UCB Parents Recommendations
Books with Non-white Characters
Advice and recommendations from the UCB Parents mailing list.
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Arts & Entertainment
2001
A great resource for teachers and parents looking for books with non-white
main characters is Violet Harris' (ed.) "Using Multiethnic Literature in the
K-8 Classroom." she's got reams of recommendaitons, divided by ethnicity.
I have copies of her chapters on Mexican-American and African-American kids
in literature, if you'd like to borrow them. In the former, she recommends
Gary Soto's "Taking Sides" and "Pacific Crossing" (he's a local author,
too!); she also suggests Sandra Cisneros' "The House on Mango Street." In
the latter, she suggests all of Mildred Taylor's novels (song of the trees,
etc.), Virginia Hamilton's "Justice" trilogy (and everything else by her,
too!), Joyca Carol Thomas' "Marked by Fire," Mildred Walter's "Second
Daughter," Yarbrough's "The Shimmershine Queens," and Rita Williams-Garcia's
"Sisters on the Home Front." There are ltos more, but these are a good
start. Sorry I didn't write in in answer to your first request!
Jessica
I did happen to recall a wonderful series of short chapter books, geared
toward younger readers, with (mostly) black characters. The first is
Stories Julian Tells, and there are several more in the series. They are
delightful. Also, Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell is about an
Aleutian native. Call It COurage, by Armstrong Sperry (I think) is about a
Polynesian boy. Wendy
Bright Lights Bookstore (www.brghtlghts.com?),
Bucket of Books (www.bucketofbooks.com),
Lee and Low Books (www.leeandlow.com)
sell multicultural books that you can buy on
the web.
the Arrowhead Library System
(http://als.lib.wi.us/AACList.html) maintains an
african american children's literature list from
picture books to chapter books..
and there is the Multicultural Book Reviews:
http://www.isomedia.com/homes/jmele/joe.html
granted, their selections are few and most
are about overcoming hardship but there are
a few interesting ones in there !
-- Carrie
non-white protaganists in chapter books:
PAACT, ad adoption organization that focuses on families with
children of color, has a list of books about race & culture as
well as adoption. Check it out at
http://www.pactadopt.org/. Also try multicultural resources for
children at http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/multipub.htm. Look
for Black Books Galore! Guide to Great African-American
ChildrenFs Books. And talk to your local children's librarian!
Most of these were listed on my first e-mail but they are all really great and
have characters that are exactly like what you are talking about. My daughter
has enjoyed them all and has read them all a number of times. I'm not sure
what
age you are looking for so you might want to check age appropriateness.
"Marisol and Magdalena" by Veronica Chambers
About two friends of Panamanian decent living in New York. They are separated
when one of them spends a year in Panama with her grandmother. There is a new
sequel about the two girls and their quincea1eras. called
"Quincea1era Means Sweet Fifteen"
"Esperanza Rising" by Pam Mu1oz Ryan
About wealthy girl from Mexico during the Great Depression who loses
everything,
moves to California and ends up working in a labor camp.
"The Amah" by Laurence Yep
About girl of Chinese decent living in San Francisco who wants to be a
ballerina. She has
a hard time when her mom ends up being the caretaker of another girl who is
also twelve.
"A Jar of Dreams" by Yoshiko Uchida
About a Japanese family living in Berkeley during the Great Depression and
their struggle
to make ends meet while confronting racism. Also
"Journey Home" has to do with a young girl and Japanese internment.
"Carlota" Scott O'dell
About a young Mexican girl living in Californian during the
Mexican-American war. She
is a real tomboy and ends up fighting against the US with the neighboring
rancheros.
Also
"Island of the Blue Dolfins"
Liza
For a pre-teen or early teen, the "Cheeta Girls" chapter books are pretty
good. Most of the
characters are African American. The most recent book includes a white girl
who is the half-sister
of one of the African American girls.
Dianne
If you are interested in chapter books by and about African Americans,
you might try Marcus Book Store (3900 MLK Jr. Way, 652-2344) as a
resource.
http://www.marcusbooks.com
I've found it useful to take the advice of the experts --
children's librarians. The
American Library Association's Coretta Scott King Award has identified and
honored lots
of great chapter books over the years; see
http://www.ala.org/srrt/csking/index.html. (This
site includes detailed reading-level information.) ALA also sponsors the
Pura Belpre award
for children's literature about the Latino cultural experience, although
it's much newer and
so has not honored that many books yet. http://www.ala.org/alsc/belpre.html
The Berkeley Public Library (like a lot of other libraries) maintains lists
of suggested books
in many different categories. Some good ones are on being
Asian-American (http://www.infopeople.org/bpl/booklist/bestboth.html),
Latino (http://www.infopeople.org/bpl/booklist/leamos.html) or just plain
different
(http://www.infopeople.org/bpl/booklist/beingdif.html). It's also been my
experience that
most children's librarians *love* being asked for specific recommendations.
Jane
Counted three on our bookshelves (plus one from the library). With the
exception
of "The Diddakoi", these books are about true-to-life kids, with
true-to-life problems
(as opposed to fantastical, Harry Potter type adventures):
Roosevelt Grady-Louisa Shotwell
Bud, Not Buddy-Christopher Paul Curtis
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson-Bette Bao Lord
The Diddakoi-Rumer Godden
Still looking for more, however!
Mara
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University of California, Berkeley.