Multicultural Literature
Betsy Henderson Watters
Reading Specialist
Multicultural Presenter at AILDI
July 2003
Significant Multicultural Texts
Everyone’s Kid’s Books A Guide to Multicultural, Socially Conscious Books
Rethinking Our Classroom Teaching for Equity and Justice Vol. 1 & 2
Affirming Diversity the Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education - Sonia Nieto
Educating Teachers for Diversity Seeing With a Cultural Eye- Jacqueline Jordan Irvine
Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality - Joel Spring
A Different Mirror - The Multicultural History of America - Ronald Takaki
Teachers as Cultural Workers Letters to Those Who Dare Teach - Paulo Freire
The Light in Their Eyes Creating Multicultural Learning Communities- S. Nieto
Lies My Teacher Told Me and Lies Across America - James Loewen
Readings For Diversity And Social Justice -Adams, Blumenfeld, Castaneda
Savage Inequalities - Jonathan Kozol
A Place to be Navajo -Teresa McCarty
The Rage of A Privileged Class - Ellis Cose
Culturally Responsive Teaching Lesson Planning for Elementary and Middle Grades - Jacqueline Jordan Irvine/Beverly Jeanne Armento
Working with Children from Culturally Diverse Backgrounds - Klein and Chen
in search of understanding The Case for Constructivist Classrooms - Jacqueline Grennon Brooks and Martin G. Brooks
Creating and Sustaining the Constructivist Classroom -Bruce Marlow- M. Page
Getting Ready for Benjamin: Preparing Teachers for Sexual Diversity in the Classroom - Rita Kissen
What Keeps Teachers Going? - Sonia Nieto
Con Respeto Bridging the Distances Between Culturally Diverse Families and Schools - Guadalupe Valdes
Of Borders and Dreams A Mexican-American Experience of Urban Education Chris Liska Carger
Toward Cultural Democracy: The Journey From Knowledge to Action in Diverse Classrooms - Jaime J. Romo and Carolyn Salerno
AFRICAN AMERICAN Tar Beach Black Snowman Our Gracie Aunt Africa Is Not a Country Tell Me A Story Mama At Aunt Connie’s House The Orphan Boy Uncle Jed’s Barbershop Sister Anne’s Hands Mississippi Bridge The Friendship The Road to Memphis Ola Shakes it Up *A Ticket to Egypt or Kenya Abby *A Ticket to Madagascar Ruby Bridges *A Ticket to S. Africa or Nigeria The Drinking Gourd The Cay The Hundred Penny Box Timothy of the Cay J.T. Ben’s Trumpet Jackie Robinson Cherries Julian’s Glorious Summer Sing Down the Moon Saturday at the New You Maya Angelou: Poems Stevie A Circle Unbroken What Mary Jo Shared Willie Mays Yolanda’s Genius Jamaica Series Young Harriet Tubman Rosa Parks In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson Martin Luther King, Jr. Jesse Owens Five Brillant Scientists Jackie Robinson Five Brave Explorers Journey to Jo’burg Five Notable Inventors 2 Willie Mays Black Hands, White Sails The Night Crossing Jonathan and His Mommy Jim Thorpe Zeely Cousins Sweet Whispers Brother Rush The House of Dies Drear Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughter Elizabeti’s Doll Ashanti to Zulu Halala Means Welcome! Anansi the Spider Kevin and His Dad The Royal Drum: An Ashanti Tale Philip Hall Likes Me, I reckon Maybe John Henry Africa Dream TalkTalk:An Ashanti Tale Ben’s Trumpet Amos Fortune, Free Man Bigmama’s Thurgood Marshall, Fight for Justice Black is Brown is Tan The Princess Who Lost Her Hair: An I Have a Dream Akamba Legend Day Dreamers Moja Means One An Enchanted Hair Tale Ten, Nine Eight Everett Anderson’s Goodbye Wilma Unlimited Julian, Dream Doctor Kwanza Miracle Kimato’s Story Imani in the belly Willie’s Not the Hugging Kind Many Nations Baby Says Mel’s Diner The Boy Who Didn’t Believe in Spring