Children's Books discussion

Hello!

I work at an international school in Brazil and I am really concerned about the prejudice that is happening - probably not only here - because of coronavirus.
Many of our Asian students are being bullied because of that and I wanted to have some stories I could use to help them reflect about the situation.

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks a lot!

Not sure what the general age of your students is, but all these books feature bullying and prejudices of various kinds as a topic

Middle Grade Books

Front Desk
The Diddakoi
The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle
Out of My Mind
They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid's Poems
Esperanza Rising
Wishtree
Adeline's Dream
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
My Name is Seepeetza

Picture Books for Older Children

Write to Me: Letters from Japanese American Children to the Librarian They Left Behind
I Am Not a Number

But please, if you are thinking of using any of these books with your students, check them out yourself first before suggesting them or assigning them to make sure they are suitable.

Thanks!
I totally forgot about the age range!
They are 8 - 12 years old (:

Raquel wrote: "Thanks!
I totally forgot about the age range!
They are 8 - 12 years old (:"

So my list would work.

You should also check out the Picture Book Club themes and the general themes section.

We do have a few rec's in this short thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

There's a discussion thread that has some interesting books. Your students might benefit from seeing that children all over the world have similar dreams, fears, experiences...: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... (also here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...).

Also take a look here for #ownvoices: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...

Books about Manzanar and other WWII Japanese-American internment camps might work, too, for example from this list posted by the Nat'l Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/manz/learn/educat..., including Children of Manzanar, So Far from the Sea

What's the general perception of Americans in your community? Honestly, do y'all see us as bullies, or as clever but stupid, or scary, or exotic, or what?

Most of the books on this list are for older children but Wonder and some others are included:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1....

These too are mostly for older children, but American Born Chinese and others that specifically about children of Chinese heritage in their new country might be good. https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1....

More lists.
About the immigrant experience, picturebooks: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

You mentioned that you're in an international school. I'm confused how this can be an issue, as your children already have ideas about diversity, about how kids are kids around the world. I expect most of my suggestions would be of more help in regular public schools. Maybe you can tell us something about what specifically the bullies are accusing the Asian students of? And do they know, or care, about the fact that "Asian" is not just Chinese?

Maybe the students need lessons in epidemiology. And/or books about the Plagues of historical Europe, or the 1918 "Spanish flu" pandemic.

Cheryl wrote: "More lists.
About the immigrant experience, picturebooks: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1......"

I think that just because a school might be “international” does not mean that students will automatically be embracing diversity and be immune from prejudice. I was teaching a beginning college German course during the SARS outbreak (in Toronto) and just because two of my Chinese students missed a few classes (because they were finishing their PhD dissertations and were taking German as an elective) there was this rumour being spread that they must have SARS (and only because of their ethnicity and with the rumours also being spread by students of Chinese background).

Oh, sure, I didn't think that acceptance of others would be "automatic." But I would think the setting would provide a head start for the children's understandings.

I also think that prejudice is learned... I wonder if the children are picking up attitudes from home, or tv.... Do the parents need to be educated, too, maybe with 'fact sheets' sent home with the students or a 'multicultural festival' or something else?

Cheryl wrote: "Oh, sure, I didn't think that acceptance of others would be "automatic." But I would think the setting would provide a head start for the children's understandings.

I also think that prejudice is..."

Considering how panicky everyone is and that the voices pleading for calm a kind of being silenced by those who are scared or those with other motives, it is no wonder that things are looking dismal and that prejudice is increasing. And the students might also be experiencing prejudice not at school but outside of school.

Heck, what about easy and fun stuff for the kids, like The Sneetches and Shel Silverstein's "Hug of War," from Where the Sidewalk Ends?

https://rhfoerger.files.wordpress.com...

For ages 9-12 (MG) and 12-14 (YA)

#1 recommended book that reflects what's happening today is
Chasing Secrets. It deals with the plague outbreak in San Francisco in the early 1900s and how the Chinese were blamed.

The Harry Potter books are all about prejudice. Muggles/Muggle Born/Half-Blood vs. Pureblood echos real life prejudices and the dangers that can lead to.

Disease epidemics
Chasing Secrets (older MG)
A Time of Angels (YA)
Secrets at Camp Nokomis: A Rebecca Mystery

War-non-ethnic prejudice
Love Thy Neighbor: The Tory Diary of Prudence Emerson
Dear Canada: With Nothing But Our Courage: The Loyalist Diary of Mary MacDonald, Johnstown, Quebec, 1783
Whispers of War: The War of 1812 Diary of Susanna Merritt
Footsteps in the Snow: The Red River Diary of Isobel Scott
Shades of Gray
My Vicksburg
Three Against the Tide
Once on This Island (War of 1812 and Native American) (Older MG/YA)
Betrayal at Cross Creek

