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Diversity booklist for classroom reading
Books featuring people from a range of different backgrounds are often in the minority on classroom bookshelves. Below are some of our favourite books featuring people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. If we have missed any of your favourites please let us know!
Ages 2 - 5
Rocket's enthusiasm brings neighbours and family together to witness a once-in-a-lifetime sighting of a comet.
Ages 3 - 5
This rhyming picture book celebrates all the different, extraordinary and sometimes contradictory things we are.
Ages 3 - 5
This story is about two sisters first day of school and one's first day wearing the hijab.
Ages 3 - 6
When she was ten years old, Floella Benjamin, and her older sister and two younger brothers, set sail from Trinidad to London. Coming to England wasn't at all what Floella had expected. This is a true story with the powerful message that courage and determination can always overcome adversity.
Ages 3 - 7
The book features a girl inventor whose primary carer is her grandpa. It shows the character trying again and again.
Ages 3 - 7
This multicultural book shows life on the child’s street as they wait for their mum to come home from work.
Ages 3 - 7
This is a powerful, moving picture book about colorism, self-esteem, and learning that true beauty comes from within made to inspire children to see their own unique beauty.
Ages 4 - 7
Frustrated by a day full of teachers and classmates mispronouncing her beautiful name, a little girl tells her mother she never wants to go back to school. So her mother teaches her about the musicality of African, Asian, Black-American, Latinx, and Middle Eastern names on their lyrical walk home through the city.
Ages 4 - 7
Handa, who's part of the Luo tribe in southwest Kenya, decides to take seven pieces of delicious fruit to her friend, Akeyo, who lives in the neighbouring village.
Ages 4 - 8
This book set in New York is all about a girl who loves hula hooping.
Ages 5 - 7
Tender and empowering, Hair Love is an ode to loving your natural hair—and a celebration of daddies and daughters everywhere.
There is also a Hair Love animation available to watch.
Ages 5 - 8
This book profiles 24 women who took risks, acted up, broke barriers, and transformed the world.
Ages 5 - 8
Grace loves stories, whether they're from books, movies, or the kind her grandmother tells. When her school decides to perform Peter Pan, Grace longs to play the lead, but her classmates point out that Peter was a boy and he wasn't black.
Ages 8 - 11
This book offers a child's perspective on the refugee crisis, highlighting the importance of friendship and kindness in a world that doesn't always make sense.
Ages 8 - 12
Leonard is shocked when he arrives with his mother in the port of Southampton. His father is a stranger to him, it’s cold and the Jamaican food doesn’t taste the same as at home. Leonard does his best not to complain, to make new friends, to do well at school – even when people hurt him with their words and with their fists. (Due to be released Nov 5th 2020)
Ages 9 - 11
Feeling lost and alone in a strange new city, Leelu wishes she could fly away back home – her real home where her dad is, thousands of miles away.
Ages 9 - 12
It's 1944, and in a small, Southern, segregated town, eleven-year-old Ella spends her summers running wild with her cousins and friends. Ella visits Boston and sees what life outside of segregation is like, and begins to dream of a very different future. But her happiness is shattered when she returns home to the news that her classmate has been arrested for the murder of two white girls
The Tiny Activists instagram account is great for book ideas.
If you are interested in improving the gender balance in your book selection have a look at our combat harmful gender stereotypes with these children's books blog.
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FREE Mini-Scheme: Wassily Kandinsky
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FREE Mini-Scheme: Ocean Animals
Original price £0.00 - Original price £0.00Original price£0.00£0.00 - £0.00Current price £0.00This free Science Ocean Animals lesson plan pack contains three lessons to help your class identify and describe a variety of ocean animals from lo...
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FREE Mini-Scheme: Creating Paper Toys
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FREE Mini-Scheme: Exploring Paris
Original price £0.00 - Original price £0.00Original price£0.00£0.00 - £0.00Current price £0.00This free ‘Exploring Paris’ mini-scheme will take your class on a fun trip to one of the most famous cities in the world! Help your class to locate...
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Ancient Greece Topic
Original price £35.00 - Original price £35.00Original price£35.00 - £35.00£35.00 - £35.00Current price £35.00This fun and engaging KS2 Ancient Greece Topic for Year 5 and Year 6 will take your class back to one of the most fascinating civilisations in hist...
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