A Story, A Story Cornrows Cleveland Lee’s Beale Street Band War Comes to Willie Freeman Young Martin Luther King 3 Wagon Wheel The Cow-Tail Switch & other African Stories Everyday People The ReverendThomas’s False Teeth Front Porch Stories Keelboat Annie Nappy Hair Heaven Sidewalk Stories Sweet Clara and the Fredom Quilt No Mirrors in My Nana’s House The Stories Julian Tells Neeny Coming, Neeny Going Playing Games (2001) Bright Eyes, Brown Skin Picture Book of Sojourner Truth When the Legend Dies Picture Book of Harriet Tubman Serena & Venus Williams Go Free or Die A Story about Harriet Tubman Young Frederick Douglass Amazing Grace Boundless Grace Jesse Owens - Jane Sutcliffe Wilma Rudolph Cracking The Wall The Struggles of the Little Rock Nine Booker T. Washington - Thomas Amper I Am Rosa Park - Jim Haskins Wilma Rudolph - Victoria Sherrow Aunt Clara Brown - Linda Lowery Harriet Tubman The Road To Freedom Meet Danitra Brown - Nikki Griimes Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King Nettie’s Trip South A Kwanzaa Miracle My Painted House My Friendly Chicken and Me - Maya Angelou Shades of Black Why Spider Spins Tales How Ananzi Got His Narrow Waist Talk, Talk An Ashanti Legend Big Boy One Round Moon and a Star for Me Not So Fast Songolo Sunday Outing The House with No Door African Riddle-Poems Harlem My Man BlueMomma, Where Are You From? * Non-Fiction (2001 – Lerner ) ASIAN AMERICAN Angel Child, Dragon Child Goodbye Vietnam A Jar of Dreams The Best Bad Thing The Happiest Ending Aki and the the Fox The Bicycle Man Child of the Owl The Star Fisher See Glass The Best Older Sister Shen of the Sea Chang’s Paper Pony A Jar of Dreams Chinese New Year’s Dragon The Funny Little Woman A Grain of Rice Man Who Tricked a Ghost How My Parents Learned to Eat The Story About Ping I Hate English! Momo’s Kitten Lion Dancer Tam’s Slipper Umbrella Crow Boy Will You Come Back for Me? Hush The Boy of the Three-Year Nap Chung Lee Loves Lobsters The Red Comb The Paper Crane Junior Thunder Lord Rise and Shine Mariko-Chan! Li Lun, Lad of Courage Song Lee in Room 2B Something Special for Me Five Chinese Brothers Sadako and the Thousand Paper Crane *A Ticket to Indonesia *A Ticket to Japan *A Ticket to Vietnam *A Ticket to China *Non-Fiction(2001-Lerner Books) *A Ticket to India *A Ticket to Phillipines Rise and Shine Mariko-Chan! Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear The Lost Garden 5 The Chinese Americans Tye May and the Magic Brush Liang and the Magic Brush Tikki Tikki Tembo Cleversticks The Year of the Panda CrowBoy/Caldecott/2001 Yen Shen The Golden Supper A Vietnamese Legend The Dragon Wings The Magic Amber A Korean Legend A Boat to Nowhere Peach Boy A Japanese Legend Dragonwings Growing Up In Ancient China - Ken Teague Homesick The Boy of The Three-Year Nap In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson The Magic Peach The Iron Dragon Never Sleeps Look What We’ve Brought You From Vietnam Everybody Cooks Rice Shortstop From Tokyo The War Between Classes The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung I Love You Like Crazy Cakes The Big Wave Pacific Crossing
JAPANESE AMERICAN Internment Baseball Saved Us Desert The Journey Journey Home Japanese-American Internment Desert Exile Farewell to Manzanar (gr.7/8) 6
