Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children's Books
By Louise Derman-Sparks
Children’s books continue to be an invaluable source of information and values. They reflect the attitudes in our society about diversity, power relationships, and various social identities. Read and share these guidelines for selecting books for young children that support the development of a healthy self-image... Read more.
Children’s books continue to be an invaluable source of information and values. They reflect the attitudes in our society about diversity, power relationships, and various social identities. Read and share these guidelines for selecting books for young children that support the development of a healthy self-image... Read more.
2017 Summer Reading List
Teaching for Change challenges young people to read as many books as they can over the summer – especially multicultural and social justice books that encourage them to question, challenge, and re-think the world beyond the headlines. This reading list features new (2016 and 2017) titles. Read more.
Developing Critical Literacy
We share here articles and ideas that parents and teachers can use to help children develop critical literacy skills that will help them as citizens and consumers for years to come... Read more.
Creating an Anti-Bias Library
In addition to selecting books that reflect the criteria of the Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children’s Books, consider the balance of books in your library or classroom as a whole. All books should portray people who are real and distinctive without stereotyping or tokenism. Find books that represent groups who are often invisible. Read more.
Missing From the Shelf: Book Challenges and Lack of Diversity in Children's Literature
By Pen America
Reading is a formative part of childhood: educating, widening horizons, offering adventures and stoking imagination and creativity. Books for children and young adults are not often thought of as a free expression battleground in the United States—and yet every year, hundreds of demands to remove books... Read more.
Reading is a formative part of childhood: educating, widening horizons, offering adventures and stoking imagination and creativity. Books for children and young adults are not often thought of as a free expression battleground in the United States—and yet every year, hundreds of demands to remove books... Read more.
Teaching Young Children About Race
Recent events— including the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the Charleston church shooting, and the debate over the Confederate flag— have led many parents and teachers to seek out resources to address issues of race and inequality with young children. We share with you here an excerpt from the book Anti-Bias Education for Young Children... Read more.
A Gift for Ellington: The Books We’ve Read
By Clarence Lusane
As a young child I became a voracious reader. I don’t remember a time when my mother did not read to me. Then she and I began to make weekly trips to the library as I got older. It was the best time of the week bar none. Finally, I grew old enough to go by myself which I did frequently. While I remember reading... Read more.
As a young child I became a voracious reader. I don’t remember a time when my mother did not read to me. Then she and I began to make weekly trips to the library as I got older. It was the best time of the week bar none. Finally, I grew old enough to go by myself which I did frequently. While I remember reading... Read more.
Rush Limbaugh Calls Teaching for Change Racist for Promoting Diverse Children’s Books
In the last five years, only 10% of children’s books published were about people of color despite the fact that 37% of the U.S. population are people of color. Rush Limbaugh found out that Teaching for Change is trying to challenge this disparity and he is hopping mad. Limbaugh devoted a long segment of his show on June 16 to tell his listeners that... Read more.
Where Are the People of Color in Children’s Books? A Retrospective.
By Amy Rothschild
In March, Walter Dean Myers and his son Christopher Myers brought national attention to a question often asked by frustrated parents, teachers, librarians, and youth: where are the people of color in children’s books? The two authors wrote must-read op-eds featured on the front page of the New York Times... Read more.
In March, Walter Dean Myers and his son Christopher Myers brought national attention to a question often asked by frustrated parents, teachers, librarians, and youth: where are the people of color in children’s books? The two authors wrote must-read op-eds featured on the front page of the New York Times... Read more.
'All Indians Are Dead?' At Least That's What Most Schools Teach Children
By Alysa Landry
It’s time to break out the construction paper and synthetic feathers. Students in schools across the country this month will learn about the first Thanksgiving, perpetuating a fairy tale about struggling pilgrims and the friendly Indians who shared a harvest banquet. This usually follows... Read more.
It’s time to break out the construction paper and synthetic feathers. Students in schools across the country this month will learn about the first Thanksgiving, perpetuating a fairy tale about struggling pilgrims and the friendly Indians who shared a harvest banquet. This usually follows... Read more.
