Books to Help With Conversations on What's Going on in May/June 2020

            Today I had the privilege of talking with my classmates and my instructor on my last blog post of what's going on the world today. It's heartbreaking really. What's the biggest heartbreak of it all is being fearful for our children, whether those babies are yours by blood or yours as a student, niece, or nephew, or a child that goes to the same church as you. Those babies look up to you and they want to have conversations. Conversations are hard but they need to happen. The books I am going to recommend are ones that I have read that have help me have discussions with my children, other children who want to be friends with my children, and books that I have read to my children in the classrooms that I go into or pull from. These babies have voices and feelings and they need to be able to voice their feelings and opinions in a manner that can truly heard and not overshadowed by an action that comes out of anger like hitting or throwing or like what we have seen in the news with the looting, rioting, vandalism, and arsons. 


Mixed Me by Taye Diggs (Picture book. This book touches on biracial children loving themselves for who they are and that they don't have to choose to be black or white. It also shows them that they are loved for who they are and they don't have to choose to be someone else to be loved)



Chocolate Me by Taye Diggs (Picture book that talks about smaller black boys loving themselves for who they are and that being friends with other children like them and children that are different from them is good and awesome!)



The Skin I'm In by Sharon G. Flake (Chapter book good for 4-5 but can be used for higher grades. This is a novel that is good for darker skin/black and brown students to read that can see themselves in novels and learn to love the skin they are in. This novel touches on how an outsider can come in to a black child's world and help the parent(s) of that child show them how beautiful they are and how to love themselves. It also touches on social issues within the black community)




The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (6 grade and up - parent permission. This book can also be good for a novel study or self read. This book touches on the not just deaths of Mike Brown but really highlights deaths like Philando Castile and many like it)



The Children of Blood and Bone (5 - 6 grades but can be used for higher grades, this is a realistic fantasy fiction, it touches on social issues of races, etc, following the death of Micheal Brown and other deaths and the Author's note is very good to read first before reading the book so that students can have the information in the minds before they start to read about the fantasy world of social issues. This is a very good book for a novel study and compare and contrast)





These books and the lessons that come with them will help students starting at a younger age. Also for teachers themselves, here are two books that are great tools for you as a person and an educator.

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Lost At School by Ross W. Greene, Ph.D.

                    


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