Diverse Families Shortlist (A Readers Advisory Post)

A few months ago a friend asked me for book recommendations for her daughter, who's a couple of months older than Sadie. She was in search of books showing a variety of diverse families because she'd realized that most of her daughters books feature people who look like her.  This immediately made me realize that most of Sadie's books also show families like ours: two-parent, heterosexual, and white. So off I went on a search! Both for Niamh and for Sadie! I wanted to find some books that were great and that also had different types of kids and families. I asked other librarians for recommendations, read about 20/25 picture books, and vetted from there. So for anyone else searching for something similar who may stumble across this post, I am sharing my work. This is my official Diverse Families Shortlist (aka, a bib.):

Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth by Oliver Jeffers is a book I stumbled across when looking for books about stars and space. It is, in fact, about stars and space, but it's also such a subtle book about diversity! It's AWESOME. It's written as kind of a guidebook for babies about how to live here on Earth. The illustrations are, in true Oliver Jeffers fashion, freakin' amazing-- soooo detailed and cute, the kinds of spreads you just want to stare at for 15-minutes before turning the page. It's subtle in its diversity message and isn't really, like, "about that," but absolutely just continues to feature lots and lots of different kinds of people. Particularly, there is one page that says, "People come in many shapes, sizes and colors. We may all look different, act different and sound different, but don't be fooled, we are all people." And then there are, like, 70 different drawings of people all over that spread. They're all different colors (including blue and green) and doing really different things-- one man is playing bagpipes, a kid is holding a soccer ball, there's a bee catcher in a mask, two women getting married, a man in a hijab, an astronaut, a man with a long beard and no shoes holding a "please help" sign, a ballerina, a rabbi, etc. So many different people! It's a great page in a great, albeit somewhat unrelated to the topic otherwise, book. Recommended age range: 2-5 years, depending on attention spans.

Mommy, Mama, and Me by Lesléa Newman is sweet and simple. At first I thought this book might be a little "too in your face about diversity" for me. Like, I didn't want books about diversity as much as books that just happen to show different people, but then I read it to Sadie and I saw how completely unquestioning she was about it and I realized, no, this book isn't about diversity at all. It's just a nice, simple story that happens to show same-sex parents and it's me who's just a jerk for judging it before I read it. In little rhyming text, this book is about a kid and his mommy and mama and all the nice things they do together and how they love each other. Sadie likes it a lot! Recommended age range: birth through 3-years.

Monday is One Day by Arthur A. Levine is a book about working parents and how hard it is for us to be apart from our babies. It has sweet, rhyming text and shows a different working family on each page. The families are fairly diverse, though there's not a TON of them-- a black mom and dad with two kids, a white boy with his older (perhaps grandparent?) family, a blonde single mom, two white dads with a son and a dog, and a few others. I'm partial to a book about working parents and I appreciate the subtle, but not pushy, diversity that is shown throughout. Recommended age range: 2-5 years, thought I haven't tried reading it to Sadie (yet).

Littles And How They Grow by Kelly DiPucchio shows babies more than it shows whole families but a few families did sneak in there. The book features rhyming text, lots of cute babies, and multicultural illustrations. The few family members that do make appearances are interracial and same sex, but super subtle, just totally not a big deal, which is awesome. Sadie really likes looking at the babies in this book, especially the newborn on the first page. Important emotional spoiler note for parents: The last page of this book is about how fast the littles grow up and it shows a girl getting on a school bus and it separately made both my husband and me cry. You have been warned! Recommended age range: birth through 3-years. (This is the book Sadie is reading in the photo above.)

Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox is a Sadie favorite! It shows a variety of babies with varying skin tones and outfits and in varying kinds of places who all have one thing in common: ten little fingers and ten little toes. This doesn't show families, per say, just reminds us that, no matter where you're from, or what you wear, we're all the same underneath. A simple yet powerful message in a super short book good for even the smallest babies! If you've got a baby crazed toddler like I do, this book might be a hit for you and a great way to effortlessly introduce diversity. Recommended age range: birth through 3-years.

Sterling, Best Dog Ever by Aidan Cassie is a good book if you're in the market for a cute story that just happens to feature interracial parents. It also has a great "be yourself" message that's good for everybody! It's about a dog searching for his forever home, but who gets super mixed up trying to be all these other things he thinks he is supposed to be-- a fork, a whisk, a stick. Such a sweet little story with just the right touch of subtle diversity. Recommended age range: 4-7 years.

Harriet Gets Carried Away by Jessie Sima, like Sterling, Best Dog Ever, is also a cute story that happens to feature interracial parents, except this book one-ups the interracial parents with interracial same-sex parents! Plus the story is ADORABLE! Like, it's just so innocent and sweet! Recommended age range: 3+ years. (I really see no upper age limit for this one.)

Puppy, Puppy, Puppy by Julie Sternberg is yet another cute story that happens to feature interracial parents, this time about a baby and his puppy. Diversity for dog lovers! Super cute! Recommended age range: 3-6 years.

Families by Shelley Rotner and Sheila M. Kelly is more "about diversity" than the books preceding it. It's packed with real photos of tons of different families. It makes no attempt to be subtle, but rather, it's a straightforward telling of all the different types of families that can exist. "Some  families have children born to them. Some adopt." "Some children have one parent. Some have two-- a mom and a dad, or two moms or two dads." And at the end it says, "There are many different kinds of families. What about yours?" It's just a nice, straightforward way of explaining differences to kids. Recommended age range: birth through 5-years, depending on attention spans.

Families, Families, Families by Suzanne Lang and Max Lang is really similar to Families, but shorter and with cute animal families, instead of real photos. While I think the real photos are probably a better tool for showing actual family diversity, I think the animals (and just less busy pages in general) might appeal more to younger kids. Or just different kids. So while the text is similar to the book above, the totally different type of pictures might be just what some kids need. Recommended age range: birth through 3-years.

The Great Big Book of Families by Mary Hoffman is similar to the two books above, but this time with longer text and illustrations of kids, as opposed to photos or illustrations of animals. This book, like the others above, shows big families, small families, single parent families, same-sex parent families, interracial families, etc., but this book also mentions a ton of other, less-discussed types of families (and just, like, life situations in general): homeschooling, being unemployed, being homeless, families who can't afford a vacation, families who shop at thrift stores, parents who have new partners, and so many more! The last two pages say, "So families can be big, small, happy, sad, rich, poor, loud, quiet, mad, good-tempered, worried, or happy-go-lucky. Most families are all of these things some of the time. What's yours like today?" This is a seriously great book for showing kids how diverse real life real families can be, and for exposing them to different situations, helping to (hopefully) raise kind, open-minded children. The last line--"What's yours like today?"--brings kids into the book, kind of showing them that any of these situations could be relate-able or potentially relate-able to them.  Recommended age range: 3-5 years.

Todd Par books in general should also be mentioned here. While his illustrations don't seem to resonate with Sadie at the moment, his books all have really wonderful messages and bright, happy pictures that I feel like most kids would enjoy. Highlights are The Family Book, We Belong Together (about adoption), The I Love You Book, Be Who You Are, and Love the World.

Readers advisory is a scary world for me so I hope this post was at least somewhat helpful to at least some people. As Niamh's mom, Rachel, says "It is so important for children to not only read books that mirror their lives but also ones that act as windows to others." Let's raise our kids to be open-minded and loving to all! Happy reading!