Dr. David Childs, D.D., Ph.D.
Northern Kentucky University
Parents, teachers and many people in the general public are becoming increasingly interested in resources and books that come from a more diverse perspective. Check out this list of multicultural children’s books. These can help build and diversify our home or classroom libraries. This article was published over two years ago and is still very timely today.
Originally published April 8, 2020 under the title “Our Children Need Multicultural Literature in Their Lives: Books to Check Out While In Quarantine”
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
At the time these words were written they only applied to wealthy, white males that owned property. But as time has progressed people have come to take these words as meaning freedom for every American citizen. And furthermore, those citizens have the right to be treated equally and should be afforded the same rights as anyone else. In this way, the notion of equality is thought to be a fundamental right in the US democracy, even though it does not always play out that way in society.
What kind of literature do you recall reading in your K-12 experience? Do you recall characters from a wide variety of cultures or were the protagonists predominantly white characters? Although I can probably count on one hand the number of multicultural books I had access to growing up, the handful I did read sparked an insatiable love for learning that I possess to this day. Primarily because I could identify with the characters in the books. My own experience points to the value of exposing students to a diverse curriculum and multicultural literature. With the United States becoming more culturally diverse and the world becoming smaller and smaller due to the advancement of technology, it behooves teachers to include materials that appeal to a wider range of people groups.
Educational scholar Dr. James Banks offers four approaches to effective multicultural education. In his transformational approach he states that teachers should provide a curriculum whereby students can reflect upon ideas from multiple perspectives as well as looking at their own. One way to do this is by reading literature that offers multicultural perspectives. In this article we have provided a number of examples of multicultural literature from various grade levels that can be used effectively in the classroom to provide resources that will allow students to view the world from multiple perspectives.
List of Multicultural books and other resources
15 Great Asian Canadian and Asian American YA Books
Best Sellers in Teen & Young Adult Jewish Fiction
Six Native American AYA Themed Books
8 YA Books With Latino Protagonists We Wish We Had As Teenagers
Top Children’s/Y.A. Books Set in Africa
Popular YA Multicultural Books
The 50 Best Multicultural Picture Books of 2018
Fifteen Multicultural Children’s Books
Diversity Book Lists & Activities for Teachers and Parents
Learn About Nigeria Through Children’s Books
The Logonauts: Africa Is Not a Country
China for Kids with Children’s Books, Culture and Design
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian By
Sherman Alexie, Illustration By Ellen Forney
Multicultural Young Adult Fiction Books
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Paperback)
by Sherman Alexie, Ellen Forney (Illustrator)
Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
American Street (Hardcover)
by Ibi Zoboi (Goodreads Author)
The rock in the water does not know the pain of the rock in the sun. On the corner of American Street and Joy Road, Fabiola Toussaint thought she would finally find une belle vie—a good life. But after they leave Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Fabiola’s mother is detained by U.S. immigration, leaving Fabiola to navigate her loud American cousins, Chantal, Donna, and Princess; the grittiness of Detroit’s west side; a new school; and a surprising romance, all on her own. Just as she finds her footing in this strange new world, a dangerous proposition presents itself, and Fabiola soon realizes that freedom comes at a cost. Trapped at the crossroads of an impossible choice, will she pay the price for the American dream?
Gabi, a Girl in Pieces (Paperback)
by Isabel Quintero (Goodreads Author)
Gabi Hernandez chronicles her last year in high school in her diary: college applications, Cindy’s pregnancy, Sebastian’s coming out, the cute boys, her father’s meth habit, and the food she craves. And best of all, the poetry that helps forge her identity.
A Moment Comes (Hardcover)
by Jennifer Bradbury
As the partition of India nears in 1947 bringing violence even to Jalandhar, Tariq, a Muslim, finds himself caught between his forbidden interest in Anupreet, a Sikh girl, and Margaret, a British girl whose affection for him might help with his dream of studying at Oxford.