HISPANIC AMERICAN Any Small Goodness Juan Bobo and the Horse of Seven Colors Voices From The Fields The Circuit Sombreros, Gorros Y Cachuchas (Spanish) Going Home Amigo The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses !Fiesta! Why Opposum Is Gray Arroz Con Leche The Ghost Dance Benito Juarez Tonio’s Cat Just Us Women Erandi’s Braids Marisol and Magdalena A Chair for My Mother Jamaica and Juanita Going Home Hill of Fire Juan Bobo Music, Music for Everyone The Outside Dog Something Special for Me Gilberto and the Wind The Most Beautiful Place in the World Too Many Tamales Nine Days to Christmas Opposum and the Great Firemaker Alphabet City Ballet Felita **** Pride of Puerto Rico: The Life of Roberto Clemente Baseball in April ..and now Miquel El Bronx Remembered The House on Mango Street An Island Like You Journey of the Sparrows Living Up the Street Off and Running Pacific Crossing Pocho A Summer Life 7 The Night of Las Posadas Amigo Means Friend Vejigante Masquerader Gilberto and the Wind Hispanic Americans Old Ramon An Island Like You Benito Juarez Hero of Modern Mexico Hijo Dl Sol Una Layenda Cubana The Llama’s Secret A Peruvian Legend The Hummingbird King - A Guatemalan Legend **Tortilla For Emilia ** The Sombrero of Luis Lucero ** Maya Moon ** Sundance Books 2003
8 NATIVE AMERICANS Nanabush and the Dancing Ducks Nanabush and the Spirit of Winter Crazy Horse’s Vision’ Faithful Hunter The First Strawberries Heroes, Heroines, Monsters and Magic How Chipmunk Got His Stripes Foster Baby Grandfather Stories of the Navajo Granma’s Special Feeling Wait for Me! Dreams of Looking Up Wisalkecahk Flies to the Moon Mayeros: A Yucatee Maya Family Pablo Remembers:The Fiesta of the Day of the Dead Dancing with the Indians The Magic of Spider Woman Annie and the Old One Sign of the Beaver Dancing Drum Thunder Rolling in the Mountains Little Firefly To Walk the Sky Path Little Runner of the Longhouse Wait For Me, Watch For Me, Eula Bee Quillworker, A Cheyenne Legend The Black Pearl Red Fox and His Canoe Sacajawea Small Wolf The Pueblo The Shadow Brothers Julie Stone Fox Small Wolf Turquoise Boy When Clay Sings Young Pocahontas Where the Buffalo Begins Clamshell Boy Girl Who Married the Moon Hide and Sneak Sunflower’s Flower A Horse Called Starfire Coyote & the Grasshopper Ka-fa-si and the Loon 9 Little Firefly, An Algonquian Legend Love Flute The Mud Pony Last Warrior On Mother’s lap Dogsong A Promise is a Promise Beardance Sacajawea Brave Bear & the Ghosts The Story of JumpingMouse Flying with the Eagle, Racing with the Bear Coyote Steals the Blanket Kokopelli’s Flute Dream Wolf The Double Life of Pocohontas Giving Thanks Osceoloa, Seminole Warrior Knots on a Counting Wolf Sequoyah Cherokee Hero The Land of Gray Wolf Buffalo Women The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush *Children of Clay(Pueblo) Little Hawk’s New Name *Children of the Indian Boarding Schools Rainbow Crow *Clambake(Wampanoag) The Warrior Maiden *Four Seasons of Corn(Winnebago) Young Wolf’s First Hunt *Ininatig’s Gift of Sugar Julie of the Wolves * Kinaalda(Navajo) I Heard the Owl Call My Name * Shannon(Ojibway) Ishi, Last of theTribe *A Story to Tell(Tlingit) The Light in the Forest (7/8) *Traditional Crafts from N.America Racing the Sun Sing Down the Moon Ka-ha-si and the Loon (Eskimo legend) Streams to the River, River to the Sea The Corn Grows Ripe/Newbery Giving Thanks A Native American Good Morning Message The Talking Earth Eagle Song When the Legend Dies 10 Buffalo Hunt Sacajawea Wilderness Guide Bearston First Woman and the Strawberry A Cherokee Legend Canyons Dancing Drum A Cherokee Legend A Circle Unbroken Native American SignLanguage Song of the Hermit Thrush Tecumseh Shawnee War Chief * Non-Fiction (2001)Lerner Middle School Remember My Name Friends from the Other Side Thunder Rolling in the Mountains No Borders Flying Eagle, Racing with Great Bear Halfbreed 73’ Mt. Windsong: A Novel of the