is a reading response in which students record their initial thinking about a story by noting Questions, Interesting points, Connections, and Surprises. Sentence-Phrase-Word leads students to discuss why a particular word, a phrase, and a sentence from a text stood out to them.

In addition, small-group engagements such as literature circles or Socratic seminars provide opportunities for students to focus on critical questions and unpack deeper meanings of the texts that represent sliding glass door perspectives.

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Opening Up New Perspectives With Literature

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A multicultural collection of books can reflect students' lives, reveal other experiences, and help students expand their thinking.

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The Diverse BookFinder is a comprehensive collection of children's picture books featuring Black and Indigenous people and People of Color (BIPOC). We've cataloged and analyzed trade picture books fitting this criteria, published since 2002, to surface and create:

A UNIQUE CIRCULATING COLLECTION:
We strive to collect all depictions of BIPOC characters in trade picture books published since 2002. Anyone can check these books out at any time through Interlibrary Loan.

A SEARCH TOOL:
We offer a first-of-its-kind online, searchable database of our collection that makes it easier for everyone to locate and explore children's picture books featuring BIPOC characters.

A SOURCE OF CRITICAL DATA:
We provide real-time data on who (which BIPOC characters) is depicted in trade picture books, and how (what messages these stories send), to enable deeper conversation and change.

Learn More

We have collected and analyzed more-than 2,000 picture books published since 2002 featuring Black and Indigenous people and People of Color (BIPOC). The graphs below show the percentage of books in our collection featuring characters from each racial/cultural group. Not all groups are represented equally - or in the same way. Click on the graphs to see the types of available stories for each group.

See More

The Diverse BookFinder exists to help inform the diversity and representation discussion as a whole. That's why all books are included in our collection, no matter the quality of representation given or by whom. However, as we catalog books, some highlights and trends become apparent. Here are a few along specific themes:
See More

Check out some of the most recent additions to our collection below:

Recent thoughts from the Diverse BookFinder team, our Advisory Council & guest contributors.
See More

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Diverse BookFinder | Identify & Explore Multicultural Picture Books

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Are you looking for multicultural children's books? We've got you covered! You can search our circulating collection of picture books (2002-present), explore our quick lists, then borrow our books from your own library through interlibrary loan.

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Reading is Fundamental: Multicultural Literacy

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Reading is Fundamental: Multicultural Literacy

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Teaching Tolerance: A Tool for Teaching Diverse Texts

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Teaching Tolerance: A Tool for Teaching Diverse Texts

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Why Kids and Teens Need Diverse Books and Recommended Reads

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Why Kids and Teens Need Diverse Books and Recommended Reads

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Think back to your middle or high school English class and the books you read. Great Gatsby? Lord of the Flies? Maybe 1984 or Les Misérables? While those are all important works, the literary canon has long been dominated by white authors, white perspectives, white characters - and those voices are often male. There are so many other voices we need to hear from.

In the last several years, the publishing world has seen a surge in diverse authors, characters, and stories. While many are leading the charge to bring diverse literature into our communities, it's time to update the reading material in our classrooms, school libraries, and lesson plans to represent all of our learners at every level. Read on to hear from some amazing youth fiction writers, and to see our picks for books to add to your library this year.

Diversity and engagement

As long as public education has been alive in the United States, so too has the idea of a literary canon. While no such official listing exists, it's widely assumed that "classics" belong in schools while more modern literature often gets sidelined.

Equal Read researches the need for more literary diversity and works with schools and libraries to build their collections. According to their organization, "The Handbook of Research on Literacy and Diversity, and others, clearly document that engagement is a key factor in determining literacy success. And, teachers and librarians repeatedly note that representative literature encourages engagement in learning. Indeed, engagement is a key predictor of overall academic success."