Homegoing (Hardcover)
by Yaa Gyasi
A novel of breathtaking sweep and emotional power that traces three hundred years in Ghana and along the way also becomes a truly great American novel. Extraordinary for its exquisite language, its implacable sorrow, its soaring beauty, and for its monumental portrait of the forces that shape families and nations, Homegoing heralds the arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.
After The Shot Drops (ebook)
by Randy Ribay (Goodreads Author)
A powerful novel about friendship, basketball, and one teen’s mission to create a better life for his family in the tradition of Jason Reynolds, Matt de la Pena, and Walter Dean Myers. Bunny and Nasir have been best friends forever, but when Bunny accepts an athletic scholarship across town, Nasir feels betrayed. While Bunny tries to fit in with his new, privileged peers, Nasir spends more time with his cousin, Wallace, who is being evicted. Nasir can’t help but wonder why the neighborhood is falling over itself to help Bunny when Wallace is in trouble.
On the Come Up (Audio CD)
by Angie Thomas (Goodreads Author)
Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least make it out of her neighborhood one day. As the daughter of an underground rap legend who died before he hit big, Bri’s got big shoes to fill. But now that her mom has unexpectedly lost her job, food banks and shutoff notices are as much a part of Bri’s life as beats and rhymes. With bills piling up and homelessness staring her family down, Bri no longer just wants to make it—she has to make it.
Swing (Hardcover)
by Kwame Alexander, Mary Rand Hess (Goodreads Author)
Things usually do not go as planned for seventeen-year-old Noah. He and his best friend Walt (aka Swing) have been cut from the high school baseball team for the third year in a row, and it looks like Noah’s love interest since third grade, Sam, will never take it past the “best friend” zone. Noah would love to retire his bat and accept the status quo, but Walt has big plans for them both, which include making the best baseball comeback ever, getting the girl, and finally finding cool.
The Astonishing Color of After (Hardcover)
by Emily X.R. Pan (Goodreads Author)
Leigh Chen Sanders is absolutely certain about one thing: When her mother died by suicide, she turned into a bird. Leigh, who is half Asian and half white, travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents for the first time. There, she is determined to find her mother, the bird. In her search, she winds up chasing after ghosts, uncovering family secrets, and forging a new relationship with her grandparents. And as she grieves, she must try to reconcile the fact that on the same day she kissed her best friend and longtime secret crush, Axel, her mother was taking her own life.
The Inexplicable Logic of My Life (Hardcover)
by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (Goodreads Author)
A warmly humane look at universal questions of belonging, infused with humour, from the bestselling author of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.
Sal used to know his place with his adoptive gay father, their loving Mexican American family, and his best friend, Samantha. But it’s senior year, and suddenly Sal is throwing punches, questioning everything, and realizing he no longer knows himself. If Sal’s not who he thought he was, who is he?
American Panda (Hardcover)
by Gloria Chao (Goodreads Author)
At seventeen, Mei should be in high school, but skipping fourth grade was part of her parents’ master plan. Now a freshman at MIT, she is on track to fulfill the rest of this predetermined future: become a doctor, marry a preapproved Taiwanese Ivy Leaguer, produce a litter of babies.
The Hate U Give (Hardcover)
by Angie Thomas (Goodreads Author)
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
When Dimple Met Rishi (Dimple and Rishi, #1)
by Sandhya Menon (Goodreads Author)
Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right?
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (Hardcover)
by Erika L. Sánchez
Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents’ house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family. But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga’s role. Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed.
Love, Hate & Other Filters (Hardcover)
by Samira Ahmed (Goodreads Author)
A searing #OwnVoices coming-of-age debut in which an Indian-American Muslim teen confronts Islamophobia and a reality she can neither explain nor escape—perfect for fans of Angie Thomas, Jacqueline Woodson, and Adam Silvera. American-born seventeen-year-old Maya Aziz is torn between worlds. There’s the proper one her parents expect for their good Indian daughter: attending a college close to their suburban Chicago home, and being paired off with an older Muslim boy her mom deems “suitable.” And then there is the world of her dreams: going to film school and living in New York City—and maybe (just maybe) pursuing a boy she’s known from afar since grade school, a boy who’s finally falling into her orbit at school.
