“Mommy, is Grandma white?”
This is a question Mini-Me posed when she was about 2 or 3 years old. She asked the same question regarding her baby sister, who is adopted, when we brought her home a few years later. On both occasions, I turned to a book to help my little person make sense of this crazy, slippery thing we call ‘race’:
With its beautiful photographs of black children, Shades of Black provided a imagistic backdrop to my explanation of “black” as a rainbow of skin tones, hair colors and textures, and eye colors.
From adoption to divorce to “Can babies come out of your butt?”, throughout my children’s lives I’ve turned to books to explain, affirm, inform, and entertain.
In celebration of 32 Days of Black History, here’s a small sample of the black-themed books we’ve loved over the years. Each image is linked to its Amazon page. All books are available at Amazon! 
Favorite bedtime stories in our household include…
The Hair Collection:
Nonfiction/Historical Fiction:
We <heart> Patricia McKissack:
Chapter-book series (multiple titles in each series):
A Continent, Not a Country:
Please read everything offered by the Jump at the Sun imprint. We’re partial to:
Other favorites:
A few of my faves from child/young adulthood (for older readers):
(I can’t believe this book is being sold for a penny!)
“Edith Jackson” was the third book in Guy’s Harlem-based trilogy (after “The Friends”, and “Ruby”), but I could find no cover image for it. Between Rosa Guy, Louise Meriweather (”Daddy Was…”), and James Baldwin, I couldn’t wait to visit Harlem when I grew up.
So what’d I miss? What are your kids’ must-read, black-themed faves? What were yours, when you were a kid?
Multi-tasking stats: This post was drafted whilst nursing a hacking cough, and earlier while sitting (miserably) with Baby Girl as she got her hair twisted at the hair salon (locs here we come!).
February 25th, 2008 at 11:54 am
During my daughter’s early years, I created a male character that mirrored their ages and guided them through his many adventures for their bedtime stories.
I regret not recording those tales. They were very popular with my kids and I enjoyed developing the stories as we went along. At 16 years old, my oldest still remembers the characters and mentions some of the adventures.
A couple of books that I did keep in the girls library were Shel Silveretein’s “Falling Up” and Angela Johnson’s “Shoes Like Miss Alice’s”
February 25th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
My girls love for their dad to tell them stories (”without the books”, as BabyGirl says).
Mama isn’t as gifted a storyteller, but I did get points the other day for a story about two girls (who bear a suspicious resemblance to my two girls) whose big floppy hats get stolen by two baby chipmunks.