Instead of perpetuating the idea that so-called "classics" are the only literature belonging in classrooms - and steadily distancing our modern students from the joys of literature - isn't it time we ensure that the fiction we teach matches the world in which we live? In the last decade, the young adult and children's markets have noticeably expanded their offerings of diverse authors, characters, and stories.

"I've been watching the YA landscape since 2006 and publishing since 2014, and it's changed a lot in the last several years," says Brandy Colbert, author of Finding Yvonne. "The industry has been publishing more diverse titles and writers, but I'd like to see more diversity within diversity so that we're not just seeing one type of story from the marginalized communities who are finally getting a voice." Continued efforts to deepen and develop diversity in books will undoubtedly help young readers more deeply connect with literature.

It's logical to argue that students would be more engaged if they saw themselves represented in literature. After all, what is literature but a mirror of human experience? Reading the classics is wonderful, but solely providing stories about unrecognizable characters in time periods long past restricts the interconnection and inspiration our young people can and should feel from reading.

"It's important that more books by authors of color featuring diverse characters make it into schools because all students (no matter their race, ethnicity, or sexual background) should be able to relate to the characters in novels and see that their culture is being represented in literature," says Tiffany Brownlee, author of Wrong in All the Right Ways, a modern YA retelling of Brontë's Wuthering Heights. "As a teacher, I always try to look for ways to include novels by authors of color in my curriculum to expose my students to different lifestyles and cultures that they wouldn't normally be exposed to. And you'd be surprised at how high the level of engagement can rise when a student's race or culture is being taught in class. Let me just say, it soars!"

"Reading engagement is the foundation for building successful readers and a strong literacy environment," says Carrie Kondor, EdD, Associate Professor and Reading Endorsement Chair at Concordia University-Portland. "Diverse books are an essential component of increasing reading achievement for all students because of engagement. As humans, we seek out and enjoy connections. Students must have the opportunity to engage in texts that relate to their experiences, their cultures, and their interests."

Empathy and representation

Studies have shown that reading fiction builds empathy. A 2013 study in the American Psychological Association's journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts discovered that when readers visualize scenes while reading stories, there is an actual and measurable surge of empathy. Imagine then the impact if schools were full of diverse books - providing a literary peek into the lives of not only students themselves but of those around them.

"A great story featuring diverse characters can change the lives of students yearning to find themselves in a book, and it can help other students learn about experiences outside of their own," said Nicole A. Johnson, Executive Director of We Need Diverse Books, a nonprofit that provides grants to writers and works to change the publishing industry and provide more diverse books for classrooms. "Teachers and librarians are important champions of diversity in children's literature. When they increase the number of diverse books available on their shelves, they signal to children and the adults in their lives that everyone has a story to share and that representation matters."

"I think we need diverse books because we need to reflect the reality of our communities and that reality is a very diverse one," says author John Green as part of the We Need Diverse Books Campaign. "While it's important to see yourself in stories - and I think lots of people don't see themselves in enough stories - it's also really important to see the other. One of the magical things about reading to me is that it helps me to imagine the life outside myself. When you don't see the lives of others in stories, it's difficult to imagine them complexly. I think that contributes to the essentializing of the other."

Relevant stories for teens

In the throes of adolescence, literature can deeply impact one's emotional development and the way you see the world. "I think teen readers of realistic fiction want to read books where what is going on in the world is reflected back to them," says Renée Watson, author of numerous books including Piecing Me Together, which received a Coretta Scott King Award and a Newbery Honor. "As an author, I want to create work that helps young people face and cope with reality, not escape it. I believe books that center around children who are often underrepresented in literature affirms their experiences and whispers to them, ' You are not alone, your story matters.'"

In an era of technological devices and near-constant stimulation, diversity in literature may be a pathway toward keeping literature relevant. "Relatable topics and topics of personal interest get teens to put down their phones and pick up a book. Anything that appeals to their personal lives and interests (romantic/friend-based/familial relationships/fantastical worlds/the LGBTQ community/etc.) makes a teen want to read," says author Tiffany Brownlee. "When the teen can relate to what they're reading through the characters (with an emphasis on characters with diverse backgrounds), settings, or topics discussed in the book, it suddenly becomes so much more engaging for them. They get more out of a text when their diverse backgrounds are represented, and that's what's important. Not just getting them to read, but getting them to take something away from that experience, too."

