This list is by no means exhaustive, and simply represents a selection of some of our favorite books supporting diversity. For more ideas and suggestions ask a librarian, or see one of the topic specific diversity lists. Professional materials are not included.
BLACK IS BROWN IS TAN
By Arnold Adoff
Describes in verse the life of a brown-skinned Mom, a white-skinned Dad, their children, and assorted relatives.
MORRIS MICKLEWHITE AND THE TANGERINE DRESS
By Christine Baldacchino
A young boy faces adversity from classmates when he wears an orange dress at school.
BALLOTS FOR BELVA: THE TRUE STORY OF A WOMAN’S RACE FOR THE PRESIDENCY
By Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen Presents the story of Belva Lockhood, a lawyer who argued cases in front of the Supreme Court and ran for office in 1884 while fighting for equality, and includes a glossary and timeline of events in womens’ suffrage.
THOSE SHOES
By Maribeth Boelts
Jeremy, who longs to have the black high tops that everyone at school seems to have but his grandmother cannot afford, is excited when he sees them for sale in a thrift shop and decides to buy them even though they are the wrong size.
THROUGH MY EYES
By Ruby Bridges
Ruby Bridges recounts the story of her involvement, as a six-year-old, in the integration of her school in New Orleans in 1960.
ONE GREEN APPLE
By Eve Bunting
While on a school field trip to an orchard to make cider, a young Muslim immigrant named Farah gains self-confidence when the green apple she picks perfectly complements the other students’ red apples.
THE STORY OF RUBY BRIDGES
By Robert Coles
Six-year-old Ruby Bridges must confront the hostility of white parents when she becomes the first African American girl to integrate Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960.
CHILDREN JUST LIKE ME
By Sue Copsey
Photographs and text depict the homes, schools, family life, and culture of young people around the world.
THE ODD EGG
By Emily Gravett
Duck is trying to hatch the oddest egg of all.
PHOENIX GOES TO SCHOOL: A STORY TO SUPPORT TRANSGENDER AND GENDER DIVERSE CHILDREN
By Michelle and Phoenix Finch
With encouragement from her mother, teacher, and a fellow student, Phoenix, who was assigned male at birth but identifies as female, finds the courage to face the first day of school.
NIGHT ON NEIGHBORHOOD STREET
By Eloise Greenfield
A collection of poems exploring the sounds, sights, and emotions enlivening a black neighborhood during the course of one evening.
CHILDTIMES: A THREE-GENERATION MEMOIR
By Eloise Greenfield
Childhood memoirs of three African-American women—grandmother, mother, and daughter—who grew up between the 1880’s and the 1950’s.
RED: A CRAYON'S STORY
By Michael Hall
Red has a bright red label, but he is, in fact, blue. His teacher tries to help him be red (let’s draw strawberries!), his mother tries to help him be red by sending him out on a playdate with a yellow classmate (go draw a nice orange!), and the scissors try to help him be red by snipping his label so that he has room to breathe. But Red is miserable. He just can’t be red, no matter how hard he tries! Finally, a brand-new friend offers a brand-new perspective, and Red discovers what readers have known all along. He’s blue!
THIS PLACE I KNOW: POEMS OF COMFORT
By Georgia Heard
A collection of poems intended to comfort readers in times of distress.
THE DAY OF AHMED’S SECRET
Florence Parry Heide
Ahmed rides his donkey cart throughout the city of Cairo, hurrying to finish his work, so he can return home and share his secret with his family.
AMAZING GRACE
By Mary Hoffman
Although a classmate says that she cannot play Peter Pan in the school play because she is black, Grace discovers that she can do anything she sets her mind to do.
JACOB’S NEW DRESS
By Sarah and Ian Hoffman
Jacob, who likes to wear dresses at home, convinces his parents to let him wear a dress to school, too.
SKIN AGAIN By Bell Hooks
Children note that when it comes to determining who a person really is, skin color is not as important as what is inside.
JULIÁN IS A MERMAID
By Jessica Love
While riding the subway home from the pool with his abuela one day, Julián notices three women spectacularly dressed up. Their hair billows in brilliant hues, their dresses end in fishtails, and their joy fills the train car. When Julián gets home, daydreaming of the magic he's seen, all he can think about is dressing up just like the ladies in his own fabulous mermaid costume: a butter-yellow curtain for his tail, the fronds of a potted fern for his headdress. But what will Abuela think about the mess he makes -- and even more importantly, what will she think about how Julián sees himself? Mesmerizing and full of heart, Jessica Love's author-illustrator debut is a jubilant picture of self-love and a radiant celebration of individuality.
ALL THE COLORS WE ARE: THE STORY OF HOW WE GOT OUR SKIN
By Katie Kissinger
A simple, scientifically accurate explanation on how people get their skin color for young children. The text is in English and Spanish.
LET’S TALK ABOUT RACE
By Julius Lester
The author introduces the concept of race as only one component in an individual’s or nation’s “story.”