Trail of Tears Waterlily A Really Good Brown Girl Columbus Day From the Deep Woods to Civilization Mean Spirit Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World Solar Storms Columbus: His Enterprise Indain Cartography Honor the Grandmothers: Dakota and Lakota Women Tell Their Stories Durable Breath: Contemporary Native American Poetry Toronto at Dreamer’s Rock/Education is Our Right No Parole Today Dance With Me, Gods Sparrow Hawk Kunu: Escape on the Missouri High School Old Shirts and New Skins Away from Home: American Indian Boarding Schoool Experience I’ll Sing til the Day I Die: Conversations with Tyendinaga Elders Writing as Witness The Life and Death of Anna Mae Aquash Sweetgrass Grows All Around Her Boarding School Seasons:American Indian Families, 1900-1940 Strong Hearts: Native American Visions and Voices
11 JEWISH AMERICAN The Keeping Quilt The Christmas Revolution I Am a Star About the B’Nai Bagels Alan and Naomi All-of-a-Kind Family Chernowitz Letters From Rifka Night Journey The Remembering Box Silver Days Summer of My German Soldier Annie’s Promise The Devil’s Arithmetic The Hanukkah Book Keystone Kids Land of Hope Morning is a Long Time Coming Once I Was a Plum Tree The Other 1492 The Power of Light Starring Sally J.Freedman as Herself Number the Stars Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl Night Grandma’s Latkes Hanukah Money HAWAIIAN AMERICAN Light in the Crevice Never Seen - Haunani-Kay Trask From A Native Daughter: Colonialism & Sovereignty in Hawai’i -H. Trask ARAB AMERICAN
Muslim Child The Breadwinner (Afghanistan) The Day of Ahmed’s Secret Oasis of Peace 12
MULTICUTURAL A life like mine How children live around the world If the World Were a Village Talking Walls - Margy Burns Knight (hard cover) All the Colors We Are/Todos los nuestra piel: The Story of How We Get Our Skin Color Got Me a Story to Tell Whoever You Are - Mem Fox Shades of Black A Celebration of Our Children The World Turns Round and Round The Color of Us Gathering the Sun: An Alphabet Book in Spanish an English HOMES around the world - Bobbie Kalman Rainy City Rainbow - Anne Sibley O’Brien Families Are Different - Nina Pelligrini The Story of Colors/Historia de los Colores
IMMIGRATION Immigrants - A Library of Congress Book - Martin Sandler The Circuit - Francisco Jimenez Red Sails to Capri (Italian) Grace in the Wilderness (Hungarian) Immigrant Kids (various cultures) Letters from Rifka (Russian) Leaving for America Land of Hope (different religious backgrounds) The White Stag (Hungarian) Dreaming of America an Ellis Island Story (Irish) - Eve Bunting Tales from Gold Mountains:Stories of the Chinese in the New World The Copper Lady (France) -Alice and Kent Ross It’s Only Goodbye An Immigrant Story (Italian) -Virginia Gross Where We Belong The Keeping Quilt (Russian Jews) -Paticia Pollacco I Was Dreaming to Come to America -Veronica Lawlor How My Family Lives in America (Mulitcultural) - Susan Kuklin Voices FromThe Fields - Children of Migrant Farmworkers Tell Their Stories S. BethAtkin Angel Island (Chinese) -Larry Dane Brimner Painted Words Spoken Words Bread, Bread, Bread (multicultural) The Maldonado Miracle (Mexican) The Story of Ana (El Salvadoran) Friends from the Other Side (Mexican) 13
SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES Civil Rights Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters The Long Haul: An Autobiography of Myles Horton The Story of Ruby Bridges - Robert Coles Free at Last: A History of the Civil Rights Movement and Those Who Died in the Struggle - Sara Bullard
