In response to recent police violence against Black men in Minnesota and Louisiana and the killing of five police officers in Dallas, New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña issued an open letter to colleagues and families. We now know that three police officers were killed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Sunday. The Black Lives Matter movement has issued repeated calls for an end to violence against Black men and against police officers. In a written statement and in a televised address to the nation President Obama demanded "attacks on public servants, on the rule of law, and on civilized society . . . have to stop . . . They right no wrongs. They advance no causes."
In her letter, Fariña expressed her strong belief that as "New York City educators and parents, we have a moral obligation to address the difficult questions about race, violence, and guns, and to engage students in the critical work of healing our country."
Fariña encouraged educators and parents to "raise these issues with children, taking care to have thoughtful conversations. Create a safe space for students to talk about their concerns and ask questions. Listen to their fears, share as much information as children are able to handle, and answer their questions with honesty, sensitivity, and empathy." She announced Department of Education plans to "implement a new social studies curriculum, which includes robust lessons integrating themes of tolerance, civil rights, and equity" and also recommended parents and teachers examine Perspectives for a Diverse America, a curriculum developed by the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance project. Other extremely helpful web resources are Teaching for Change and Rethinking Schools, which both offer online bookstores. Parents and teachers should look at Open Minds to Equality with lessons on how to respond to bullying, anti-Muslim discrimination, gender controversies, and hostility directed towards immigrants.
Children's picture books are an excellent way for parents and teachers to open conversations on difficult issues with young children, both at home and in school. From 2001 to 2009, Judith Y. Singer, a former day care director and a Long Island University education professor, wrote a series of articles on using children's books to teach about complex topics including race and racism. They were published in Social Science Docket, a publication of the New York and New Jersey Councils for the Social Studies. In the articles Dr. Singer stressed the concept of fairness, "That's not fair!", an idea that resonates with younger children.
As the director of the MLE Learning Center in the East New York section of Brooklyn, Dr. Singer also helped develop a curriculum that engaged pre-school and school aged children in considering the questions "What kind of world do you want to live in?" and "How can we make the world more like we want it to be?" The curriculum utilized children's picture books as a starting point for conversations and frequently involved children in organized collective action, along with their teachers and parents, in opposition to social inequality and injustice.
The following are some of Dr. Singer's recommendations with excerpts from her reviews and online links. These books are about race and racism, but also about immigrant rights and respect for a range of diversities including family differences and gay rights. Please post your own suggestions.
Whoever You Are by Mem Fox. Illustrated by Leslie Staub (1997). In this book, children are reminded of how much they are like one another, all over the world. "Whoever you are, wherever you are there are little ones just like you, all over the world." There are children whose skin is different, whose homes are different, and whose lives are different, but inside, "smiles are the same, and hearts are just the same, whoever they are, wherever you are, wherever we are, all over the world."
The Enormous Turnip by Kathy Parkinson (1986). This book is about cooperation and community. When it comes time to harvest Grandpa's biggest turnip, it is too big for Grandpa to uproot. Each member of the household adds his or her weight, pulling and pulling on the turnip, until it pops out of the ground. This is all done with teamwork and cooperation, and it becomes an occasion for much feasting and celebration, illustrating that our greatest accomplishments come when we work together. Children can follow up this story by making turnip stew, mashed turnips, or recipes from their families.
The Banza: A Haitian Story by Diane Wolkstein. Illustrated by Marc Brown (1981). This is a story about a little goat (Cabree) and a little tiger (Teegra) who become friends in spite of the well-known animosity between tigers and goats. When they are separated from their families in a storm, Teegra gives his new friend a Banza, or a Banjo. With the help of her Banza, Cabree finds the courage to stand up to a band of ten angry tigers. Like the friendship between Cabree and Teegra, the story of Banza affirms a belief that people who are different can work together.
Wings by Christopher Myers (2000). Respect for diversity means standing up for others. A new boy comes into the neighborhood and everyone points and stares. The new boy, whose name is Icarus, has wings and knows how to fly. One girl, the narrator of the story, didn't think Icarus was strange. She liked his "strong, proud wings" that "followed wherever he went." The little girl remembered when children whispered about her, just the way they whispered about him. She knew how he felt. She thinks, "Maybe I should have said something to those mean kids." Later, the girl decides to tell the others to leave him alone. And they do.
Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman. Illustrated by Caroline Binch (1991). The African-American family in this book is made up of Grace, a six year old girl, her mother and her grandmother. The story is about all the things that Grace likes to do and all the ways her mother and her grandmother encourage her. Grace loves to read stories and she loves to act them out with her mother and grandmother as her audience. When it came time for the class play, Grace wanted to be Peter Pan, but other children said she couldn't, because Grace is a girl and she is black. Her grandmother takes Grace to see a Black ballerina and she tells Grace, "You can be anything you want, if you put your mind to it." Grace practiced being Peter Pan all weekend, and everyone voted for her.
Boundless Grace by Mary Hoffman. Illustrated by Caroline Binch (1995). This is another book about Grace's adventures. In this story, Grace travels with her grandmother to Gambia in Africa to become reacquainted with her father and to get to know his other family. At first Grace is not so sure she wants to spend time with these people she does not know. Grace reflects on her father's family, with its two parents and two children. She remarks, "They make a storybook family without me. I'm one girl too many." Later, she asks Nana, "Why aren't there any stories about families like mine, that don't live together?" As Grace questions the idea of having a single-parent family, readers may also be able to discuss the idea of different kinds of families as well.
How Many Days to America?: A Thanksgiving Story by Eve Bunting. Illustrated by Beth Peck (1988). "It was nice in our village. Till the night in October when the soldiers came." This family is desperate to escape the soldiers who oppress them in their country. Together with a boat full of other refugees, they drift in the ocean; they are prey to thieves; and they are sent back by a group of soldiers, before they finally find welcome in America. Children can feel the fears of a child uprooted from his home, not knowing whether he and his family will ever be accepted in a new place.
Going Home by Eve Bunting. Illustrated by David Diaz (1996). This story of a Mexican family driving home for Christmas has a magical quality similar to Calling the Doves. Whenever their parents speak of Mexico, they tell Carlos and his sisters how beautiful it is. Their parents dance in the moonlight after they arrive at their grandfather's house in Mexico. But Carlos wants to know why they left Mexico if it is so beautiful. His parents explain, "'There is no work in La Perla. We are here for the opportunities.' It is always the same answer." As they cross the border into Mexico, Carlos worries about whether they will be allowed back into the U. S. Papa tells him, "Of course. We are legal farm workers. We have our papeles." Mexicans cannot travel freely between the U. S. and Mexico. They have to have papers which allow them to be in the U.S. to do the hard work of picking the crops.
Best Best Colors: Los Mejores Colores by Eric Hoffman (1999). Illustrated by Celeste Henriquez. In this Spanish-English bi-lingual book, a little boy named Nate is searching for his "best, best colors." Nate keeps changing his mind until he realizes that he can have more than one best color and he can have a whole rainbow in the Gay Pride parade. At the same time, readers of this book can learn that a child can have two Moms.
One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads by Johnny Valentine (1994). Illustrated by Melody Sarecky. This book emphasizes the possibility of differences among dads and other people. This book can also stimulate discussion of what kinds of differences might be possible, and what kinds might be impossible. In this case, a discussion about gay dads might be appropriate.
And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell (2005). Illustrated by Henry Cole. This is a story about two penguins living in the Central Park Zoo who fall in love. This is a true story. It is not fiction. While all the other penguins were looking for the right mate, these two penguins, Roy and Silo became interested in each other, but Roy and Silo were both boys. When it became time to hatch an egg, they did not have an egg to hatch, until one of the zookeepers found an egg that no one else was hatching. Now Silo and Roy and their fuzzy baby chick named Tango were a family. "Tango was the very first penguin in the zoo to have two daddies." Again, this is a story that can help start a conversation with young readers about gay parents.
Smoky Night by Eve Bunting. Illustrated by David Diaz (1994). Daniel and his mother watch from their window as rioters carry off household appliances, clothing from the cleaners, shoes, and footballs. As they carry away cases of cereal from Mrs. Kim's store, Daniel muses that he and his mother do not shop in Mrs. Kim's store, because, "Mama says it's better if we buy from our own people." When their building catches on fire, Daniel and his mother are thrown together with Mrs. Kim. Following the lead of their two cats, they begin to re-examine whether there can be friendship with people who are not "our own."
