My last blog and the one before that highlighted books showing diverse families such as adoptive, interracial, stepparent, single parent, multigenerational. This blog will spotlight books that:
* look at diversity of abilities and disabilities as well as looks
*help kids deal with diverse feelings
I’ve recommended before—but can’t recommend highly enough—the Sesame Street book We’re Different, We’re the Same. Using Sesame’s Street’s trademark mixture of all kinds of people, animals, and friendly monsters, as well as kids’ favorite character Elmo as cameraman (camera-monster?), the book shows pictures of all different types of noses, eyes, skin color, body size and ability, and feelings. It shows how attributes may look different but have the same purpose: we all see with our eyes, we all smell with our noses (or beak, in Big Bird’s case), we all use our bodies to move, skin of various colors has the same function of protecting the internal body.
Friends at School is has gorgeous close-up photos of a class of schoolkids with different abilities and disabilities, such as blindness, Down Syndrome, and cerebral palsy. The kids follow a classroom routine that will be familiar to preschool and kindergarten students everywhere. Kids are shown using equipment such as a wheelchair, bus lift, white cane, crutches and helmet. The emphasis is on what the kids can do. Readers will gain a comforting familiarity with disabilities through the familiarity of the kids’ activities and feelings.
Joy Berry has published numerous children’s books dealing with problem-solving and feelings. Here I will mention two: Feeling Angry and Feeling Afraid. These deal with feelings many adopted kids can relate to. Each of these books features a simple narration about the feeling: what might trigger it, what it feels like to have it, ways not to deal with it (i.e. hurting others physically or verbally) and positive ways to soothe yourself, calm down, and/or talk to an adult.
Although not adoption-related, I also loved the book Let’s Talk About Wanting Attention, which dealt with jealousy of siblings and positive ways of asking parents for attention. Another Berry book is: Handling Your Ups and Downs.
Please see these related blogs:
Book Review: Families are Different