Suggested YA novels

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds
American Street by Ibi Zoboi
Calling My Name by Liara Tamani
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L Sánchez
Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
Love, Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork
The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson
The Dangerous Art of Blending In by Angelo Surmelis
To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
Wrong in All the Right Ways by Tiffany Brownlee

Suggested middle-grade novels

Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed
Amina's Voice by Hena Khan
Betty Before X by Ilyasah Shabazz and Renée Watson
Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
Front Desk by Kelly Yang
Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye
Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish by Pablo Cartaya
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
The House That Lou Built by Mae Respicio
The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez
The Gauntlet by Karuna Riazi
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
The Stars Beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore

Eye-opening books for children

"All children need to see themselves and their peers in the stories shared and discussed at school. Kids of color need diverse books because so often they do not see themselves in literature and therefore feel marginalized, even invisible," says The Center for Collaborative Classroom, a nonprofit that provides professional learning for teachers. "White kids need diverse books because they see too much of themselves in literature and this may lead them to feel that they are the center of the world." Children's books teach children about humanity, society, culture, and life. Diversity in children's literature is essential toward building a more compassionate world.

"As a child, I remember being touched by stories with deeper messages," says author and illustrator Arree Chung. "As a storyteller, I take ideas and combine them with the world around me. When popped into my head, I thought: color theory could be used to describe diversity. The heart of Mixed is love. Love brings Yellow and Blue together and creates a new color, Green. Children often bring divided families and communities together. I created Mixed to show how colorful our communities can be with acceptance, love, and diversity."

Suggested books for young readers

Sharee Miller Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things written by Lenore Look, illustrated by LeUyen Pham
Get Ready for Gabi written by Marisa Montes, illustrated by Joe Cepeda
Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally) written by Lisa Yee, illustrated by Dan Santat
Juana and Lucas written and illustrated by Juana Medina
Rickshaw Girl written by Mitali Perkins, illustrated by Jamie Hogan
Shai & Emmie Star in Break an Egg! written by Quvenzhané Wallis and Nancy Ohlin, illustrated by The Great Cake Mystery: Precious Ramotswe's Very First Case written by Alexander McCall Smith
You Should Meet Katherine Johnson written by Alyssa Petersen

Suggested picture books

Minh Lê, illustrated by Dan Santat All Are Welcome written by Alexandra Penfold, illustrated by Suzanne Kaufman
Black Girl Magic: A Poem written by Mahogany L. Browne, illustrated by Jess X. Snow
Don't Call Me Grandma written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon
Drawn Together written by
Hot Hot Roti for Dada-Ji written by F. Zia, illustrated by Ken Min
I Am Enough written by Grace Byers, illustrated by Keturah A. Bobo
Last Stop on Market Street written by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian Robinson
Let the Children March written by Monica Clark-Anderson, illustrated by Frank Morrison
Looking for Bongo written and illustrated by Eric Velasquez
Mixed written and illustrated by Arree Chung
Pink is For Boys written by Robb Pearlman, illustrated by Eda Kaban
The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq written and illustrated by Jeanette Winter
The Name Jar written and illustrated by Yangsook Choi
Dreamers written and illustrated by Yuyi Morales

Tags: Adolescent Literacy, Early Childhood and Elementary (Grades: PreK-5), High School (Grades: 9-12), Literacy, Middle School (Grades: 6-8), Reading Interventionist

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Highly Recommended Diverse Books for Kids & Teens

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Think back to your middle or high school English class and the books you read. Great Gatsby? Lord of the Flies? Maybe 1984 or Les Misérables? While those are all important works, the literary canon has long been dominated by white authors, white perspectives, white characters - and those voices are often male.

