racism ...appropriate books

[AnonyMouse_37030]

When I first started a lifetime ago we had a wonderful book in our pre-school which was published I think by UNESCO and had been donated to the pre-school by them to address the issues raised by cultural diversity with the view to gently teaching children about racism.   We used it a lot to talk about how we are all different and yet we are all humans.  Alas ten or so years ago we had a serious flood and one of the books which was damaged beyond repair was this book.

It was I think about a little girl and she lived on one side of a hill .  I think she was either blue or green and her drawing was quite geometric maybe a square or a triangle..   on the other side of the hill there was another village and they were (blue/green?) different .  I can only remember that somehow the little girl ended up in the other village and I think the two villages were constantly fighting over who was better. Every time something happened like she was ignored or a bad thing was said , or she witnessed unfairnessr she started to fade away.    I thought it was called something like "The little girl who vanished" .

It was a lovely lead into talking about racism/tribalism of any sort etc.   Given the current situation in the world and having a small budge I would like to find simple stories suitable for the 2-4 age group which I can pop into our book corners area so that we can once again be more proactive in tackling this issue head on but in an appropriate way for our age group (who in my experience for the most part don't even notice coloour/cultural differences etc).  

• Do any of the really ancient forum members remember this book?  Or indeed still have one which they use..if so what is it called and does is have a number ..I suspect its out of print even if I could remember the name and if so probably a collectors item.
• Does anyone have any really good books on this subject which they use?

 

 

[Jules]

Hi enuffsenuf,

Hope you're doing ok. This post got me thinking so I had a look around on the internet. I haven't found the book you mentioned, but I did find a list on the embracerace website that has a 'crowdsourced' list of picture books - 'children's books featuring kids of colour being themselves'. I thought I'd share the link in case there's something useful here. 🙂

https://www.embracerace.org/resources/childrens-books-featuring-kids-of-color-being-themselves-because-thats-enough

Take care. 

[AnonyMouse_37030]

On 08/06/2020 at 13:28, Jules said:

Hi enuffsenuf,

Hope you're doing ok. This post got me thinking so I had a look around on the internet. I haven't found the book you mentioned, but I did find a list on the embracerace website that has a 'crowdsourced' list of picture books - 'children's books featuring kids of colour being themselves'. I thought I'd share the link in case there's something useful here. 🙂

https://www.embracerace.org/resources/childrens-books-featuring-kids-of-color-being-themselves-because-thats-enough

Take care. 

thank you.  Alas I dont think Ill ever find my lovely book again.....never mind

[AnonyMouse_19782]

It does though, sound like the traditional Indian story - The Parable of the 2 Villages - maybe it was a re-interpretation

[AnonyMouse_37030]

10 hours ago, Panders said:

It does though, sound like the traditional Indian story - The Parable of the 2 Villages - maybe it was a re-interpretation

maybe it was I'll have a google on that after work today and see if I can find something that fits..thank you

[SueFinanceManager]

Some googling found for suggestions here:
For children Ages two to four

I Am Enough by Grace Byers is a book about loving who you are, respecting others and being kind to people.

Where Are You From? by Yamile Saied Mendez is about a girl who constantly gets asked a simple question which has no simple answer.

When I was in a setting I used these Oxfam resources to look at the lives of other children around the world https://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/resources/your-world-my-world and then we had lots of discussions about how we all sort of do the same things in different ways depending on our environments.