Immigrant and other ethnic prejudice
Daughter of Madrugada (U.S./Mexico post Mexican-American war of 1846)
Nory Ryan's Song
A Slip of a Girl
Hope In My Heart: Sofia's Immigrant Diary
Hear My Sorrow: The Diary of Angela Denoto, a Shirtwaist Worker, New York City 1909 (older MG)
Esperanza Rising
A Spy on the Home Front: A Molly Mystery
Listen for the Singing

religious prejudice
An American Spring: Sofia's Immigrant Diary
Rory's Promise (older MG)

Civil Rights/African-American
Melody: Never Stop Singing
Music In My Heart: My Journey with Melody
Yankee Girl
Stella by Starlight (Older MG/YA)
Bird in a Box
Run Away Home
Circle of Fire (older MG)

Slavery/racial prejudice
North by Night: A Story of the Underground Railroad
Stealing South: A Story of the Underground Railroad
Letters from a Slave Girl: The Story of Harriet Jacobs
Dear Ellen Bee: A Civil War Scrapbook of Two Union Spies
Silent Thunder: A Civil War Story
The Whipping Boy (older MG/YA)
Happy Birthday, Addy!: A Springtime Story
Addy's Summer Place
A New Beginning: My Journey with Addy
Jefferson's Sons
Sugar (slavery, Chinese prejudice)
The Seeds of America Trilogy: Chains; Forge; Ashes
Glory's Freedom: A Story Of The Underground Railroad
Night Journey to Vicksburg
Steal Away Home
Soon Be Free
My Name Is Sally Little Song
Second Daughter: The Story of a Slave Girl
The House of Dies Drear
Sound the Jubilee
My Home Is over Jordan
Melitte
The Taken Girl --1840s Philadelphia/anti-slavery
Calico Girl
A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl, Belmont Plantation, Virginia 1859
I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl, Mars Bluff, South Carolina, 1865
Second Daughter: The Story of a Slave Girl
Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule
The Cameo Necklace: A Cecile Mystery (older MG)
Shadows on Society Hill: An Addy Mystery (older MG)
Something Upstairs (older MG)
Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Moreau, a French Slave Girl

Desegregation
Rosetta, Rosetta, Sit By Me!-- 1840s school integration. (Rosetta is the daughter of Frederick Douglass.)
Sylvia & Aki (school desegregation in Los Angeles- Mexican and Japanese characters)
With the Might of Angels: The Diary of Dawnie Rae Johnson, Hadley, Virginia, 1954 (school desegregation)

Antisemitism
Rachel's Secret
Rachel's Hope
Rachel's Promise
The Night Journey
Broken Song
Double Crossing
Cursing Columbus

Anti-Asian prejudice
Dolls Of Hope
Ship of Dolls
The Star Fisher
Dream Soul
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson

Japanese internment novels/anti-Japanese prejudice
Dust of Eden
The Fences Between Us: The Diary of Piper Davis, Seattle, Washington, 1941
Our Castle by the Sea (WWII anti-German)
Yoshiko Uchida's books for middle grade readers deal with Japanese internment and Asian-American characters from the 1930s and 40s.
Incommunicado (WWII anti-Japanese)
My Secret War: The World War II Diary of Madeline Beck, Long Island, New York 1941

Holocaust
Number the Stars
The Devil in Vienna
One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping: The Diary of Julie Weiss
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
Journey to America

gender
My Last Skirt: The Story of Jennie Hodgers, Union Soldier
The Hope Chest
A Time For Courage: The Suffragette Diary of Kathleen Bowen, Washington D.C., 1917
Secrets on 26th Street
Wheels of Change (older mg)
A Pebble and a Pen
Riding Freedom

Indigenous populations
Aleutian Sparrow (older MG/YA)
Weetamoo: Heart of the Pocassets, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 1653 (older MG)
Red River Girl
Daughter of Winter
The Remarkable & Very True Story of Lucy & Snowcap
Daniel's Story
Minuk: Ashes in the Pathway (older MG/YA)
Jenny of the Tetons (Older MG/YA)
Kirsten and the Chippewa
Kaiulani: The People's Princess, Hawaii, 1889
Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catharine Carey Logan, Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania, 1763

Puritan witches/Salem Witch Trials
Beyond the Burning Time (YA)
I Walk in Dread: The Diary of Deliverance Trembley, Witness to the Salem Witch Trials, Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1691 (older MG)
The Sacrifice (older MG/YA)
The Witch of Blackbird Pond (older MG/YA)

class/labor issues
Bread and Roses, Too (older MG/YA)
Torchlight
Missing from Haymarket Square (Older MG/YA)
A Spirit to Ride the Whirlwind

Birth defects, other disabilities
Beholding Bee (older MG)
From Anna

mild LGBTQ
Dear Sweet Pea (older MG) (her dad)
Better Nate Than Ever (older MG) (also fat shaming)

Misc.
The War That Saved My Life prejudice against inner city children and a woman who doesn't conform (hints of LGBTQ issues) (Older MG)
The Hundred Dresses
The Wonder of Charlie Anne learning disability, race, class (older MG/YA)

Cheryl wrote: "Heck, what about easy and fun stuff for the kids, like The Sneetches and Shel Silverstein's "Hug of War," from Where the Sidewalk Ends?

https://rhfoerg..."

That's great!