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Why Kids and Teens Need diverse Books and Recommended Reads

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Why Kids and Teens Need diverse Books and Recommended Reads

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Think back to your middle or high school English class and the books you read. Great Gatsby? Lord of the Flies? Maybe 1984 or Les Misérables? While those are all important works, the literary canon has long been dominated by white authors, white perspectives, white characters - and those voices are often male. There are so many other voices we need to hear from.

In the last several years, the publishing world has seen a surge in diverse authors, characters, and stories. While many are leading the charge to bring diverse literature into our communities, it's time to update the reading material in our classrooms, school libraries, and lesson plans to represent all of our learners at every level. Read on to hear from some amazing youth fiction writers, and to see our picks for books to add to your library this year.

Diversity and engagement

As long as public education has been alive in the United States, so too has the idea of a literary canon. While no such official listing exists, it's widely assumed that "classics" belong in schools while more modern literature often gets sidelined.

Equal Read researches the need for more literary diversity and works with schools and libraries to build their collections. According to their organization, "The Handbook of Research on Literacy and Diversity, and others, clearly document that engagement is a key factor in determining literacy success. And, teachers and librarians repeatedly note that representative literature encourages engagement in learning. Indeed, engagement is a key predictor of overall academic success."

Instead of perpetuating the idea that so-called "classics" are the only literature belonging in classrooms - and steadily distancing our modern students from the joys of literature - isn't it time we ensure that the fiction we teach matches the world in which we live? In the last decade, the young adult and children's markets have noticeably expanded their offerings of diverse authors, characters, and stories.

"I've been watching the YA landscape since 2006 and publishing since 2014, and it's changed a lot in the last several years," says Brandy Colbert, author of Finding Yvonne. "The industry has been publishing more diverse titles and writers, but I'd like to see more diversity within diversity so that we're not just seeing one type of story from the marginalized communities who are finally getting a voice." Continued efforts to deepen and develop diversity in books will undoubtedly help young readers more deeply connect with literature.

It's logical to argue that students would be more engaged if they saw themselves represented in literature. After all, what is literature but a mirror of human experience? Reading the classics is wonderful, but solely providing stories about unrecognizable characters in time periods long past restricts the interconnection and inspiration our young people can and should feel from reading.

"It's important that more books by authors of color featuring diverse characters make it into schools because all students (no matter their race, ethnicity, or sexual background) should be able to relate to the characters in novels and see that their culture is being represented in literature," says Tiffany Brownlee, author of Wrong in All the Right Ways, a modern YA retelling of Brontë's Wuthering Heights. "As a teacher, I always try to look for ways to include novels by authors of color in my curriculum to expose my students to different lifestyles and cultures that they wouldn't normally be exposed to. And you'd be surprised at how high the level of engagement can rise when a student's race or culture is being taught in class. Let me just say, it soars!"

"Reading engagement is the foundation for building successful readers and a strong literacy environment," says Carrie Kondor, EdD, Associate Professor and Reading Endorsement Chair at Concordia University-Portland. "Diverse books are an essential component of increasing reading achievement for all students because of engagement. As humans, we seek out and enjoy connections. Students must have the opportunity to engage in texts that relate to their experiences, their cultures, and their interests."

Empathy and representation

Studies have shown that reading fiction builds empathy. A 2013 study in the American Psychological Association's journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts discovered that when readers visualize scenes while reading stories, there is an actual and measurable surge of empathy. Imagine then the impact if schools were full of diverse books - providing a literary peek into the lives of not only students themselves but of those around them.

"A great story featuring diverse characters can change the lives of students yearning to find themselves in a book, and it can help other students learn about experiences outside of their own," said Nicole A. Johnson, Executive Director of We Need Diverse Books, a nonprofit that provides grants to writers and works to change the publishing industry and provide more diverse books for classrooms. "Teachers and librarians are important champions of diversity in children's literature. When they increase the number of diverse books available on their shelves, they signal to children and the adults in their lives that everyone has a story to share and that representation matters."

