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Today we turn our attention to picture books for kids in 31 Days of Learning. We have the Tattooed Tea Lady guesting today to give us some ideas for inclusive picture books to help teach kids kindness and compassion. As a self-confessed bookworm from a young age myself, ensuring my children grew up to appreciate books and grow their own love for literature, was hugely important for me.
Over the years we have been lucky enough to build an extensive at-home library, not only as I seem completely unable to resist beautiful books, but I am firmly of the belief that you can never have too many books! Encouraging a love of reading can be the most wonderful thing you do for a child as they grow up and I have made sure to read to my children everyday, from their very first day.
Inclusive picture books for kids
Thankfully, it has ensured that my children look forward to reading, explore their bookshelves enthusiastically and independently, and with a few of our favourites, have also gone on to learn valuable information about the world and all within it. Their books cover all the usuals you’d expect to find in a children’s library, from books about all every kind of animal, to underwater adventures, being brave and battling dragons, favourite characters and lots of children’s classics from my own childhood, stories I still treasure today and take great joy in sharing with my own children now I am an adult.
Whilst I love books about adventurous rabbits and troublesome elephants, I am spending more time expanding on the books within our at-home library that are inclusive; books which feature a range of abilities and disabilities, which are diverse in their representation of the wonderful mix of cultures and ethnicities we have in this world, books which include different belief systems, promote intersectional feminism and books which are LGBTQ+ inclusive.
You can make your reading list inclusive at any age, with books for babies to toddlers, young children and older. There is, thankfully, now much more diversity in books, from the characters and stories within books, to the writers, illustrators and teams behind creating a book from scratch, compared to when I was a young child myself. Now, you can find inclusive books online retailers big and small, as well as your favourite highstreet booksellers. It’s worth checking your local library, too!
An ABC of Equality
Some of our favourites include An ABC of Equality, which is great for those starting their ABC’s but also fab for older children, as it gives them the opportunity to learn words they may not encounter among their friends, as well as learning the meanings behind those words. It’s also a really fun book to read, as the illustrations throughout are creative and lovely to look at.
The Girls
The Girls is a favourite story of ours because it shares the importance of friendship, of supporting your friends through ups and downs, whilst including different ethnicities, disabilities, and same-sex family representation.
We also love Look Up!, Little Leaders: Visionary Women Around the World, and A is for Activist. The Little People, Big Dreams book series is particularly lovely, too.
The benefits of inclusive books
Inclusive children’s books are an easy way to introduce little ones to important topics surrounding equality and inclusivity; not only does it represent these topics in a normalised way, but it opens up the conversation and allows you to discuss with your children any questions they might have, expanding on that curiosity and knowledge outside of their reading, too.
Children are never too young to learn how to be kind, compassionate and accepting of others, and inclusive picture books are a lovely way to brighten any child’s world, whilst allowing a lot of children to see themselves in the stories for the first time.
We think these books are a perfect start for kids on their journey to help understand diversity, and to appreciate kindness and compassion from an early age. We have other great reading resources on the site too, why not take a look?
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If you like this article and the others in this series and beyond, why not subscribe to KiddyCharts for more printable and parenting resources?
Thanks again for stopping by.
Helen
Sophia Ford
Sophia is a 30-something mother of two, Psychology graduate and avid tea drinker. Editor and founder of Tattooed Tealady, now in its 8th year, Sophia's content focuses on beauty, parenting and lifestyle.
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