The Chronicles of Munchkin Land » Blog Archive » Thinking Aloud Again

We buy (and borrow from the good ole library) a lot of books concerning diversity even though BigBrother is still very young. It is our goal and wish to expose him to a wide range of cultural issues from a very young age as that’s just who we are as a family, both in heart and the way we are made up sa a family in general. But, I’m stumped.

Books about families often show families of the same race. As explaining our family make up will be an interesting chore in itself since it’s compounded by adoption and distance, if no books are showing that it’s okay, normal and, in fact, cool to have family members with different skin tone, how am I supposed to have further teaching tools to show him that it’s okay?

So, in this thinking aloud segment, I have concluded that not only are books needed for parented children whose parent(s) have placed a sibling (half or whole) and still maintain contact via open adoption (as in, a children’s book) but more books that feature families who don’t all look like freaking carbon copies of each other.

It’s a shame I can’t draw anything but stick figures. HA!

Have you heard of the book “Black is brown is tan”? It’s a kids book about a multi-cultural family. I got it a few years ago.

http://www.amazon.com/black-brown-tan-Arnold-Adoff/dp/0064432696

I adore this book. :)

If you were able to write a story, I’m positive you could hire an illustrator to do the pictures — this kind of collaboration is done all the time. (I’m a graphic designer — trust me. ;} ) I would volunteer to do it for you, but I’m really not an illustrator. But I”m sure you could find one with a bit of research…

The two we have are More More More said the baby and Everywhere Babies (which even has gay families! Hooray!)

There are books that show families that have different colors represented in them — one of Dawn’s posts has some links to multicultural children’s books. But you may be right in that I’m not sure that they really show the make-up of your family with the distance between your set and J&D’s set.

But Jenny is right; if you’re into writing a children’s book, finding an illustrator might not be insurmountable. I’m not volunteering myself, though, having never gotten past Stick Figures 101 myself.

but you can write! and i know a really fabulous illustrator looking to write kids books. and he’s in ohio!

Thanks for bringing this up. My 2nd
is bi-racial. My daughter is quite blonde
and her husband is quite black and my
beautiful granddaughter has the most lovely pecan colored skin you have every seen.
I’ve never thought of books- we have a
massive amount of children’s books at our
house and thought we needed no more but
I see we do so I will be ordering this book from Amazon TODAY!

One book I would suggest is The Hello, Goodby Window by Nortone Juster, illustrated by Chris Raschka. A little girl visits her grandparents and all the family members are differnt shades of skin tone. It is not particularly about race or adoption, but it shows a happy family with some diversity and distance in their relationships. That’s the only story I can think of off the top of my head. You have a very good point. Someone needs to write more of those stories….. And children’s book authors typically don’t do their own illustrations. You write it find a publisher and the publisher finds the illustrator. So get to work girl!!

Definately hire someone. I’m thinking about doing a book specifically for kids expecting a sibling through homebirth, and found a couple of friends who would be interested. You could even sketch out what you wanted and let them do the final art. You could ask around at a local college or art school, too.

My sister is an editor and a children’s book author. Most publishing houses find the illustrator for you. In fact, if you have one in mind and want to use them you have to fight for it. Don’t let the illustrator thing stop you… e mail me if you want to know how to submit your prospectus. I am writing a cookbook right now with her…. and I am neither a writer or a cook!!! The trick is getting someone to publish it….

Good Luck…

We like the book “All the colors of the Earth” by Sheila Hamanaka

There’s a beautiful colorful, stick figure type book I think called “its okay to be different” that talks about all kinds of people and families in an easy way. I recommend it.

“It’s OK To Be Different” is by Todd Parr, I think, as is “The Family Book” which is a wonderful book; I lurve it. It does talk about some families looking alike. Actually instead of saying some families look different, then he says, “some families look like their pets,” silly man. But he does have 2 pages that say “some families live close, some families live far away,” or something like that.” His books are very simple, have fun illustrations, and are all about diversity. Todd Parr rocks!

You might like this one Jen. This one definitely celebrates the family in all of its many forms! Plus, his books are funny and adorable.

http://www.amazon.com/Family-Book-Todd-Parr/dp/0316738964/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product/105-1051436-2946832

He’s got other great books too.

The thing I don’t like about the Todd Par book is that it mentions “some kids are adopted” in a long list of ways families are made up but it is clearly from the adoptive parent’s perspective. I don’t think he was thinking of how the first family fits into the picture. There is no acknowledgment that the first mother or father might be part of the family. If you have a sister who was adopted by other parents, you are not in the list. I think the whole thing comes of as feeling forced. If most adults felt it was normal to have all sorts of families kids wouldn’t need a book telling them that some families have two moms, etc. I think what we need are really good stories that include all sorts of families as a natural part of life - not as a lesson in diversity or some PC idea of social studies curriculum. KWIM?

Cloudscome, hmmm, yeah, you make a good point there. Very good point.

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