Books Celebrating Diverse Families
Your kid's family might not look like the one in most bedtime books, and these fix that. Some show two moms, some show grandparents raising kids, some just show every kind of house on one street, all of it normal, none of it explained.
A rhyming, day-in-the-life look at a school where kids from every background arrive, share their traditions and talents, and are welcomed exactly as they are.
Choco searches for a mother who looks like him and finds one who doesn't. A Mother for Choco by Keiko Kasza makes that the happy ending.
Ducks, pandas, a house full of mismatched portraits: Families, Families, Families! by Suzanne Lang just keeps naming family shapes until your kid's own shows up somewhere.
A seven-year-old girl preparing to paint her self-portrait walks through her neighborhood with her mother and discovers that brown skin comes in as many shades as cinnamon, honey, and chocolate.
Three generations of women travel together, each seeing the same trip differently. Where Three Oceans Meet by Rajani LaRocca is a quiet case for grandparents on the page.
A dad learning to do his daughter's hair, patiently, is the whole story. Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry gives that quiet fatherly love its own picture book.
A four-year-old boy loves visiting his grandmother and great-grandmother, Nana Downstairs and Nana Upstairs, until one day his mother tells him Nana Upstairs won't be there anymore.
Short enough for the littlest listener, but God's Dream by Desmond Tutu doesn't skip the part where people get angry and have to say they're sorry.
A sweeping picture book tour of humanity itself, celebrating the wildly different faces, homes, foods, festivals, and beliefs of people across the entire world.
A little boy named Jay Jay spends Sunday dinner at Grannie's house, surrounded by family, tasty dishes, and hugs that make the whole day full of love.
Mom's hair was called too wild, Grandma's was taken from her. My Powerful Hair by Carole Lindstrom lets one girl grow hers long for all of them.
On Grandparents Day, a shy girl worries her classmates will stare at her West African grandmother's traditional facial markings, until Nana Akua finds a way to turn worry into wonder.
A boy travels north with his grandfather, Moshom, to see the trapline where Moshom grew up, asking again and again, "Is this your trapline?" as he imagines the life his grandfather once lived there.
A young transgender girl shares what it's like to have a girl's brain in a boy's body, from loving pink and mermaid costumes to helping her family understand who she really is.
A boy afraid to go to school rides his grandfather's 1952 Ford time machine back through Big Papa's own frightening moments, hearing the same lesson each time: that's called being brave.