AN ENTRANCE PLACE OF WONDERS: POEMS OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
Edited by Daphne Muse
A collection of twenty poems of the Harlem Renaissance by leaders of the cultural movement, including Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and James Welson. Includes biographical profiles of each poet.
AS GOOD AS ANYBODY: MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. AND ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL’S AMAZING MARCH TOWARDS FREEDOM
By Richard Michelson
Describes the experiences that influenced Martin Luther King, Jr., and Abraham Joshua Heschels’s civil rights activism and discusses the friendship between the two men.
RICHARD WRIGHT AND THE LIBRARY CARD
By William Miller
An illustrated story based on a scene from Wright’s autobiography, “Black Boy”, in which the seventeen-year-old African-American borrows a white man’s library card and eagerly reads every book, as is they were the tickets to freedom.
BASEBALL SAVED US
By Ken Mochizuki
A Japanese-American boy learns to play baseball when he and his family are forced to live in an internment camp during World War II. Later, his knowledge of the game ends up serving him in unexpected ways.
WINGS
By Christopher Myers
Ikarus Jackson, the new boy in school, is an outcast because he has wings, but his resilient spirit inspires one girl to speak up for him.
STELLA BRINGS THE FAMILY
By MIRIAM B. SCHIFFER
Stella brings her two fathers to school to celebrate Mother’s Day.
THE BIG ORANGE SPLOT
By Daniel Manus Pinkwater
When a seagull drops a can of orange paint on his neat house, Mr. Plumbean gets an idea that affects his entire neighborhood.
CHICKEN SUNDAY
By Patricia Polacco
To thank Miss Eula for her wonderful Sunday chicken dinners, three children sell decorated eggs to buy her a beautiful Easter hat.
YO! YES?
By Christopher Raschka
Portrays the first meeting of two boys, one African-American and white, who quickly become friends.
RUTH AND THE GREEN BOOK
By Calvin Alexander Ramsey
When Ruth and her parents take a motor trip from Chicago to Alabama to visit her grandma, they rely on a pamphlet called “The Negro Motorist Green Book” to find places that will serve them. Includes facts about the real “Green Book.”
AND TANGO MAKES THREE
By Justin Richardson
At New York City’s Central Park Zoo, two male penguins fall in love and start a family by taking turns sitting on an abandoned egg until it hatches.
AN ANGEL FOR SOLOMON SINGER
By Cynthia Rylant
A lonely New York City resident finds companionship and good cheer at the Westway Cafe where dreams come true.
TAR BEACH
By Faith Ringgold
A young girl dreams of flying above her Harlem home, claiming all she sees for herself and her family. Based on the author’s quilt painting of the same name.
WHEN WE WERE ALONE
By David Robertson
When a young girl helps tend to her grandmother's garden, she begins to notice things that make her curious. Why does her grandmother have long, braided hair and beautifully colored clothing? Why does she speak another language and spend so much time with her family? As she asks her grandmother about these things, she is told about life in a residential school a long time ago, where all of these things were taken away.
DON’T SAY AIN’T
By Irene Smalls-Hector
In 1957, a young girl is torn between life in the neighborhood she grew up in and fitting in at the school she now attends.
SUBWAY SPARROW
By Leyla Torres
Although the passengers of the D train speak different languages, they work together to rescue a lost and frightened bird.
TWO MRS. GIBSONS
By Igus Toyomi
The biracial daughter of an African-American father and a Japanese mother fondly recalls growing up with her mother and her father’s mother, two very different but equally loving women.
CANDY SHOP
By Jan Wahl
When a boy and his aunt find that a bigot has written something on the sidewalk outside the candy shop owned by a new immigrant from Taiwan, they set out to comfort the owner.
INTRODUCING TEDDY: A GENTLE STORY ABOUT GENDER AND FRIENDSHIP
By Jessica Walton
Errol’s best friend and teddy, Thomas, is sad because he wishes he were a girl, not a boy teddy, but what only matters to both of them is that they are friends.
ODD VELVET
By Mary E. Whitcomb
Although she dresses differently from the other girls and does things which are unusual, Velvet eventually teaches her classmates that even an outsider has something to offer.
FREEDOM SUMMER
By Debbie Wiles
In 1964, Joe is pleased that a new law will allow his best friend John Henry, who is colored, to share the town pool and other public places with him, but he is dismayed to find that prejudice still exists.
THE LIBRARIAN OF BASRA: A TRUE STORY FROM IRAQ
By Jeanette Winter
During the Iraq War of 2003, librarian Alia Muhammad saves thirty thousand new and old books in her Basra library from destruction.
THE OTHER SIDE
By Jacqueline Woodson
Two girls, one white and one African-American, gradually get to know each other as they sit on the fence that divides their town.
SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL
By Sharon Dennis Wyeth
When she goes looking for “something beautiful” in her city neighborhood, a young girl finds beauty in many different forms.
CROW BOY
By Taro Yashima
The story of a shy little boy in a Japanese village school who was ignored by his classmates until, suddenly—when it was almost too late—a new teacher shows them that Crow Boy has much to offer.