"I think we need diverse books because we need to reflect the reality of our communities and that reality is a very diverse one," says author John Green as part of the We Need Diverse Books Campaign. "While it's important to see yourself in stories - and I think lots of people don't see themselves in enough stories - it's also really important to see the other. One of the magical things about reading to me is that it helps me to imagine the life outside myself. When you don't see the lives of others in stories, it's difficult to imagine them complexly. I think that contributes to the essentializing of the other."

Relevant stories for teens

In the throes of adolescence, literature can deeply impact one's emotional development and the way you see the world. "I think teen readers of realistic fiction want to read books where what is going on in the world is reflected back to them," says Renée Watson, author of numerous books including Piecing Me Together, which received a Coretta Scott King Award and a Newbery Honor. "As an author, I want to create work that helps young people face and cope with reality, not escape it. I believe books that center around children who are often underrepresented in literature affirms their experiences and whispers to them, ' You are not alone, your story matters.'"

In an era of technological devices and near-constant stimulation, diversity in literature may be a pathway toward keeping literature relevant. "Relatable topics and topics of personal interest get teens to put down their phones and pick up a book. Anything that appeals to their personal lives and interests (romantic/friend-based/familial relationships/fantastical worlds/the LGBTQ community/etc.) makes a teen want to read," says author Tiffany Brownlee. "When the teen can relate to what they're reading through the characters (with an emphasis on characters with diverse backgrounds), settings, or topics discussed in the book, it suddenly becomes so much more engaging for them. They get more out of a text when their diverse backgrounds are represented, and that's what's important. Not just getting them to read, but getting them to take something away from that experience, too."

Suggested YA novels

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds
American Street by Ibi Zoboi
Calling My Name by Liara Tamani
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L Sánchez
Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
Love, Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork
The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson
The Dangerous Art of Blending In by Angelo Surmelis
To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
Wrong in All the Right Ways by Tiffany Brownlee

Suggested middle-grade novels

Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed
Amina's Voice by Hena Khan
Betty Before X by Ilyasah Shabazz and Renée Watson
Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
Front Desk by Kelly Yang
Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye
Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish by Pablo Cartaya
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
The House That Lou Built by Mae Respicio
The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez
The Gauntlet by Karuna Riazi
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
The Stars Beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore

Eye-opening books for children

"All children need to see themselves and their peers in the stories shared and discussed at school. Kids of color need diverse books because so often they do not see themselves in literature and therefore feel marginalized, even invisible," says The Center for Collaborative Classroom, a nonprofit that provides professional learning for teachers. "White kids need diverse books because they see too much of themselves in literature and this may lead them to feel that they are the center of the world." Children's books teach children about humanity, society, culture, and life. Diversity in children's literature is essential toward building a more compassionate world.

"As a child, I remember being touched by stories with deeper messages," says author and illustrator Arree Chung. "As a storyteller, I take ideas and combine them with the world around me. When popped into my head, I thought: color theory could be used to describe diversity. The heart of Mixed is love. Love brings Yellow and Blue together and creates a new color, Green. Children often bring divided families and communities together. I created Mixed to show how colorful our communities can be with acceptance, love, and diversity."

