Books for teaching kids about race and racism
Race and racism are complex, difficult, and often uncomfortable topics to talk about. And trying to explain these concepts to kids is one of the toughest jobs a parent can take on.
Where do you start? How much do you tell? How do you protect kids from things they can’t handle, but also present facts without sugar-coating? In this list of popular and approachable eBooks you’ll find a mix of fiction and non-fiction, ranging from kid-friendly biographies of historical figures to page-turning novels featuring characters with relatable attitudes and experiences concerning race.
In this novel, young readers glimpse into what residential schools were like for the Indigenous children forced to attend them, far from their parents and elders.
Twelve-year-old Jerome is shot by a police officer who mistakes his toy gun for a real threat. As a ghost, he observes the devastation that’s been unleashed on his family and community in the wake of what they see as an unjust and brutal killing. Jerome meets the ghost of Emmet Till, another Black boy brutally and senselessly murdered, and he begins to see his own death in a historical context.
Co-written by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to be An Antiracist, this book for young readers provides a framework for understanding where racist ideas came from, how they persist, and how individuals can work against perpetuating them.
There’s plenty for young readers to learn from Margot Lee Shetterly’s adaptation of her bestselling book about the Black women math whizzes whose work was instrumental in putting men on the moon — while they were made to feel unwelcome at work.
Young readers will learn who the Civil Rights icon was, the full spectrum of causes he fought for, and they’ll learn in terms kids can understand why he was assassinated.
In this graphic novel seventh-grader Jordan Banks switches to a predominantly white school, making him one of a very small number of students of colour. It’s a story about not fitting in and developing a sense of one’s self as a young person, in spite of the assumptions of others.
This is a true detective story of a museum curator tracking down the origins of a suitcase on display at her Holocaust education centre. Readers learn about Hana, the suitcase’s owner, and what she went through as a Czechoslovakian-Jewish girl whose village was invaded by Nazi Germany.
Adapted for young readers, this is an idealistic young lawyer’s first-hand account of fighting on behalf of the wrongly-convicted. Readers will learn the basics of criminal justice, including how the law can be used to unfairly punish some, but not others.
Originally published at https://www.kobo.com on January 31, 2021.