The Bitter Side of Sweet (Hardcover)
by Tara Sullivan (Goodreads Author)
Two young boys must escape a life of slavery in modern-day Ivory Coast. Fifteen-year-old Amadou counts the things that matter. For two years what has mattered are the number of cacao pods he and his younger brother, Seydou, can chop down in a day. This number is very important. The higher the number the safer they are because the bosses won’t beat them. The higher the number the closer they are to paying off their debt and returning home to Baba and Auntie. Maybe. The problem is Amadou doesn’t know how much he and Seydou owe, and the bosses won’t tell him. The boys only wanted to make some money during the dry season to help their impoverished family. Instead they were tricked into forced labor on a plantation in the Ivory Coast; they spend day after day living on little food and harvesting beans in the hot sun—dangerous, backbreaking work. With no hope of escape, all they can do is try their best to stay alive—until Khadija comes into their lives.
Last Night I Sang to the Monster (Hardcover)
by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (Goodreads Author)
Zach is eighteen. He is bright and articulate. He’s also an alcoholic and in rehab instead of high school, but he doesn’t remember how he got there. He’s not sure he wants to remember. Something bad must have happened. Something really, really bad. Remembering sucks and being alive – well, what’s up with that?
Mexican Whiteboy (Hardcover)
by Matt de la Pena (Goodreads Author)
Danny’s tall and skinny. Even though he’s not built, his arms are long enough to give his pitch a power so fierce any college scout would sign him on the spot. Ninety-five mile an hour fastball, but the boy’s not even on a team. Every time he gets up on the mound he loses it. But at his private school, they don’t expect much else from him. Danny’ s brown. Half-Mexican brown. And growing up in San Diego that close to the border means everyone else knows exactly who he is before he even opens his mouth. Before they find out he can’t speak Spanish, and before they realize his mom has blond hair and blue eyes, they’ve got him pegged. But it works the other way too. And Danny’s convinced it’s his whiteness that sent his father back to Mexico.
This Side of Home (Hardcover)
by Renée Watson
Identical twins Nikki and Maya have been on the same page for everything—friends, school, boys and starting off their adult lives at a historically African-American college. But as their neighborhood goes from rough-and-tumble to up-and-coming, suddenly filled with pretty coffee shops and boutiques, Nikki is thrilled while Maya feels like their home is slipping away. Suddenly, the sisters who had always shared everything must confront their dissenting feelings on the importance of their ethnic and cultural identities and, in the process, learn to separate themselves from the long shadow of their identity as twins.
Brown Girl Dreaming By Jacqueline Woodson
Brown Girl Dreaming (Hardcover)
by Jacqueline Woodson (Goodreads Author)
Jacqueline Woodson, one of today’s finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.
For questions, more resources and discussion on this topic please contact the author at childsd1@nku.edu.
I can remember as a student in an elementary class I was never exposed to diverse literature. It was always Junie B. Jones books or other books, but I never remember reading about different cultures or the diversity that our world consists of. As the article talks about the Declaration of Independence and how all men are created equal, I was never exposed to this idea until middle school and above. I believe my role as a future educator is to expose students to this idea of being created equally and to show them diverse perspectives through different types of literature. Reading this article has influenced me to research different books that include diverse perspectives to use in an elementary classroom. Some of these books are, “A Chair for My Mother” by Vera Williams and “All Are Welcome” by Alexandra Penfold.
Being a future teacher who has had little knowledge regarding classroom books, I find this article helpful. As someone who hopes to make their classroom an inclusive and safe space for all students in it, learning about the different books that allows others to read and see in different perspectives, or learn something new about another culture is very important. Without having multi-cultural books in the classroom, I feel like that will cause some students to feel out of place or question the books, classroom, teacher, and school in general. I look back on the books that were available to me and recall very few teachers having a multi-cultural library. I really enjoyed reading this article and plan to save it for future reference!
