Books for Bi-racial children

[Bunnybee]

Have any of you bought books on this subject? I was just looking through Amazon and a couple I saw were "Black, White, Just Right" which is for the kids and "I'm Chocolate, You're Vanilla: Raising Healthy Black and Biracial Children in a Race-Conscious World" which is for the parents. Any titles you would recommend? Are they helpful/necessary? When do kids notice this stuff anyways? DD sees a guy with glasses on TV and says "Daddy" or an old guy and says "Grandpa" so she hasn't noticed skin color yet!

[momof3ejs]

The Colors of Us, Shades of Black, I Like Myself. Those are just a few. I have another book from the library that's for the parents. I can't remember what the name of it is, but it talks about raising multicultural/biracial kids. I'm getting ready to start it, so I'll let you know.

[momof3ejs]

Just wanted to add that I do try to look for books or movies where there is a blend of races. I mean, we live in very white-centric nation. I think it's nice for kids of any color and race to see that there's more out there. Does that make sense?

[BookGoddess]

My daughter isn't biracial but she enjoys the Sesame Street book "We're Different, We're the Same" by Bobbi Kates. It's about racial harmony. It's about the beauty of different skin colors, hair, eyes, etc.

This is an older children's book which I found on Amazon but I haven't read it so I don't know if it's any good or not. Black is Brown is Tan is about an interracial family.

[cyndimo]

We like Shades of Black.
I also just read "Does Anybody Else Look Like Me?" for parents. It was geared toward parents of bi and multi-racial kids. And though DS isn't biracial, I found it very helpful.

[gethane]

Originally Posted by BookGoddess

This is an older children's book which I found on Amazon but I haven't read it so I don't know if it's any good or not. Black is Brown is Tan is about an interracial family.

I remember reading that to my kids when they were little.

[cyndimo]

I just got "Tickle, Tickle" by Helen Oxenbury (a picture book) from the library.
The adults and children are a mix of colors and sometimes the child is darker than the adult and sometimes the adult is darker. All the adults clearly care for the children.

[mom2tatum]

ya know, i got the "black, white, just right" from the library and didn't care for it at all. Just my opinion. I thought the author must have been very afraid of making stereotypes so she made the white guy like fried chicken and watermelon, and jazz or dancing (or something like that, I forget now - don't quote me) But, it was like opposite of what most people associate with each race...which just seemed fake and fearful to me. What would have been wrong with allowing the black mother to seem "black" and the white dad seem "white"? It tried too hard to show just the opposite for me. Maybe that's good in some people's eyes, but I dunno, I didn't like it. My dh and I had a good chuckle over some of the pages.

[PattyCakes_726]

My DS used to love Pretty Brown Face when he was little. It's not specifically aimed at bi-racial kids, but he really liked reading it when he first began to notice differences in skin color.

[Kitsune6]

I really love this book, All the colors of the Earth

It's not specific to bi/multi racial kids but it just shows all the different colors of children and relates them to different colors of the earth. It's very sweet and it's on one of the scholastic dvd's the kids have. It has a nice song set to it.

[kapa]

hi to all!i'm a new member and i enjoy reading your opinions.i have a daughter 17m old and she is greek from me and congolese from her dad.i think that she can understand the diference of color.when she was 3 or 4m she cried when a white man or a black woman held her.she thought that all women are white and all men black.

[rredhead]

My son LOVES Black is Brown is Tan! He can recite parts of it, and he's only 2.
We also like the Ezra Jack Keats books, the Corduroy books, Karen Katz's life-the-flap books that aren't about family, More More More Said the Baby, What a Family!, well, we like lots of books. I need to put together a list. We just got the book Ernie Dances to the Didgeridoo, which is about a white boy who goes to live on an aboriginal reserve in Australia. Very cute!

(PS: I just found this forum. I'm so happy to see it!)

[mamademateo]

this website has a great booklist http://www.alaafiakids.com/

[RainCoastMama]

*bump*

[Papooses]

I created this list of books that my daughter enjoys :

Originally Posted by mamademateo

http://www.alaafiakids.com/

Now I'm singing that folk song (which I doubt I'll spell correctly, so I won't embarrass myself, but hopefully someone knows what I'm talking about? )

[eilonwy]

Originally Posted by Bunnybee

When do kids notice this stuff anyways? DD sees a guy with glasses on TV and says "Daddy" or an old guy and says "Grandpa" so she hasn't noticed skin color yet!

It really varies with the child and the situation. The first time I experienced racial discrimination, I was very very young and two black girls wouldn't let me play with them because "we don't play with little white girls." I was aware of race from that point on in a conscious way. My niece ChibiChibi used to refer to any black man on TV or in an ad as "daddy," whether it was that guy from the insurance commercials or Shaq. She did that from the time she could talk (very early) until she was about three. In fact, any black man she saw from a distance was potentially "daddy." I know that by the time she was four, she was very conscious of race (her own and others). BeanBean noticed race very early on, no doubt due in large part to Chibi's influence. BooBah is four hardly notices race at all, and I don't think she could tell you what color any of her cousins are.

The books that I bought for Chibi all focused on self-acceptance; Most were aimed at black children, particularly girls (i.e. Happy to be Nappy).

[earthgirl]

Anyone mind adding their picks to this thread?

http://mothering.com/discussions/sho...d.php?t=954733

TIA!

[mango*mama]

I think there are four sorts of these books: one that shows mixed families/characters without any sort of commentary (Buzz! or Hello, Lulu), one that has some sort of discussion about the character's background (Two Mrs Gibsons), ones that has some kind of cheering squad for multiracialness (Black, white, just right!), and ones that are about the parents' relationship rather than the child's perspective (How my parents learned to eat, for example). I hate most of the cheering squad variety because they are too campy!

Here are some I can think of off the top of my head:

Hello, Lulu by Caroline Uff - series of board books with girl of mixed (black/white) heritage

More More More said the baby by Vera Williams - one of the stories has a white grandmother and a mixed baby

Buzz! by Janet Wong - family gets ready in the morning

I Love Saturdays y domingos by Alma Flor Ada

Two Mrs Gibsons by Toyomi Igus - about a girl's Japanese immigrant mother and African American grandmother

A Child's Calendar by John Updike - family goes about the year

Maxwell's Mountain by Shari Becker - boy tackles "mountain" climbing

Hello, Goodbye Window - loving depiction of girl with her grandparents. Are they or aren't they a mixed family?

African Princess by Lyra Edmonds - girl (daughter of Carribbean immigrant mother and white father) is laughed at for saying she is an African princess; she goes on a journey to understand

Also some people like the rather "abstract" book Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Leonni, which is sort of about color blobs mixing. And The Rabbits' Wedding by Garth Williams is another "is this or isn't this" story, but again, it's about the adults not the kids.