Children’s Book Recommendations to nurture curious, compassionate and adventurous little humans
I’m starting a book recommendations section on the Grow Adventures blog, mostly kids’ picture books, but I’ll also be adding in some novels as we read more. Right now, it’ll be just a list, but I’ll work on adding a photo and a brief description for each book as I work on developing this resource (I’m going to test building it like my resource library so I can tag categories and you can search based on topics of interest, e.g. Diversity/Inclusion, (In)justice/Equality, Environment/Climate Change, Generosity, Giving back, STEM, Curiosity, Loss, Grieving, Confidence/Self-awareness/Self-expression/Self-love, Non-Fiction/Biographical children’s books, Privacy/Boundaries, adventure, etc.
As it’s February, we’re kicking off our book recommendations with books to celebrate Black History month!
We will keep going through our library and add more books to the recommendations list, but please feel free to take a look and let us know if there are any you recommend we check out and add to our list!
Note: Though we believe most children’s books have good intent and some kind of learning we can draw from them, we do our best to steer away from books that may unknowingly, patronize and/or perpetuate stereotypes and will only share books we have personally read ourselves and believe represent diversity in a respectful manner that opens dialogue, encourages curiosity and compassion.
TIP: If you’re interested in diversifying your library, check out the We Read Too book app! (Apple app store) (Google play store). As a person of color, it’s important to me that my children are exposed to books written by authors of color, with empowering characters of color and this is an awesome directory/resource I just came across this past week and will be referencing as I look at new books to gift this year!
Black History Month
- Look up! and Clean up! by Nathan Bryon (author we are watching, we have 2 books on pre-order!)
- Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport
- Before She was Harriet by Lesa Cline-Ransome
- The Day you Begin by Jacqueline Woodson
- The Year we Learned to Fly by Jacqueline Woodson
- Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty (now on Netflix!)
- Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
- Something Beautiful by Sharon Dennis Wyeth
- The Youngest Marcher by Cynthia Levinson
- Mama Miti by Donna Jo Napoli
- Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins by Carole Boston Weatherford
- Heart and Soul, The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson
- Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to be Malcolm X by Ilyasah Shabazz
- The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton
- Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o
- Little leaders, Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison
- Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de La Pena
- Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea by Meena Harris
- Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi
- The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander
- Life is Beautiful by Ana Eulate & Nivola Uya
- Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds
- As Brave as you by Jason Reynolds
- A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara
- The Snowy day by Ezra Jack Keats (a classic!)