Thank you very much for all your answers!

For young adult/teen readers

Weight, disability and other modern issues
Dumplin' [the Netflix movie is better] (fat shaming, physical disability, LGBTQ+)
Puddin' (companion to the above but mostly weight issues)

]Religious prejudice
Blood Secret (Spanish Inquisition, mental health)
After the Ashes (indigenous/race)
A Faraway Island, Deep Sea, The Lily Pond (Holocaust, prejudice against unwed mothers, fast girls, anything fun and exciting)
My Family for the War (Holocaust)
Rachel's Secret (antisemitism)
The Hired Girl
Monkey Town: The Summer of the Scopes Trial
Bless Me, Ultima
The Other Half of Life: A Novel Based on the True Story of the MS St. Louis (Holocaust)
The Staircase
No Shame, No Fear (Quaker romance)

Racism/Jim Crow/Civil Rights
Midnight Without a Moon (racism/colorism in Civil Rights era)
The Red Rose Box (Jim Crow racism)
The Starplace (racism/school integration)
The Steep & Thorny Way (racism/ fantasy/Hamlet retelling)
Night on Fire
Good Fortune
Under a Painted Sky
Black Dove White Raven
The Firefly Letters (slavery and also gender)
Waiting for the Queen: A Novel of Early America (slavery and religion)
Copper Sun
The Ever-After Bird
The Color of Fire
Come Juneteenth
The River Between Us
Cast Two Shadows: The American Revolution in the South
The Education of Mary: A Little Miss of Color: 1832
Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons
The Letter Writer
Nightjohn
Sarny: A life Remembered
Over Jordan
Wolf by the Ears

Anti-Japanese war prejudice
Molly Donnelly

Indingenous
Aleutian Sparrow
Dancing at the Odinochka
My Lady Pocahontas
The Beaded Moccasins: The Story of Mary Campbell
I Am Regina
Sweetgrass
Sweetgrass Basket
Blood on the River: James Town, 1607
Calico Captive
Where the Broken Heart Still Beats: The Story of Cynthia Ann Parker

Gender
The Stranje House Series: A School for Unusual Girls, Exile for Dreamers, Refuge for Masterminds (gender prejudice against girls with brains) [Napoleonic Wars fantasy]
The Song of the Lioness Quartet (gender issues including a Taliban like group in a fantasy setting)
Flygirl (gender and race)
Bread Givers (gender/religion/immigration)
Gilbert & Sullivan Set Me Free (women prisoners)
Climbing the Stairs (also political-Indian freedom)

class
Crown Duel/Crown Duel (fantasy Pride and Prejudice style with barefoot young girl vs. the military leader of the the royal court world/the court)
Uprising (gender, class, immigration, politics)

Misc.
Witch Child (Puritan witch prejudice)
The Sacrifice (Salem Witch Trials)
The Witch of Blackbird Pond (Puritan gender/religion witches)
Daja's Book (bad luck in a fantasy world, main character of color)
The Serpent's Children
Mountain Light (prejudice against "others" not assimilated)
Wonder Show (sideshow)
Deadly ("Typhoid Mary")
Penny from Heaven (anti-Italian prejudice WWII)
How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (immigrants)
The Coffin Quilt: The Feud Between the Hatfields and the McCoys
Hattie Big Sky (WWI anti-German prejudice/gender)

What a great annotated list!

I would also like to post a few books that are critical of anti German sentiment in the USA during WWII such as

Summer of My German Soldier

A Tiny Piece of Sky

The Orphan Band of Springdale

Manybooks wrote: "I would also like to post a few books that are critical of anti German sentiment in the USA during WWII such as

The Orphan Band of Springdale

I had some on my list but I forgot this one, thanks. I would also include Our Castle by the Sea (older MG/young adult)

I forgot a few others I found in the library catalog

Picture books


young middle grades (ages 6-10)
Felicity Discovers a Secret (sight impairment in colonial era, apparently glasses were a new and shameful thing)
Kit's Home Run (gender)

Middle grades (ages 9-12)
The Raging Quiet (historical witches, deafness)
Walk Across the Sea (anti-Chinese 19th c.)
The War Within: A Novel of the Civil War (Jewish characters, slavery)
Running Out of Night (race, class and gender in the antebellum south)
The Year of the Sawdust Man (gossipy southern ladies 1930s, racial prejudice)

also, anything by Mildred D. Taylor is about the African-American experience.

Christopher Paul Curtis does as well, at a younger level, I believe.

There are probably others I missed.

One modern book that's gotten a LOT of buzz but I haven't read but probably should is The Hate U Give

In the latest American Girl "Girl of the Year" book Joss, she's a surfer girl. The boys think girls should stay on the beach and cheer on their awesome moves. Joss's idol has proved women can surf and do fancy tricks too. Joss also shows prejudice against cheerleaders. She thinks cheerleader = "rah rah rah" + pom-poms to cheer on boys until she discovers competitive cheerleading which is apparently group gymnastics. One of the girls in her group is prejudice against surfer girls. She thinks they're "grungy" and dirty all the time.