Out of the Best Books

The other day I was talking with a fellow adoptive mom and we got to talking about books. She suggested that I do a blog post about some of our favorite books. Great idea!

Baylie has loved reading from the time she was an infant. From the time she was teeny tiny, she would sit for hours if someone would read to her. Now that she can read herself, she is reading all the time. It reminds me a lot of myself.

Jalen on the other hand, isn't such a fan. He does let us read to him, but we often have to bribe him. In fact, I have zero pictures of him reading!

There are lots of books about adoption, transracial adoption and race. I have read very few of the adult non-fiction books on these topics, but we have read a lot of the kid books and I've read a lot of novels. I also make an effort to make sure my kids read books with kids that look like them. With that in mind, here are some of our favorites.

Books About Adoption

• Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born, Jamie Lee Curtis - Baylie loves this book and she especially loves asking us to tell her her own adoption story.
• My Adopted Child, There's No One Like You, Kevin Leman - One of our favorites.
• A Mother for Choco, Keiko Kasza - Cute story about a little bird looking for a mother.
• The Red Thread, Grace Lin - Based on a Chinese folk tale about a red thread that connects people that are meant to be together.
• The Day We Met You, Phoebe Koehler - Shares the emotions adoptive parents feel for their children.

Books With Children of Color*

• Jump at the Sun Fairy-Tale Classics - Classic fairy tales with black characters.
• Each Kindness, Jacqueline Woodson - In this book a poor girl moves into a neighborhood and is shunned by other students because of her poverty. A sad, but moving story.
• Shades of Black: A Celebration of Our Children, Sandra L. Pinkney (and anything else by the Pinkneys) - A photo book with pictures of several different shades of black children.
• I Love My Hair, Natasha Anastasia Tarpley - Great book to teach black girls to love their hair.
• You Can Do It, Tony Dungy - Bayle has an autographed copy!
• Blackout, John Rocco - What to do when the power goes out. Great message about quality time.
• Please, Baby, Please, Spike and Tanya Lee - My kids love this book so much that it's falling apart. The little girl looked so much like Baylie when she was a baby.
• Ron's Big Mission, Rose Blue - True story about the childhood dreams of the first black man in space.
• Hair Dance!, Dinah Johnson - Great book and pictures featuring natural hair.
• In My Momma's Kitchen, Jerdine Nolen - Great story about an African American family.
• Amazing Grace, Mary Hoffman - All of Mary Hoffman's books about Grace are great for teaching black girls to love themselves.
• Piano Starts Here: The Young Art Tatum, Robert Andrew Parker - True story of black pianist.
• Super-Fine Valentine, Bill Cosby - Cute crush story.
• All the Colors of the Earth, Sheila Hamanaka - Celebrating all different colors.

*I like to read my kids stories where there are black characters, but where the story isn't focused on race.

Books About Race

• The Colors of Us, Karen Katz - This is one of my kids' favorites. It shows all different colors and compares them to types of food (caramel, cinnamon, toffee, etc.). My kids like to decide what color/flavor each member of our family is.
• The Other Side, Jacqueline Woodson - Story of two girls that make friends over the fence that divides black from white.
• Night Running: How James Escaped with the Help of His Faithful Dog, Elisa Carbone - Based on the true story of an escaped slave boy.
• Stealing Home: Jackie Robinson: Against the Odds, Robert Burleigh - Children's book about Jackie Robinson.
• Masai and I, Virginia L. Kroll - Good book about black pride.
• Whoever You Are, Mem Fox - Another family favorite about children all over the world.
• The Slave Dancer, Paula Fox - Young adult novel about a boy that was kidnapped and forced to work on a slave ship.
• Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt, Deborah Hopkinson - Story about a girl who learns to read the freedom trail as stitched into quilts.
• To Be a Drum, Evelyn Coleman - Story of the drum as an African symbol. 
• White Socks Only, Evelyn Coleman - A black girl faces Jim Crow laws.
• Goin' Someplace Special, Patricia C. McKissack - A girl loves to go to the library, which is the only unsegregated place in town.
• Henry's Freedom Box, Ellen Levine - A boy mails himself to freedom.

Other Books We Love

• The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein - Like it sounds, about selflessness and giving.
• Not All Princesses Dress in Pink, Jane Yolen - Great book for girls.
• The Paperbag Princess, Robert Munsch - Great book about a princess who is way too good for the prince.
• The Unexpectedly Bad Hair of Barcelona Smith, Keith Graves - Fun book for kids who are learning to love their hair.
• Anything by Patricia Polacco (lots of books about diversity, civil rights and immigration)

Adult Books About Race, etc.*

• 12 Years a Slave, Solomon Northup - True story behind the movie, without any of the R-rated material. A really informative read.
• The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, James McBride - A black man tells the story of his white Southern mother who married a black man and lived in the projects of New York. 
• Calling Me Home, Julie Kibler - A novel about forbidden love between a white girl and a black boy in 1930's Kentucky. One of my favorites.
• The Almond Tree, Michelle Cohen Corasanti - A novel about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from the Arab point of view. Eye opening.
• Shades of Black: A Celebration of Our Children
• To Be a Slave, Julius Lester - First person slave narratives. Really powerful and brutal without being explicit. A must read.
• My Life in the South, Jacob Stroyer - First-hand slave experiences of Jacob Stroyer who was a slave in South Carolina on a plantation that can still be toured today.
• An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-Year-Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny, Laura Schroff - The title is self-explanatory. A little self-congratulatory, but shows the difference one person can make in the life of another.
• The Kitchen House, Kathleen Grissom - Novel about an indentured servant that crosses the racial lines on a plantation with serious consequences.
• The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kinsolver - A novel showing a different point of view of African colonization. I loved this book.
• The Help, Kathryn Stockett - Good book. Good movie.
• Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd - Great book. Great movie.
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Jamie Ford -  Tender story about love between Japanese and Chinese immigrants during the time of the Chinese relocation camps.
• Black Like Me, John Howard Griffin - Journalist in the 1950's takes medication to darken his skin and experience life as a black man.
• Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, Douglas A. Blackmon - Well-documented book about what happened to blacks after the Civil War. Helps explain why we have not progressed more as a country in regards to race.
• The Color Purple, Alice Walker - You've probably heard of it. 
• All Around Town: The Photographs of Richard Samuel Roberts, Dinah Johnson - Pictures of historical black South Carolina.

*I love reading books about different cultures, but I've only listed a few here.

Other Recommended Books

• Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices & Priorities of a Winning Life, Tony Dungy - I love Tony Dungy (former coach of the Indianapolis Colts) and would recommend anything he writes.
• Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance, Tony Dungy - See above.