All Times, All Peoples: A World History of Slavery The Long March: A Famine Gift for Ireland (Choctaws raising money for Irish) Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti (struggle for democracy) The National Civil Rights Museum Celebrates Everyday People -Alice Duncan Granddaddy’s Gift - Margaree King Mitchell Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry/ Let the Circle Be Unbroken The Friendship Selma, Lord Selma: Girlhood Memories of the Civil Rights Days- S. Webb No More! Stories and Songs of Slave Resistance Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940 Toronto at Dreamer’s Rock/Education is Our Right Mt. Windsong: A Novel of the Trail of Tears American Indian Stereotypes in the world: a reader and bibliography No Parole The Skin I’m In - A First Look at Racism- Pat Thomas "Let’s Talk About Racism" (racism) Witnesses to Freedom:Young People Who Fought for Civil Rights-Levine Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt - Deborah Hopkinson Sister Anne’s Hands- Marybeth Lorbiecki If You Lived at the Time of Martin Luther King If A Bus Could Talk the Story of Rosa Parks - Faith Reingold Tar Beach - Faith Reingold Cracking the Walls The Struggle of the Little Rock Nine Young Rosa Parks Civil Rights Heroine Columbus: His Enterprise Charlie Pippin (Vietnam) Freedom’s Unfifnished Revolution: An Inquiry Into the Civil War and CIVIL RIGHTS VIDEOS One Million Postcards -U.S. students’ empowerment against Iraq sanctions Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years 1954 -1965 -
Ethnic Notions Freedom Song The Story of Ruby Bridges Jim Crow - PBS Documentary regret to Inform (Vietnam) Uprooted: Refugees of the Global Economy (Bolivia, Phillipines & Haiti) Global Village or Global Pillage The Hidden Story: Confronting Columbia’s Dirty War Iraq Under Siege: The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War Salt of the Earth - Mexican American Tutu and Franklin: A Journey Towards PEACE Where Are the Beans? 14 SOCIAL ISSUES We Dream of a World (social consciousness) The Streets are Free (empowerment/social consciousness) Beatrice’s Goat (empowerment, social consciousness) A School of Our Own: Parents, Power and the Community at East Harlem Block Schools (empowerment/social consciousness) Si, Se Puede, Yes, We Can! (empowerment/social consciousness) My Name Is Maria Isabel (language and culture) Taking Sides (acceptance) The Me Inside of Me (acceptance) The Breadwinner (acceptance) The Planet of Junior Brown (acceptance) I Like Me! (self-esteem) Our Gracie Aunt (foster care) Heaven (adoption) Tar Beach (discrimination) The Skin I’m In (racism) "I is "not " for Indian (racism) Halfbreed 73’(racism) A Really Good Brown Girl (racism) No Parole (racism) Sister Anne’s Hands (racism) The Fragile Flag (march for peace) Stop Picking On Me (bullying) The Circuit A School of Our Own : Parents, Power and the Community at East Harlem Block Schools (empowerment/social consciousness) Si, Se Puede, Yes, We Can! (empowerment/social consciousness) Circuit (migrant children) Jesse (migrant children) Lyddie (child labor) Don’t Call Me Special (disability) The Red Comb (integenerational friendship) we can work it out (conflict resolution) Fat, Fat Rose (childhood obesity) Daddy Doesn’t Have to be a Giant Anymore (alcholism) Some of the Pieces (death) Table Where Rich People Sit (class) When I Feel Angry (anger) Boys Will Be Men: Raising Our Sons for Courage, Caring and Community M.C. Higgins, the Great (environmental destruction) Save My Rainforest (saving environment) When the Stars Begin to Fall (pollution) Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (radiation posioning) Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices from the Grassroots Atlas of the Environment How to Save Your Neighborhood City, or Town (environment) 15
