Children's Picture Books: Beautiful Life Category
Books featuring BIPOC in which race, ethnicity, tribal affiliation, culture, immigration/migration, and/or religious, sacred, or origin stories are central to the storyline. These books explicitly focus on the diverse expressions of human experience, depending on these elements to drive the plot.
Floating on Mama’s song / Flotando En La Cancion de Mama
Floating on Mama’s song / Flotando En La Cancion de Mama
A seven-year-old girl is amazed when her mother's singing suddenly begins to make her listeners float, but Grandma says she must stop, making Mama terribly sad until her daughter makes her smile again.
Good-bye, Havana! Hola, New York!
Good-bye, Havana! Hola, New York!
When five year old Gabriella hears talk of Castro and something called revolution in her home in Cuba, she doesn't understand. Then when her parents leave suddenly and she remains with her grandparents, life isn't the same. Soon the day comes when she goes to live with her parents in a new place called the Bronx. It isn't warm like Havana, and there is traffic, not the ocean, outside her window. Their life is different- it snows in the winter and the food at school is hot dogs and macaroni. What will it take for the Bronx to feel like home? ~from publisher
Good fortune in a wrapping cloth
Good fortune in a wrapping cloth
When Ji-su's mother is chosen by the emperor to be a seamstress in his court, Ji-su vows to learn to sew the beautiful Korean bojagi, or wrapping cloths, just as well so that she will also be summoned to the palace and be reunited with her mother
Goyangi means cat
Hot, Hot Roti for Dada-ji
Hot, Hot Roti for Dada-ji
Aneel and his grandfather, Dada-ji, tell stories, use their imaginations, and make delicious roti, a traditional Indian flatbread
I See the Sun in Afghanistan
I See the Sun in Afghanistan
Provides a window into the life of an Afghan girl while touching on the effects of war
Japanese Nursery Rhymes
Japanese Nursery Rhymes
Traditional Japanese verses depicting the natural world and the many tiny moments that make childhood special, such as blowing bubbles, escaping the rain, rolling an acorn, and flying a kite. Presented in Japanese script, Japanese romanized form, and English.
Kaugjagjuk
Kaugjagjuk
A retelling of the legend of Kaugjagjuk--a mistreated orphan who gains the strength to stand up for himself with a little help from the Man of the Moon--is a traditional Inuit tale told throughout the Arctic.
Lala salama
Lala salama
A mother relates the events of a peaceful day along the banks of Lake Tanganyika to her baby, wrapped up and ready for sleep.