Peace Crane by Sheila Hamanaka (1995). A young African-American girl recalls the struggle of Sadako, and she appeals to the Peace Crane to help stop the violence in her crime-ridden neighborhood. She calls out, "Peace Crane, are you flying still? . . . If I make a paper peace crane from a crisp white paper square, if I fold my dreams inside the wings, will anybody care?" In her imagination, the little girl flies with the Peace Crane all over the world, calling on all people to be part of "a world without borders, a world without guns, a world that loves its children." A particularly compelling feature of this book is the way the author depicts a common bond between an African-American child needing hope and a hopeful Japanese child long dead. Their differences of race, generation, class, and culture are supplanted by a common desire for peace.
Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold (1991). Cassie Louise Lightfoot was born in 1931, the year the George Washington Bridge opened. As she lies on her roof, her "tar beach," Cassie imagines that she owns the bridge. She tells us how her father helped to build it. Cassie explains, "But still he can't join the union because Grandpa wasn't a member. Well, Daddy is going to own that building, 'cause I'm gonna fly over it and give it to him. Then it won't matter that he's not in their old union, or whether he's colored or a half-breed Indian, like they say." Cassie's comments draw the reader into conversation about some of the racial and ethnic inequalities that marked the closing decades of the Industrial Revolution.
Terrible Things by Eve Bunting. Illustrated by Stephen Gammell (1980). In this allegory of the Nazi holocaust, the "Terrible Things" represent an unknown and unfathomable danger. The animals live together peacefully, until the day the "Terrible Things" come and begin to take them away in their nets, one group at a time. None of the remaining groups makes a protest, until there is no one left except the little rabbit. There is a chilling sense of impending doom in this book, which raises the question of the consequences when we fail to take responsibility for one another. Little rabbit provides a glimmer of hope at the end, as he escapes the "Terrible Things" and runs off to warn the other animals in the forest.
Si. Se Puede! Yes, We Can! by Diana Cohn. Illustrated by F. Delgado (2002). This story of a janitor's strike in Los Angeles in 2000 brings to the present the struggle for respect and decent pay for working people. A little boy decides to help his mother while she is on strike by making signs in his school for the strikers to carry. The signs read, "Justice for Janitors," "Justicia," "Si. Se Puede" and, "I love my Mama. She is a Janitor!" An important feature of this book is that it is written in both Spanish and English, helping children learn respect for people who speak different languages as well as respect for janitors.
Several children's picture books are available to help younger children learn about the African American Civil Rights Movement. David Adler has written biographies of famous people, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, and Rosa Parks (NY: Holiday House).
I Am Rosa Parks, a book written for young readers by Rosa Parks tells about her childhood and how she worked as an adult to improve conditions for Black people. If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks is a picture book with vivid paintings of Rosa's story. It was written and illustrated by Faith Ringgold.
Two books about Martin Luther King, Jr. build on his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Martin's Big Words: the Life of Martin Luther King, Jr., written by Doreen Rappaport, uses excerpts from the speech and colorful paintings to show King's life-long struggle for social justice. In I Have a Dream passages from the speech are interspersed with paintings that help interpret it for readers.
The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles (G. Ford, illustrator) tells of a six-year-old Black girl who is the first African American child to enter an all-White elementary school in Louisiana. Through My Eyes is Ruby Bridges' own retelling of this experience.
Granddaddy's Gift, written by Margaree K. Mitchell (L. Johnson, illustrator) is the story of one Black man's determination to register to vote in segregated Mississippi. It was written as a legacy to his granddaughter. The Day Gogo Went to Vote, written by Elinor B. Sisulu and illustrated by Sharon Wilson, takes place in South Africa at the end of apartheid. It reminds us that the struggle for justice throughout the world never ceases.
The Other Side, written by Jacqueline Woodson (E. B. Lewis, illustrator) is about two little girls, one Black and one White, who decide to sit together on a fence that divides them from one another.
Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles, illustrated by Jerome Lagarrigue, is also about two friends, one Black and one White, but this time they are boys (New York: Aladdin, 2005). It takes place following passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. A Southern town decides to close its public swimming pool rather than allow Black children to use it.
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