Using books to open up conversations with children about diversity

Hello!

I hope everyone is doing well now that we’re a couple of months back into the academic year. 

The month of October is Black History Month where all over the world, we celebrate and understand the impact of black culture in our own communities and on a worldwide scale. For our settings, this offers us a chance for us to reflect on how our practice and the environment we nurture for children celebrates and reflects diversity. 

Exploring this is not just about ticking off that we have culturally diverse resources or doing a standalone activity to celebrate a religious festival- it’s about opening up conversations with children about similarities and differences between each other and within our families. It is also about recognising that having similarities and differences is a positive thing to build an inclusive, non- discriminatory nursery community. 

A good way to open up these conversations with young children is through stories. These could be stories to explore similarities and differences and also ones which allow children to see and discuss illustrations which are culturally diverse. 

I thought for this month, to help with this theme, it would be useful to share two Instagram accounts which celebrate diversity through stories. 

Diverse Kids Books

This account has recommendations for books with diverse characters which cover a wide range of topics including anti-racism, different religions, immigration, travelling communities and even different types of hair! The account is run by a mother who works in Early Years who is passionate about children growing up to be inclusive and kind. Each post tells you which ages the books are best suited for and also about which topics and discussions the books might open up when sharing them with children. 

Books For Diversity

This account recommends different books regularly and often focuses on books written by culturally diverse authors and illustrators. This account highlights black-owned bookstores in the UK and shares their social media accounts so followers can support them. Each post on this page tells you about the book and includes direct links to authors, illustrators and publishers so you can follow and support them too. 

 The best way to share these stories with children is to have a copy of the book but many of us, sadly, don’t have the budget to allow us to purchase an abundance books continually. Many of these books will be online on YouTube where children can see the illustrations while the story is read. It is also great to make links with local libraries to borrow books and speak to librarians about books which would be good to use to open up conversations about particular topics. 

I hope these accounts are helpful and give you lots of ideas to celebrate diversity during Black History Month and all year round. 

Rachel Turpie