As a future educator, I want all students to know that their background matters and that they are seen and heard. Having multicultural children’s books in the classroom is essential for giving students the representation they deserve and showing them that they aren’t alone in the world. I also believe that multicultural books are a great way to expose children to different cultures and help students understand that someone being different doesn’t mean they are bad. In the future, I hope I can have a classroom filled with books that show positive representations of people from many different races, cultures, and sexualities. It would also be a bonus if these books could be used to help teach content to students and not just be used for recreation.
I really enjoyed this article because it allowed me to reflect on the books that I remember being exposed to as a child while also challenging me to think about what I want to do differently in my future classroom. I remember the majority of the children’s books that I read having mostly white main characters, as well as the movies and other sources of media and text that I had. I am not sure if this is just because I grew up in a small, prominently white town in the country; however, I was exposed to diverse groups of people by traveling with my family. However, not all children have this luxury that I had. Therefore, I want to make sure that I provide my students with as many opportunities as possible to read about all different types of cultures. I want my students to build their knowledge using other people’s perspectives. Over the summer, I actually read one of the books on this list, The Hate You Give. I really enjoyed reading it because it highlighted a subject matter that we see in the news everyday and this book was wrote 5 years ago. The book discusses how non-armed, black men and women have been targeted by the cops for many years because of their skin color. I think reading books like that book can really help each of us understand how passionate that people are about making changes and these books make these subjects real for those of us who haven’t been in somebody else’s shoes. We all grow together by seeing from another person’s perspective.
When I become a teacher, I hope that I can be a memorable teacher to them while also informing them about as many things occurring around us as possible. I hope that keeping a fair amount of multicultural books for my students to enjoy will allow them to see that everyone around us is all human. While I know many teachers would love to read as many books as possible, it is difficult to do with their workload and a list of suggestions offers a options that could be read in class.
When I become a teacher, it is my goal to have a large quantity of multicultural books for my students to enjoy. Regardless of the demographics of the children you teach, I think it is so important for educators to teach about our world and the people in it, in addition to the listed curriculum. I also really enjoyed that this article had a great resource for teachers to use. While I know many teachers would love to read as many books as possible, it is difficult to do with their workload and a list of suggestions offers a boost for many.
Multicultural books are essential due to the amount of representation it can present to a classroom, your own children, and towards the future of American society. Personally, as a future teacher for elementary schools, I believe these are important to read as children will grow and develop their own opinions/beliefs as individuals. When I was a young girl, I did not receive any representation regarding gay families or even just women who enjoyed wearing the color blue. I want to include multicultural books into my student’s lives because it is important to understand EVERYONE, not just one race, gender, or religion. By providing this type of delivery to young minds, they can grow to have a more accepting mindset by acknowledging multiple perspectives across the world. This is a topic that deserves to be addressed and should have been addressed a long time ago. Even reading the descriptions of each “Multicultural Young Adult Fiction Books” makes me want to read more, gain knowledge on each point it’s trying to make, and teach students that there isn’t just one point of view. These could be the lives of anyone and I feel that new generations should engage in these topics.
As a future educator, I have already planned to have many diverse books in my classroom. I want books that talk about different cultures or different disabilities because I feel that many students don’t know about those things. Having books like these for children to read or be read to is perfect to start them at a young age to know that other kids may have different skin colors or different accessories on their bodies that they need. This should be a topic that needs to be addressed in a school at a young age to teach students about multiple cultures. Having these books accessible to students will allow them to learn more about this!
This article was really effective in its delivery. Being an up and coming teacher, I think it is important to have books from multiple cultures present in the classroom. This is important because it will help diversify the classroom and the cultures that are present. Doing this will also allow for students to feel more connected to the classroom and allow them to grow in the material if the books present are used in lessons. It is healthy for growing learners to build their knowledge of content from more than one perspective, I think that having these books in the classroom will help to address that issue. Great read!! This is one thing that I did not have in my schooling career and one thing that I wish that my teachers would have done. I think that this resource could be a really moving and inspiring tool for students!