Books for Black Kids

I like to think that even if I was raising white children I’d be making a concientious effort to find books for them with black characters in the stories and images of black people on the pages. However, I surely would not be going so far out of my way to try to buy up every children’s book I possibly can that seems to me to specifically and proactively work to instill self-confidence in black children. Right now, in this stage of their lives, one of our major goals in raising our boys is the fostering and development of strong, in-tact self-images. Self-confidence is a primary goal for us at this point in our parenting of Kyle and Owen. That is just one of the reasons that we have so many books for them with positive black imagery and text. Currently one of their absolute favorite books (Kyle, in particular) is Shades of Black: A Celebration of Our Children by Sandra Pinkney with photographs by Myles Pinkney. When I first bought it I thought it was so beautiful that it really should be a coffee table book! And I thought the text was actually too simplistic. But I was wrong. This book is a beloved, constantly requested, must-read daily for us lately (over the course of today, for example, K and/or O requested that I read this book to them no less than 5 times). Kyle actually has memorized the book (as he has with almost all of their books) and over the past few days I’ve caught him reciting parts of it aloud in spurts throughout the day. One line, in particular, Kyle is reciting over and over and over and over: “I am black, I am unique.” If you’re raising young black children right now, I highly recommend this book! And for anyone who has kids with dreadlocks… there is even a beautiful photo of a young girl with dreadlocks ~~~ and you know how rare that is to find in a children’s book!!!!!!! (every time we get to that page K & O happily point to the girl’s hair and say “Dreadlocks! Just like mine hair!!”) For a great place to buy it, click here.