Putting Visions of Social Justice Education into Practice
By Louise Derman-Sparks
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it’s the presence of justice.” Consistent with that perspective, the impetus for anti-bias education work is rooted in a desire to build just early childhood programs for all children. Early childhood education plays a part... Read more.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it’s the presence of justice.” Consistent with that perspective, the impetus for anti-bias education work is rooted in a desire to build just early childhood programs for all children. Early childhood education plays a part... Read more.
Banned Books and Publishing Industry Censorship
By Amy Rothschild
Banned Book week provides us the chance to reflect on what is and what isn’t available for us to read at different moments in history and different places. We think of Orwell, and we think of more recent events, like the banning of the Mexican American Studies program in Tucson, AZ. Government censorship... Read more.
Banned Book week provides us the chance to reflect on what is and what isn’t available for us to read at different moments in history and different places. We think of Orwell, and we think of more recent events, like the banning of the Mexican American Studies program in Tucson, AZ. Government censorship... Read more.
Nursery Rhymes and the Anti-Bias Classroom
By Amy Rothschild
I teach in a preschool program at a public school, and while my teaching team and I have ample freedom to follow the children’s interests in our planning, our school does place a high value on the teaching of nursery rhymes. Nursery rhymes are to early childhood curricula what Frost and Poe are to high school... Read more.
I teach in a preschool program at a public school, and while my teaching team and I have ample freedom to follow the children’s interests in our planning, our school does place a high value on the teaching of nursery rhymes. Nursery rhymes are to early childhood curricula what Frost and Poe are to high school... Read more.
Children, Arab Heritage, and Anti-Bias Education
By Louise Derman-Sparks with Merrie Najimy
What messages are you hearing from the mainstream media about the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt? What about the fighting in Libya or the government crackdowns in Syria and Bahrain? If the messages and images of Arabs and their countries are confusing to you, imagine what children are picking... Read more.
What messages are you hearing from the mainstream media about the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt? What about the fighting in Libya or the government crackdowns in Syria and Bahrain? If the messages and images of Arabs and their countries are confusing to you, imagine what children are picking... Read more.
Unions, Work, and Class in the Early Childhood Classroom
By Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards
The political struggle in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and several other states over the right to unionize has thrust working people into the limelight. The threat to unionized labor, and the economic and health benefits supported by unions, also threatens children’s quality of life—now and in the future... Read more.
The political struggle in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and several other states over the right to unionize has thrust working people into the limelight. The threat to unionized labor, and the economic and health benefits supported by unions, also threatens children’s quality of life—now and in the future... Read more.
Council of Interracial Books for Children (CIBC)
Social Justice Books draws inspiration from the work of the Council on Interracial Books for Children (CIBC) formed in 1965 with the objective “to promote a literature for children that better reflects the realities of a multicultural society.” The impetus to create the council came from Mississippi Freedom School teachers concerned by the racist... Read more.
The Color of Authenticity in Multicultural Children's Books
By Rebecca A. Hill
Most students know Rosa Parks as the woman with tired feet who refused to move to the back of the bus. What they don't know is that, for all of her life, she was an avid Civil Rights worker. Elementary school children learn about Christopher Columbus as an adventurous explorer, not as a mercenary who... Read more.
Most students know Rosa Parks as the woman with tired feet who refused to move to the back of the bus. What they don't know is that, for all of her life, she was an avid Civil Rights worker. Elementary school children learn about Christopher Columbus as an adventurous explorer, not as a mercenary who... Read more.
Something Like an Open Letter to the Children's Publishing Industry
By Zetta Elliot
In 1986, poet/activist June Jordan published a brilliant essay titled “The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America: Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley.” I taught this essay in my course on black women writers; I revisit it often and especially when I am feeling disheartened and demoralized... Read more.
In 1986, poet/activist June Jordan published a brilliant essay titled “The Difficult Miracle of Black Poetry in America: Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Wheatley.” I taught this essay in my course on black women writers; I revisit it often and especially when I am feeling disheartened and demoralized... Read more.