Suggested books for young readers

Sharee Miller Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things written by Lenore Look, illustrated by LeUyen Pham
Get Ready for Gabi written by Marisa Montes, illustrated by Joe Cepeda
Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally) written by Lisa Yee, illustrated by Dan Santat
Juana and Lucas written and illustrated by Juana Medina
Rickshaw Girl written by Mitali Perkins, illustrated by Jamie Hogan
Shai & Emmie Star in Break an Egg! written by Quvenzhané Wallis and Nancy Ohlin, illustrated by The Great Cake Mystery: Precious Ramotswe's Very First Case written by Alexander McCall Smith
You Should Meet Katherine Johnson written by Alyssa Petersen

Suggested picture books

Minh Lê, illustrated by Dan Santat All Are Welcome written by Alexandra Penfold, illustrated by Suzanne Kaufman
Black Girl Magic: A Poem written by Mahogany L. Browne, illustrated by Jess X. Snow
Don't Call Me Grandma written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon
Drawn Together written by
Hot Hot Roti for Dada-Ji written by F. Zia, illustrated by Ken Min
I Am Enough written by Grace Byers, illustrated by Keturah A. Bobo
Last Stop on Market Street written by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian Robinson
Let the Children March written by Monica Clark-Anderson, illustrated by Frank Morrison
Looking for Bongo written and illustrated by Eric Velasquez
Mixed written and illustrated by Arree Chung
Pink is For Boys written by Robb Pearlman, illustrated by Eda Kaban
The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq written and illustrated by Jeanette Winter
The Name Jar written and illustrated by Yangsook Choi
Dreamers written and illustrated by Yuyi Morales

Tags: Adolescent Literacy, Early Childhood and Elementary (Grades: PreK-5), High School (Grades: 9-12), Literacy, Middle School (Grades: 6-8), Reading Interventionist

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Highly Recommended Diverse Books for Kids & Teens

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Think back to your middle or high school English class and the books you read. Great Gatsby? Lord of the Flies? Maybe 1984 or Les Misérables? While those are all important works, the literary canon has long been dominated by white authors, white perspectives, white characters - and those voices are often male.

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Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

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Schools all over the world read the same text. You can connect with other classrooms around the world and discuss your common text! The books are at all levels!

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To see the blog with the latest news and ideas, go here.

To join our Facebook Community, go here

The project was created in 2010 with a simple goal in mind; one book to connect the world. From its humble beginnings, the GRA has grown to make a truly global connection with milllions of students having participated.

What is it?

The premise is simple; we pick a book to read aloud to our students during a set 6-week period and during that time we try to make as many global connections as possible. Each teacher decides how much time they would like to dedicate and how involved they would like to be. Some people choose to connect with just one class, while others go for as many as possible. The scope and depth of the project is up to you. While there are commonly used such as Skype, Twitter, Padlet, or Flipgrid, you choose the tools that will make the most sense for you. Teachers get a community of other educators to do a global project with, hopefully inspiring them to continue these connections through the year.

When is it?

Once a year, starting in early October and running through mid-November. Due to the time commitment, this is only a once a year project, however, two fantastic spin-off projects run at other times; the New Zealand Read Aloud and the French version of GRA, Ecouter Lire le Monde.

I have questions as a Participant

Please see " For Participants" to have all of your questions answered.

I have questions as an Author

Please see "For Authors" to have all of your questions answered.

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To see the blog with the latest news and ideas, go here. To join our Facebook Community, go here The project was created in 2010 with a simple goal in mind; one book to connect the world. From its humble beginnings, the GRA has grown to make a truly global connection with milllions of students...

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How to Choose Outstanding Multicultural Books

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How to Choose Outstanding Multicultural Books

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Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

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Disability in Kidlit - Reviews, articles, and more about the portrayal of disabilities in children's fiction

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Princess Tilda does not demonstrate the need to "overcome" her clubfoot, that word many of us in the disability community have come to loathe. To me, Tilda represents a new kind of heroine, who is strong and doesn't need saving, but also acknowledges and shows her vulnerability and insecurities.

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Culturally Responsive Scorecard- Click download

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Culturally Responsive Curriculum Scorecard

The Culturally Responsive Curriculum Scorecard was designed by The NYU Metro Center to help parents, teachers, students, and community members determine the extent to which their schools' English Language Arts curricula are (or are not) culturally responsive. We hope that this tool will provoke thinking about how students should learn, what they should learn, and how curriculum can be transformed to engage students effectively.

