I’m sharing my favorite multicultural books to boost up your classroom libraries. The first book I’d love to introduce to you is a true autobiography called The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind. Now I recommend the picture book for primary-aged students. And for secondary age, there is a chapter book version. William Kamkwamba, who the story is about, and Brian Mealer; pictures are by Elizabeth Zunon. The cool thing I like about this book is it talks about one engineering, how do you solve a problem? And another exciting thing about it is how this boy used his engineering skills to help save his village. Now there is a movie, but I highly warn it to have you watch it at school. I recommend that they scan it at home with their families because there are some themes about tragedy and hardships that are not suitable for the classroom.
I love Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson. I’m a huge fan of Jacqueline Woodson. It talks about a new student coming into a new school and how her peers treat her also gives a great discussion on how we treat each other. Now, for your secondary kids, I always start where my favorite read-aloud of all time is One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams Garcia. It’s a great read. It’s got elements of trying to connect with your family’s self-identity and social justice. And it takes place in the 1960s in Oakland, California, during the Black Panther movement is Nelson Mandela’s favorite African folktales. There are a plethora of folktales from all over the African continent. Also, what I love to read is, there’s small enough that you could do a quick read-aloud while your students are eating their snack. It’s funny. It’s a lot of fun. And then you can have the children pick up the book and read it themselves.
I love books with characters in them, but this one, in particular, is Ell Ray Jakes. It’s by Sally Warner. I recommend this book for middle readers. I would say probably between second to third grade. What I love about EllRay Jakes is he’s a great pal. But the themes about this book, what I like is that kids like him that look like him or not can relate to his ups and downs in elementary school. So definitely check this book out. I’m a dancer. I love doing ballet when we grew up. That’s all we did. And I always am a big fan of Misty Copeland. The book she wrote with Christopher Myers is called Firebird after one of the most famous productions that put her on the map. It talks about Missy Copeland talking to another young girl who’s a ballerina and helping her achieve her dreams. And another one that doesn’t have to wait till February is young, gifted, and black. What I love about this book, it has pages of black heroes from the past and the present.
But there are some people that you probably never even heard about before. I love that there is one page you can have students use as a starting point for their research. And what I also love about it, it’s fun quick. You get to know factual people who do exist. And what I also love is this from contributions of every facet of humanity. So these are my favorite must-have books that you have to have in your classroom library. Because like I always say, the more we know about each other, the better we can understand who we are. If you’d like more, I have a whole library of lesson plans and multicultural material to help you build your classroom community right here on my website.
