Your Favorite Kids' Books Featuring POCs?

little_e · Jul 30, 2013

This thread was inspired by the recent infographic making the rounds that 93% of surveyed childrens' books contained white characters, with blacks, Hispanics, Indians, Asians, etc., staring in 3% or less.

So I thought it might be fun to make a list of our favorite kids' books featuring POCs (and if someone wants to write one, all the better.)

Because why should Fancy Nancy get all the love?

My contributions:
Mansa Musa, the Lion of Mali, by Khephra Burns -- gorgeous illustrations, and part of a history which is so often neglected.
Fa Mulan: The Story of a Woman Warrior, by Robert D. San Souci -- as much as I enjoyed the Disney version, this one is a little less embroidered. There are probably many tellings of Mulan's story out there.
Dora's Storytime Collection, (I confess, I am a Dora fan)

kuwisdelu · Jul 30, 2013

The Boy Who Made Dragonfly, retelling of a traditional Zuni myth by Tony Hillerman.

Most of the PoC kids' stories I can recall reading or being read as a child were re-tellings of Zuni folktales.

LJD · Jul 30, 2013

The Snowy Day - Ezra Jack Keats

Edit: In looking up The Snowy Day, I discovered that the little girl in Corduroy (Don Freeman) is black, which I had forgotten. But I do remember enjoying that book.

Rachel Udin · Jul 30, 2013

The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales by Virginia Hamilton

While a large book, it has a lot of African American folktales and some West African. One of my personal favorite books growing up.

Kim Fierce · Jul 30, 2013

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Mildred D. Taylor

little_e · Jul 30, 2013

kuwisdelu said:
Most of the PoC kids' stories I can recall reading or being read as a child were re-tellings of Zuni folktales.

Folklore came immediately to mind as pretty much the only books I've seen recently featuring Indian protagonists.

As much as I love folklore (I have a whole shelf of it,) it kind of bugs me that this and the occasional historical depiction seem to be the only popularly recognized role for Indian characters in kids' lit. Folklore and history are important, but I guess I'd also like it if they also got to be characters just because someone felt like it, some reflection of the fact that Indian are still alive.

None of which is to say that I don't love folklore.

little_e · Jul 30, 2013

LJD said:
The Snowy Day - Ezra Jack Keats

Edit: In looking up The Snowy Day, I discovered that the little girl in Corduroy (Don Freeman) is black, which I had forgotten. But I do remember enjoying that book.

Yes! The illustrations in The Snowy Day have such a nice quality, with the bold, bright shapes. And who does not love Coruroy

kuwisdelu · Jul 30, 2013

little_e said:
Folklore came immediately to mind as pretty much the only books I've seen recently featuring Indian protagonists.

As much as I love folklore (I have a whole shelf of it,) it kind of bugs me that this and the occasional historical depiction seem to be the only popularly recognized role for Indian characters in kids' lit. Folklore and history are important, but I guess I'd also like it if they also got to be characters just because someone felt like it, some reflection of the fact that Indian are still alive.

None of which is to say that I don't love folklore.

Well, most of our storytelling has always been oral.

Writing them down isn't the most natural thing for most Indians.

Yorkist · Jul 30, 2013

little_e said:
Folklore came immediately to mind as pretty much the only books I've seen recently featuring Indian protagonists.

Island of the Blue Dolphins, anyone? This was one of my favorite books as a kid. (OK, it's not recent, but it merits a mention.)

Deleted member 42 · Jul 30, 2013

Greg Van Eeekhout Kid vs Squid

ellio · Jul 30, 2013

Hacker, by Malorie Blackman. The kids in that book are so freaking cool. These siblings hack into a bank's computer files to try and prove that their dad isn't guilty of stealing money from it.

They're like 12/13 years old and they're trying to hack into a freaking bank.

Coolest book ever.

Kim Fierce · Jul 30, 2013

I wonder if The Indian in the Cupboard counts as far as native American. I can't remember much about that book so I don't know how well that character was presented.

In Holes by Louis Sachar, the MC is white but his best friend that he meets is black.

Shark Beneath the Reef by Jean Craighead George is about a Mexican boy I used to have that one. He is trying to figure out whether to go to school for marine biology or help his father in the family business of fishing.

I keep picturing the cover of another book with a teen black male MC but I can't remember the title anymore.

I am not too good at little kids' books because I never read much of those.

There is another, Taste of Salt by Frances Temple about a boy named Djo from Haiti who survives a political bombing.

Alessandra Kelley · Jul 30, 2013

When I was a kid we had a whole series of little kids' books about various Native American children. The one I remember best was "Watlala, an Indian of the Northwest." There were also "Gray Bird," "Winona," "Micco," and several others whose titles I can't remember.

I like "Kamishibai Man" by Allen Say. It's sort of a sad book for youngish children about a traditional Japanese storyteller and how television basically ends his profession.

RussPostHoc · Jul 30, 2013

Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books focus mainly on Ged, whose skin is "copper-colored." In the second book the viewpoint character is a white-skinned girl, but Ged's there, and in the third another brown-skinned boy is the protagonist.

