Guest Bitch: Culturally Responsive Teacher Bitch Kendall Gave Us A Bunch of Kids Books to Read

Featuring Themes like Tolerance, Self-Esteem, Race, Gender Equality, Same-Sex Couples, Tough Life Circumstances and so much more!!

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Teachers are the unsung heroes of our country--underpaid, overworked, selfless individuals tasked with shaping the tiny minds of our future. And with me (gasp!) about to turn thirty, I have come to terms with the fact that my friends are reproducing on purpose--and they’re shaping their tiny offspring too. So with the weird, potentially all-virtual world our education system is entering, I asked one superhero teacher/best friend of mine to help me out with this post!

Kendall has taught all over: Indianapolis, Tampa, Boston, and now Seattle. She’s the friend I have deep, poignant conversations with, and it was a no-brainer when I wanted to do a round-up of children’s books that are inclusive, multicultural, diverse, and meant to inspire our next generation.

Here's a really artsy photo of Kendall reading. She's very artsy.

This list is just the beginning! There will be plenty more. We’ll be adding resources too. Like this one:

Social Justice Books is a part of Teaching for Change, a non-profit aimed at providing teachers and parents tools to help students learn to read, write and change the world. The site has a guide for selecting anti-bias children’s books, allows you to search a title you might already have to see its bias level, and more.

If you haven’t heard already, Netflix had a new show come out in September called, Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices. It features prominent Black authors, athletes, musicians, actors, and others reading children’s books written by Black authors highlighting the Black experience. It’s hosted and produced by 15-year-old phenom, Marley Dias.

Finally! Here’s A Bazillion Children’s Books for Your Virtual or In-Person Classroom from our Guest Culturally Responsive Teacher Bitch, Kendall!

One by Katherine Otoshi

diversity, courage, tolerance, open-mindedness

The Day You Begin by Jaqcueline Woodson

feeling like an outsider, sharing your story

Visiting Day by Jaqueline Woodson

visiting family members in prison

Morning Girl by Michael Dorris

Bahamas 1492, Taíno siblings deal with anger and love simultaneously

Sees Behind Trees by Michael Dorris

your differences only make you stronger, Indigenous Peoples stories

Waiting by Kevin Henkes

friendship, waiting, patience

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

teasing, friendship

Stellaluna by Janell Cannon

overcoming differences, finding common ground

We Found a Hat by Jon Klassen

sharing

Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett

hope, generosity

Ish by Peter Reynolds

the arts, beating to your own drum, living your best life

Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio

explains the electoral college and our democracy on a 1-2 reading level

Rules by Cynthia Lord

a little girl with the up-and-down emotions of living with an autistic brother

Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry

loving your natural hair and father-daughter relationships, Black stories

Hair Love is based on the short film of the same name, get some tissues before watching it, below.

Love Is by Diane Adams

challenges and joys of giving and receiving love

Planting Stories by Anika A. Demise

a biography of Pura Belpré, the first Puerto Rican librarian in NYC who changed the game for the library system

Crossing Bok Chitto by Tim Tingle

a remarkable story for children and adults about Black slaves and the Choctaw Nation people who helped them escape

Dreamers by Yuyi Morales

a nonfiction ode to libraries and books--also about an immigrant mother and child’s path to crossing the border

Introducing Teddy by Jessica Walton

“a gentle story about gender”

Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall

a blue crayon is mislabeled as red and has an identity crisis

Bayou Magic by Jewell Parker Rhodes

coming of age, environment, African American heritage

The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig

small acts of kindness, quiet children

Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt

being prepared, origins of fear, trying new things

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox

deals with memory--great for those with older grandparents

The Sandwich Swap by Kelly DiPucchio and Queen Rania of Jordan

acceptance, respect, tolerance

The Empty Pot by Demi

patience, honesty, strength within yourself

Where Are You From? by Jaime Kim

self-acceptance, identity, home

Sparkle Boy by Leslea Newman

acceptance, gender expression

Worm Loves Worm by J.J. Austrian

love is love

King and King by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland

love is love

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

the true story of the male penguins at the Central Park Zoo who, with the help of a zookeeper, were able to have a baby penguin of their own

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P.S. We also love all things Patricia Polacco! She has really great themes for teaching kids--bullying, racism, gender inequality, etc. Barb cries every time she reads her--check out her post on her here.

We also recommend The Story of Ferdinand, and it has a lot of history!

I thought it was interesting and thought you might too, so I wrote a post about that. You can find that here.

Any books we left off this time around? Don't worry there's more where this came from. Do you have any favorites we should add? Let us know in the comments!