Auckland Council Libraries: Antiracism for kids

Antiracism for kids

Prompt conversation and answer questions from children with the help of diverse books that tackle the topics of injustice, racial difference and self-worth.

Skin again

bell hooks

Picture book

The skin I'm in is just a covering. It cannot tell my story. The skin I'm in is just a covering. If you want to know who I am, you have got to come inside and open your heart wide.

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A is for activist

Innosanto Nagara

Book

The bestselling ABC book for families who want their kids to grow up in a space that is unapologetic about activism, environmental justice, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, and everything else that we believe in and fight for.

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We're Different, We're the Same (Sesame Street)

Bobbi Kates

eBook

Elmo and his Sesame Street friends help teach toddlers and the adults in their lives that everyone is the same on the inside, and it s our differences that make this wonderful world, which is home to us all, an interesting and special place.

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The skin you live in

Michael Tyler

Picture book

Rhyming text and illustrations celebrate being happy with the skin in which one lives, whatever that skin might be.

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Happy in our skin

Fran Manushkin

Picture book

Delightfully rhythmical read-aloud text is paired with bright, bustling art in this joyful exploration of the new skin of babyhood. A scrumptious celebration of skin in all its many, many, wonderful forms.

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I am enough

Grace Byers

Picture book

Shares a story of loving who you are, respecting others and being kind to one another.

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Brown girl dreaming

Jacqueline Woodson

Book

The author shares her childhood memories and reveals the first sparks that ignited her writing career in free-verse poems about growing up in the North and South.

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Racism and intolerance

Louise Spilsbury

Book

This picture book helps children make sense of the larger issues and crises that dominate the news in a sensitive and appropriate manner.

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Mophead

Selina Tusitala Marsh

Book

New Zealand Poet Laureate Selina Tusitala Marsh tells her story of growing up Pasifika in New Zealand. At school, Selina is ridiculed for her big, frizzy hair. Kids call her 'mophead'. She ties her hair up this way and that way and tries to fit in.

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We rise, we resist, we raise our voices

Book

What do we tell our children when the world seems bleak, and prejudice and racism run rampant? Fifty diverse creators lend voice and comfort to young activists.

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I walk with Vanessa

author Kerascoët

Picture book

A young school girl witnesses the bullying of another girl, but though she is not sure how to help, she finds a way.

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Count me in

Varsha Bajaj

Book

An uplifting story, told through the alternating voices of two middle-schoolers, in which a community rallies to reject racism.

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What is race? who are racists? why does skin colour matter? and other big questions...

Claire Heuchan

Book

This book explores the history of race and society, giving context to how racist attitudes come into being. It looks at belonging and identity, stereotyping, positive representation and learn how to protect against and stop racist behaviour.

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Crown

Derrick D. Barnes

Book

The barbershop is where the magic happens. Boys go in as lumps of clay and, with princely robes draped around their shoulders, a dab of cool shaving cream on their foreheads, and a slow, steady cut, they become royalty.

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Ghost boys

Jewell Parker Rhodes

Book

Twelve-year-old Jerome is shot by a police officer who mistakes his toy gun for a real threat. As a ghost, Jerome begins to notice other ghost boys. Each boy has a story and they all have something in common.

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A good kind of trouble

Lisa Moore Ramée

Book

After attending a powerful protest, Shayla starts wearing an armband to school to support the Black Lives Matter movement, but when the school gives her an ultimatum, she is forced to choose between her education and her identity.

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Sulwe

Lupita Nyong'o

Picture book

When five-year-old Sulwe's classmates make fun of her dark skin, she tries lightening herself to no avail, but her encounter with a shooting star helps her understand there is beauty in every shade.

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Roll of thunder, hear my cry

Mildred D. Taylor

Book

A black family living in the South during the 1930's are faced with prejudice and discrimination which their children don't understand.

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Hair love

Matthew A. Cherry

Picture book

A little girl's daddy steps in to help her arrange her curly, coiling, wild hair into styles that allow her to be her natural, beautiful self.

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Dear dragon

Josh Funk

Picture book

As a school project, George and Blaise become pen pals, writing rhyming letters about their favorite things to do, unaware that one is human and the other a dragon.

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Auckland Council Libraries:Book list Recommended reading lists about different topics and genres to help you find new books to read.