You’re doing all the right things! Here are some book recommendations!

Our library had all of them.

Amazing Grace is a great book where the main character wants to audition to be Peter Pan, and another kid in the class says something like, “You can’t because you’re a girl and you’re black.” We get to see it from Grace’s perspective, how it feels to have someone say that to you.

(Heads up, the book’s from back in our childhood, and Grace dresses up in a ton of costumes, one of which is a headdress, so there’s the whole cultural appropriation thing to talk about.)

Shades of People is my favorite one for just showing lots of diverse photos of kids.

I am Rosa Parks (and I am MLK) are really good ones to talk about historically institutionalized racism with really young kids.

Princess Hair is a great one for appealing to the idea of prettiness, showing depictions of black girls being cool and pretty and fancy and fun.

Show Way and Love Twelve Miles Long are great conversation-starters about slavery. These are the sorts of books some people are going to tell us our kids are too young for, but Tzivia and I have been reading them for years.

Show Way is gorgeously illustrated and explores the generational effects of slavery while also beautifully humanizing POC.

Love Twelve Miles Long is an imagined story of Frederick Douglas’ mom sneaking 12 miles from one plantation to another just to hold her son and talk to him.

Here’s a piece I wrote about some of the race education I do with Tzivia, including some of the books I just mentioned, and more: Teach Your Kids About Badass Black Women.

Seriously, it’s so clear you’re handling this perfectly (and you have been for a long time). ❤