Teaching Cultural Compassion

We're excited you want to learn about Cultural Compassion!  Read below for the latest recommendations, but be sure to check out our book search (which now includes over 2,500 titles) and our archived by topic blog entries.  Happy reading!

March 11, 2024

Reading about Reading

March is National Reading Month in the US.  To celebrate, I thought I'd suggest some favorite books about books! Whether a biography of an important librarian or a launch pad into imagining a book about you, these books celebrate all of us who love books.

Hopefully you've heard of the Pura Belpré Awards, but maybe you don't know much about their namesake.  Planting Stories is a short biography of Pura Belpré and her life as an advocate for diversity in libraries.  A truly wonderful story told by Anika Aldamuy Denise with beautiful pictures by Paola Escobar.

Stacey Abrams isn't just a lawyer and politician.  She's an author - and she doesn't just write adult books!  Her second picture book, Stacey's Remarkable Books is based in her childhood love of reading and libraries.  If you love books, too, you'll connect with the story and the art by Kitt Thomas right away.

In What Would You Do in a Book About You?  Jean Reidy will start a conversation during story time about what a book about you and your kiddo(s) might look like.  With vivid illustrations by Joey Chou, it's easy to dive into the world of possibility and imagination!

Reading Beauty by Deborah Underwood and Meg Hunt will take you to a future steeped in technology, but paper books are still prized -- at least by Princess Lex. Book lovers will certainly empathize with this interstellar take on an old fairy tale.

Check out these and more at TCC's list on Bookshop.org.  

Just a reminder that any books purchased through the links above will give a small commission back to the work of Teaching Cultural Compassion.

March is Women's History Month.  Click this link to read past posts about Women's History.  Click the title above or click here to see TCC's favorite biographies of female change makers and books to inspire girls!

February is Black History Month.  Click this link to read previous posts for Black History Month.  Click the title above or click here to see TCC's favorite  biographies of Black changemakers and celebrating history and the future!

I was honored to be a Fiction Picture Book & Board Book Panelist for the Cybils Awards for 2023!  As a panelist, it was my job (with 7 others) to help narrow down the over 360 books that were nominated to 14 finalists - 7 fiction picture books and 7 board books.  The winners were announced on February 14!

Congratulations Vashti Harrison for your book Big and Kari Allen and Kim Smith for best board book Whose Prints?

Click here to see the rest of the winners.

Click here to see all of the finalists.

January 16, 2024

A Retrospective 

2023 was another great year for diverse picture books!  Statistics say the numbers are growing--still not great, but moving the right direction. That is partly why I had a hard time narrowing this list down... and it is still very long. The widget below and the Bookshop site have my top 50, but here, I'll focus on my favorite in each of three categories:

-Board Book: My favorite board book from this year is Every Body which is from the First Conversation Series, led by Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli.  This one has great illustrations by Tequitia Anderws. Pointing out differences in bodies and celebrating them all, this book is another home run for this series. Made simple enough for board books, this series also includes questions for discussion, so you can read them with your babies, but they all also come in hardcover to read with your older ones!

-Silly Picture Book: Cindy and Panda are the best of friends-- which means they're great at making messes, getting mad, and forgiving one another.  This wonderfully cute, totally silly book written and illustrated by Benson Shum is sure to make you giggle!

-Serious Picture Book: I already swooned over The Great Banned-Books Bake Sale during Banned Books Week (click to read what I wrote in October), but it stayed a top favorite! Thank you for another wonderful book,  Aya Khalil and  Anait Semirdzhyan!

There were also a number of great picture books about grieving this year, so check out the Talking About Grief list, as it has been updated. The end of the Favorites list also has several non-fiction/biographical books that were standouts. Please check those out, too!


Just a reminder that any books purchased through the links above will give a small commission back to the work of Teaching Cultural Compassion.