(And yes, The Snowy Day was the first one I thought of, along with Keats' Whistle for Willie.)

patskywriter · Jul 30, 2013

Please don't laugh. I'm 57 and didn't have any books with PoC characters for years and years—except one. I absolutely adored The Five Chinese Brothers. The story was pretty gruesome and had absolutely nothing to do with China (the author is actually North American and not of Chinese descent). The book could easily have been called The Five Lithuanian Brothers. But I did love the jaunty writing and ridiculous cartoons.

little_e · Jul 30, 2013

Yorkist said:
Island of the Blue Dolphins, anyone? This was one of my favorite books as a kid. (OK, it's not recent, but it merits a mention.)

And the one that taught me what a tsunami looks like when it's about to strike your beach. Valuable information!

little_e · Jul 30, 2013

Oh, that reminded me of one of my favorite school-books, Dogsong, by Gary Paulsen. (Though now I'm looking at the title/cover and finding the focus on the dog instead of the MC, a modern Inuit boy on a journey of self-discovery, a bit odd.)

It's sad that the 1-star reviews all seem to be from kids who were forced to read it in school. I loved it; I loved all of the things the other kids apparently hated, like the eyeballs. I loved learning that other people were not like me and ate and did things completely different from the things in my life! My friends and I played storylines based on this book for months.

Rachel Udin · Jul 30, 2013

Kim Fierce said:
I wonder if The Indian in the Cupboard counts as far as native American. I can't remember much about that book so I don't know how well that character was presented.

It counts, but it has issues with representation, IIRC. There was an essay I read on it that did the break down. While it was specific on the tribe, it portrayed the single Native American character as part of a dying race, despite my later looking up and finding that the tribe was alive and well.

I have others, just don't have my shelf of books in front of me and some of them are super rare or hard to acquire, so I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to list them, since it wouldn't help much of anyone...

I did give someone's son Dear Juno, which was rated highly and had a touching story about a Korean American child writing to his grandmother who couldn't speak English and he couldn't speak Korean.

Children's picture books with a multicultural message+ a decent story were really hard to find. I was scouring for hours and couldn't find anything that was anything like a cohesive story + a multicultural message. (And there were parents looking for the same too... again, it's the publishers.)

Lavern08 · Jul 31, 2013

Don't know if it was considered a kid's book per se, but I read it as a kid back in the 60's...

The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks.

kuwisdelu · Jul 31, 2013

Kim Fierce said:
I wonder if The Indian in the Cupboard counts as far as native American. I can't remember much about that book so I don't know how well that character was presented.

Rachel Udin said:
It counts, but it has issues with representation, IIRC. There was an essay I read on it that did the break down. While it was specific on the tribe, it portrayed the single Native American character as part of a dying race, despite my later looking up and finding that the tribe was alive and well.

I remember avoiding that one when I was younger (still haven't read it).

I had no idea why an Indian would live in a cupboard.

LJD · Jul 31, 2013

little_e said:
Oh, that reminded me of one of my favorite school-books, Dogsong, by Gary Paulsen. (Though now I'm looking at the title/cover and finding the focus on the dog instead of the MC, a modern Inuit boy on a journey of self-discovery, a bit odd.)

It's sad that the 1-star reviews all seem to be from kids who were forced to read it in school. I loved it; I loved all of the things the other kids apparently hated, like the eyeballs. I loved learning that other people were not like me and ate and did things completely different from the things in my life! My friends and I played storylines based on this book for months.

I admit I did not like this book, though I don't remember why. I preferred Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George.

little_e · Jul 31, 2013

kuwisdelu said:
I remember avoiding that one when I was younger (still haven't read it).

I had no idea why an Indian would live in a cupboard.

He didn't (we read it in school). The cupboard was more like the wardrobe in the Narnia books. The boy in the story puts his toys in the cupboard, and they "come to life", having been magically zapped from whatever time and place they were 'actually' living in. (Their bodies back in their real worlds, meanwhile, have gone all rigid, like toys.) In one of the books, the boy shoves himself in the cupboard and ends up a tiny person in the world of one of his toys (who are perfectly normal people in that world.)
At one point, I remember the boy getting into a dispute with a school administrator (principle, I think) for using an ethnic slur.
It's been too long since I read it to really comment on much else. I agree with the general complaint of books giving the overall impression that Indians have died out, which is the reason I'd be interested to find good books set in the present day. But for someone living in the time of colonial expansion and settler-born-diseases, it might well have felt like the end of the world.
I guess that makes the book a maybe?
ETA: since the Indian isn't the main character, the book's still off the main list for me.

little_e · Jul 31, 2013

For a younger audience, I think The Tale of Little Babaji is very cute, and I like how he outwits the tigers.

And for very little ones, Animal Sounds for Baby.

patskywriter · Aug 1, 2013

I don't have kids, but if I did, I'd be a regular customer of this publisher:

http://www.leeandlow.com/

Ken · Aug 1, 2013

little_e said:
93% of surveyed childrens' books contained white characters, with blacks, Hispanics, Indians, Asians, etc., staring in 3% or less.

... that's surprising to me.
Maybe my local library is just really good at
stocking a diverse mix of books, because
going by its collection there seem to be a
lot of books with non-white MC's.

Two I've greatly enjoyed among many were:

Li Lun, Lad of Courage by Treffinger
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Coerr

Your Favorite Kids' Books Featuring POCs?

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