SOCIAL ISSUES - VIDEOS The Lemon Grove Incident: A Story of Early Desegregation Where Are the Beans?(NGO oppression) Uprooted: Refugees of the Global Economy Matewan (American labor history) Oil Companies vs. The Rainforests: A Curriculum Package on Indigenous Rights and "Development" Making a Killing:Phillip Morris, Kraft and Global Tobacco Addiction
DIVORCE I Only See My Dad On Weekends I Don’t Want to Talk About It Mom’s House, Dad’s House It’s Not Your Fault Dinosaurs Divorce Two Homes Mama and Daddy Bear’s Divorce My Family’ Changing Goodbye Daddy Always My Dad Do I Have a Daddy?: A Story about a Single-Parent Child The Leaves in October (single-parenting) A Little Piece of Sky (high school) Dancing on the Edge of the Roof (high school) HOMELESS Fly Away Home The Missing Gator of Gumbo Limbo Sidewalk Story A Chance to Grow The Homeless Hibernating Bear A Safe Place Sam and the Moon Queen Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen Way Home Space Travellers Someplace to Go This Home We Have Made Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen Way Home 16 AIDS What’s A Virus Anyway? The Kids’ Book About AIDS - David Fassler Alex, the Kid with AIDS - Lida Girard Losing Uncle Tim - MaryKate Jordan Come Sit By Me - Margaret Merrifield Daddy and Me (Arthur Ashe) - Jeanne Moutossamy-Ashe I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This - Jacqueline Woodson Z’s Gift - Neal Starkman You Can Call Me Willy: A Story for Children about AIDS - Joan Verniero Red Ribbon - Sarah Weeks Be a Friend: Children who Live with HIV Speak - Lori Werner I Have AIDS: A Teenager’s Story - Ryan White
HOMOSEXUALITY Asha’s Mums - Rosamund Elwin and Michele Paulse Heather Has Two Mommies - Leslea Newman How Would You Feel If Your Dad Was Gay?-Ann Heron/ Mery Maran Belinda’s Bouquet - Leslea Newman It’s Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School-Video-D. Chasnoff The Duke Who Outlawed Jelly Beans and Other Stories - Johnny Valentine Living in Secret - Christine Salat Love Makes a Family: Living in Gay and Lesbian Families - Photo-Text Gays in History Overcoming Homphobia in the Elementary Classroom - video/materials The Shared Heart - Adam Mastoon Annie on My Mind - Nancy Garden Two Teenagers in Twenty - Ann Heron Free Your Mind- Ellen Bass Geography Club- Brent Hartinger Growing Up Gay/Growing Up Lesbian: A Literary Anthology Becoming Visible A Gay/Lesbian Reader Dare Truth or Promise Deliver Us From Evie A Better Place Am I Blue? One Teacher in 10: Gay and lesbian educators tell their stories – Kevin Jennings The Last Closet (Accounts of being a gay teacher in America) VIDEOS It’s Elementary Both My Mom’s Names Are Judy: Children of Lesbians & Gays Speak Out 17 MULTICULTURAL VIDEOS Just a Little Red Dot - acceptance of diversity How We Feel In Claire’s Classroom Viva La Causa: 500 years of Chicano History The Color of Fear- racism (high school/college/teachers) GUIDES We the Media: A Citizen’s Guide to Fighting for Media Democracy Many Faces of Mexico A New View of the World: A Handbook to the Peters Projection World Map The Power in Our Hands: A Curriculum of Work and Workers in the U.S. Race and Membership in American History: The Eugenics Movement
Who is speaking for You, Your Community?
If you have reviewed some of the books on this list, write a book review and tell us what your thoughts are about it. Who authored it? Were they native to the culture? Is it authentic? Speak up!