Early Childhood: Learning about Racial Identity

Teaching for Change carefully selects the best multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators. Learn about our criteria for selecting titles. Feedback on these lists and suggestions for additional titles are welcome. Most of the books on these lists are linked for more information or purchase to Powells, an independent, union labor bookstore. Titles with reviews on this site are noted with an asterisk(*).

All the Colors of the Earth

By Sheila Hamanaka, Sheila Hamanaka (Illustrator)

 

All The Colors We Are: The Story Of How We Get Our Skin Color*

By Katie Kissinger

 

Bein' with You This Way

By W. Nikola-Lisa, Michael Bryant (Illustrator)

Black All Around

By Patricia Hubbell, Don Tate (Illustrator)

black is brown is tan

By Arnold Adoff, Emily Arnold McCully (Illustrator)

Black, White, Just Right!

By Marguerite W. Davol, Irene Trivas (Illustrator)

Child of the Civil Rights Movement*

By Paula Young Shelton, Raul Colon (Illustrator)

The Day Gogo Went to Vote

By Elinor Batezat Sisulu, Sharon Wilson (Illustrator)

Hairs / Pelitos

By Sandra Cisneros

I Am Latino: The Beauty in Me

By Myles C. Pinkney, Sandra L. Pinkney

I Love My Hair!

By Natasha Anastasia Tarpley, E.B. Lewis (Illustrator)

Kenya's Word

By Linda Trice

Los Mejores Colores / Best Colors

By Eric Hoffman, Eida de La Vega (Translator), Celeste Henriquez (Illustrator)

My People

By Langston Hughes, Charles R. Smith Jr (Illustrator)

The Name Jar

By Yangsook Choi, Yangsook Choi (Illustrator)

No Mirrors in My Nana's House

By Ysaye M. Barnwell, Synthia Saint James (Illustrator)

 

The Other Side

By Jacqueline Woodson, E. B. Lewis (Illustrator)

Saltypie: A Choctaw Journey from Darkness Into Light

By Tim Tingle, Karen Clarkson (Illustrator)

Shades of Black: A Celebration of Our Children

By Sandra L. Pinkney, Myles C. Pinkney (Photographer)

Tea Cakes for Tosh*

By Kelly Starling Lyons

These Hands

By Margaret H. Mason, Floyd Cooper (Illustrator)

Two Eyes, a Nose and a Mouth

By Roberta Grobel Intrater

Two Mrs. Gibsons

By Toyomi Igus, Daryl Wells (Illustrator) 

Whose Knees Are These?

By Jabari Asim, LeUyen Pham (Illustrator)