As our schools and libraries are closed, we at the Diverse BookFinder are trying to continue to offer access and resources related to picture books featuring BIPOC. This post will explore e-books, with a few recommended titles that you can borrow immediately (unless they’re already on loan in your library system). Through the coming weeks, we’ll continue to highlight e-book titles through our Instagram account.
How to access E-books Through Your Public Library
(Librarians and tech-savvy people can skip this section, but since I had to figure it out myself, I guessed that a tutorial might be helpful for some folks.)
If you have a library card, the easiest way to get ahold of e-books is through CloudLibrary by Bibioteca. Follow the instructions on the website, or mine here:
- Download your version of the FREE cloudLibrary app, depending on the device you’re using. (I’m on an iPad, so I got it from the App Store.)
- On the opening screen, fill in your country, state, and local public library (it includes academic libraries too!).
- Enter the barcode from your library card.
- Click on Search.
- You can type in any of our suggested titles, scroll through categories, or browse as much of the collection as you choose.
You can also bookmark favorite categories. (All the BIPOC picture book titles I found and will be sharing are in Kids/Fiction/Social Themes or Kids/Nonfiction/Biography & Autobiography.)
6. Click on the jacket of any title to the book’s page for more information.
7. When you’ve found a title you want to read, if the book is available, click Borrow. You’ll be able to read it immediately on your device.
We’ll post other e-book opportunities over the next weeks. Let us know any other ideas you have for getting access to diverse picture books online.
A Few Great E-book Titles
To start off the list, here are three wonderful picture books found both in our collection, and as e-books in the CloudLibrary — which you can check out now to read on your device. (I found a total of 23 BIPOC picture books; we’ll be highlighting three/week on Instagram.)
Drawn together
A boy and his grandfather cross a language and cultural barrier using their shared love of art, storytelling, and fantasy.
A friend for Henry
Henry would like to find a friend at school, but for a boy on the autism spectrum, making friends can be difficult, as his efforts are sometimes misinterpreted, or things just go wrong--but Henry keeps trying, and in the end he finds a friend he can play with.
What is given from the heart
Despite their own poverty since Daddy died, Mama tells nine-year-old James Otis they need to help Sarah, whose family lost everything in a fire.