23 Books that Honor Diversity and Have Anti-Racist Themes

I should not have to prove my ethnicity to anyone.  I know who I am.

-- Christina Aguilera

This is a follow-up and conclusion to my 2 previous posts about the #itstimetotalkracism campaign, which you can read HERE and HERE.  The organizer, Chrissy from Buzzing with Ms. B, has put together a list of books with anti-racist themes and books that honor diversity that teachers can use to stock their classroom libraries.  Some of these books were reviewed in the blog posts written for this campaign.

List of books compiled by Chrissy of Buzzing with Ms. B

Edutopia recently published an article about how to use books that provide mirrors and windows for students.  Although the author says most people know what it means, mirrors and windows was another term I was not familiar with.  It’s explained in the article but basically it refers to books that enable students to make connections to their lives in some way.  It's a great article with teaching ideas that you can use with these books.

If you’d like to help your students think more about what it means to be kind and show respect to others, you might like this resource I created.  It’s 10 photographs in 8.5" x 11" poster size and each one is overlaid with a quotation; there are 5 quotes about kindness and 5 about respect.  There are also 10 questions you can use as writing or discussion prompts.  For more info, please click HERE.

Use these posters to create a positive classroom & school community; source: The ESL Nexus

I hope my blog post and all the others in this series have not only given you lots to think about but also have offered you some practical, actionable ideas that you can implement in your classrooms in the near future.  Given the current state of world affairs, I think it’s very important that educators teach their students respect and kindness for all people, regardless of who they are, what they look like, where they come from, what their religion is, or what language they speak.