Shelton, Connecticut
One of my (white) kids’ favorite early picture books was “Please Baby Please,”
by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee. It is a sweet and funny story about the day
in the life of a baby and her exhausted parents, with black main characters. I
also remember another favorite, “Tracks in the Snow,” about a little girl
following tracks only to find they are her own from the day before. The little
girl is Asian. Both have... Show more
Shelton, Connecticut
One of my (white) kids’ favorite early picture books was “Please Baby Please,”
by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee. It is a sweet and funny story about the day
in the life of a baby and her exhausted parents, with black main characters. I
also remember another favorite, “Tracks in the Snow,” about a little girl
following tracks only to find they are her own from the day before. The little
girl is Asian. Both have engaging pictures, humor or a surprise twist, and
zippy, rhyming language. Those are the reasons my kids liked them. They are
not about serious, historical themes like slavery or internment, or about
cultural traditions like Juneteenth or Lunar New Year. These books do not
convey specific information about race or culture, but they help create a
background understanding that people of multiple races share our familiar
world, and that it’s just as normal to be black, or Asian, as it is to be
white. There need to more entertaining, non-expository books with diverse
characters. It helps create a background understanding of the diversity of our
actual society, rather than the notion that non-white people belong on center
stage only in sidebars about their unique historical experiences or cultural
traditions.
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Video: https://moxox.com
Music: https://muxiv.com
AV: http://yofuk.com