November is National Children’s Book Month, a perfect opportunity to highlight a selection of beautiful recent picture books featuring people of color and Indigenous people.
It’s also a chance to explore the Diverse BookFinder’s tools for examining not just who is represented but how. Each title below is a strong example of one (or more) of our nine categories, and portrays one (or more) of our designated racial groups. Read more about our work on representation here.
A different pond
As a young boy, Bao Phi awoke early, hours before his father's long workday began, to fish on the shores of a small pond in Minneapolis. Unlike many other anglers, Bao and his father fished for food, not recreation. Between hope-filled casts, Bao's father told him about a different pond in their homeland of Vietnam. --Provided by publisher
Category: Beautiful Life: A Focus on Culture
Racial/Cultural Group: Asian/Pacific Islander/Asian American
Bravo!
Musician, botanist, baseball player, pilot—the Latinos featured in this collection come from many different countries and from many different backgrounds. Celebrate their accomplishments and their contributions to a collective history and a community that continues to evolve and thrive today! Bold, graphic portraits and beautiful poems present famous and lesser-known Latinos from varied backgrounds who have faced life's challenges in creative ways. -- Provided by publisher
Category - Biography: Real People, Real Lives
Racial/Cultural Group - Latinx/Hispanic/Latin American
Golden domes and silver lanterns
With breathtaking illustrations and informative text, Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns magnificently captures the world of Islam, celebrating its beauty and traditions for even the youngest readers. Sure to inspire questions and observations about world religions and cultures, this entrancing volume is equally at home in the classroom as it is being read to a child on a parent's lap.
Category - Race/Culture Concepts: Examining Difference and Commonalities
Racial/Cultural Group - Middle Eastern/North African/Arab
Hero mom
"The moms in this book are superheroes. They may not leap over tall buildings, and they may not have super-human speed. But these moms construct buildings, fly planes, and make tanks roll. They do all kinds of things to keep us safe. These superheroes are moms. Military moms. Hero moms"--Dust jacket
Category - Incidental: Ensemble or Background Characters of Color
Racial/Cultural Group - Multi-Racial Cast of Characters
I am Josephine
"Meet Josephine: a spirited and curious girl, a big sister, and a human being. She's also a mammal, an animal, and a living thing--all identities she explores with readers in this simple informational picture book. Josephine presents her family (and herself) as examples of human beings, and then familiar creatures like her dog and her mom (and herself) as mammals. Next, she adds whales, lobsters, hummingbirds, and elephants (and herself) as examples of animals. Finally, she shares examples of living things, including moose, foxes, butterflies, flowers, and bugs ... and, of course, herself!"--Amazon
Category - Any Child
Racial/Cultural Group - Race Unclear
The people shall continue
"The People Shall Continue was originally published in 1977. It is a story of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, specifically in the U.S., as they endeavor to live on lands they have known to be their traditional homelands from time immemorial. Even though the prairies, mountains, valleys, deserts, river bottomlands, forests, coastal regions, swamps and other wetlands across the nation are not as vast as they used to be, all of the land is still considered to be the homeland of the people"--Foreword
Category - Oppression: Struggle, Resistance, and Triumph
Racial/Cultural Group - First/Native Nations/American Indian/Indigenous
Sam & Eva
Sam does not want Eva to add to his drawing, but when the scene comes to life and gets out of control, she helps him escape
Category - Cross-group: Interactions Across Race and Culture
Racial/Cultural Group - Black/African/AfricanAmerican; Asian/Pacific Islander/Asian American
Songs in the Shade of the Flamboyant Tree
A collection of 30 lullabies and nursery rhymes performed by children, men and women from Haiti, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Reunion celebrate the culture and sound of the tropical islands, in a volume complemented by informative facts and lyrics in French Creole and English
Category - Folklore: Myths, Legends and Traditional Stories
Racial/Cultural Group - Black/African/AfricanAmerican; Latinx/Hispanic/Latin American
What’s in there?
Follows the adventures of young Gus and Nellie, who watch their mother's pregnancy and anticipate the arrival of a new sibling while learning engaging facts about how unborn babies develop
Category - Informational: Factual Content Unrelated to Race or Culture
Racial/Cultural Group - Bi/Multiracial
For more titles, search our collection of more than 2000 picture books using our categories, racial/cultural groups, and more at Diversebookfinder.org/books