To create this tool, we drew upon a wide variety of existing resources, including multicultural rubrics, anti-bias rubrics, textbook rubrics, and rubrics aimed at creating cultural standards for educators, determining bias in children books and examining lesson plans (ADEED, 2012; Aguilar-Valdez, 2015; Grant & Sleeter, 2003; Lindsey et al, 2008; NCCRES, 2006; Rudman, 1984; World View, 2013). We supplemented those with additional questions to provide a more comprehensive tool.

We have designed this scorecard so that it can be customized to your context and conditions. Completing the entire document will give you the most comprehensive analysis of how culturally responsive your curriculum is. If you don't have the time or capacity to do that, you can complete an individual section and get a more limited assessment. We designed this specifically with K through eighth grade English Language Arts curricula in mind, but feel free to try it with other grades and subjects as well. If your school doesn't have a set curriculum, you can also use this tool to assess the diversity of the school or classroom library.

Click here to download a pdf of the scorecard. ( En Español)

Click here to share your results after you have finished scoring.

Photos of parents from NYC Coalition for Educational Justice using the Culturally Responsive Curriculum Scorecard to analyze curriculum used in New York City schools.

In October 2018, the NYU Metro Center conducted a demographic analysis of three commonly-used curriculum and booklists in New York City public schools, and found that White authors and characters are wildly over-represented in proportion to the student population.

If you have any questions or need help with the CRC Scorecard, please email us at nyu-ejroc@nyu.edu or tweet us @nyu_ejroc.

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Culturally Responsive Curriculum Scorecard - Resources - NYU Steinhardt

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The Culturally Responsive Curriculum Scorecard was designed by The NYU Metro Center to help parents, teachers, students, and community members determine the extent to which their schools’ English Language Arts curricula are (or are not) culturally responsive. We hope that this tool will prov

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Looking at “the classics” with a different lens

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Looking at “the classics” with a different lens

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#disrupttexts on twitter and https://disrupttexts.org/

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https://www.facinghistory.org/

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Dhonielle Clayton is COO of We Need Diverse Books, a former middle school librarian, a former secondary teacher, and an all around children's literature nerd with two masters degrees in the field. She is the co-author of the Tiny Pretty Things series, and the forthcoming author of The Belles series.

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Diverse Books List- Reading Recovery Conference 

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Diverse Books List- Reading Recovery Conference 

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I have been trying to share as many of our favorite books as possible in different ways. Here is an overview of all of the lists so far. Picture Book lists can be found at the bottom. Happy reading! Chapter Books: The Best Books for Middle School According to My Students: The Favorite Reads of...

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For a little more information click here . For tips on how to participate click here . To see the map of participating schools click here .﻿

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Emily’s List of acronyms, hashtags and recent diverse books to get you hooked

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Emily’s List of acronyms, hashtags and recent diverse books to get you hooked

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This Google Doc contains a lot of acronyms and hashtags to follow on Social Media to become more aware of diverse books and authors. It also contains a list (with links) to recent diverse YA audiobooks that will 1) convince to love or at least like audiobooks and 2) help you find more time to read diverse books and authors.
http://bit.ly/DiverseBooksTips

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Google Docs - create and edit documents online, for free.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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ProjectLITBookClub

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Jillian Heise {Hi-Z} is a National Board Certified Teacher with one Masters degree in Reading/Language Arts + another Masters in Library & Information Science. She has been an elementary Library Media Specialist in southeastern Wisconsin since 2017. Prior to that, she taught 7th & 8th grade ELA in the Milwaukee area for eleven years with an additional year out of the classroom as a literacy consultant. As founder of #ClassroomBookADay (inspired by Donalyn Miller's #bookaday) in 2014, Jillian is a passionate advocate for the power of shared stories to build classroom and school community and engagement. She dedicates her practice to ... read more

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A School Librarian Sharing Books & #ClassroomBookADay