Diversity – Suggested Readings (tons available on this topic!)
Easy Books for Everybody
If the World were a Village…… Armstrong – great book for diversity!
Tico and the Golden Wings – Leo Lionni All Tico the wingless bird wants is a pair of golden wings to carry him up over the mountaintops. But when Tico's wish is granted, none of his friends will talk to him. What's so wrong with being different?
Little Blue and Little Yellow A little blue spot and little green spot are friends and when they hug each other they become green.
Pink and Say – Polacco Say describes his meeting with Pinkus, a black soldier during the Civil War and their capture by Southern troops.
Fiction (numerous titles—this is a sample):
First Crossing – Stories about teen immigrants, ed. By Don Gallo (2003)
145th Street –Stories, Walter Dean Myers (inner city life in Harlem)
Ties That Bind, Ties that Break –Namioka Ailen, a Chinese girl in 1911, refuses to have her feet bound and faces disgrace by her family and society.
Shizuko’s Daughter. Mori, Kyoko After her mother's suicide when she is twelve years old, Yuki spends years living with her distant father and his resentful new wife, cut off from her mother's family, and relying on her own inner strength to cope with the tragedy
When my name was Keoko -- Inspired by the author’s own family's stories of living in South Korea during the Japanese occupation in the years preceding World War II.
Bronx Masquerade – Nikki Grimes (2002) – students in the Bronx reveal their innermost thoughts through poems
The Brave – Robert Lipsyte Having left the Indian reservation for the streets of New York, 17 yr old boxer Sonny Bear tries to harness his inner rage.
Because it is Bitter, and because it is my heart – Joyce Carol Oates – In a small town divided by race in the 50’s, a young African-American basketball player risks his life to protect a white girl.
A step from Heaven - An Na When she is five, Ju and her family move from Korea to California.
Nonfiction:
Black Elk Speaks acclaimed story of Lakota visionary and healer Nicholas Black Elk (1863-1950) and his people during the momentous, twilight years of the 19th century.
Black Like Me John Howard Griffin's groundbreaking experiences as a white man who transforms himself with the aid of medication and dye in order to experience firsthand the life of a black man living in the Deep South in the late 1950s is a mesmerizing tale of the ultimate sociological experiment.
Getting Away with Murder:Story of the Emmett Till Case – Chris Crowe (2003) – account of the murder of the 14 year old in 1955 in Mississippi.
Farewell to Manzanar-Jeanne Wakatsuki was seven years old in 1942 when her family was uprooted from their home and sent to live at Manzanar internment camp--with 10,000 other Japanese Americans Good companion to Snow Falling on Cedars novel or video.
Ency. of Multiculturalism (2 volumes) includes chapters on Amish, Arab Americans, Cambodian Americans, etc. – over 100 ethnic groups and their customs and contributions to society.
Opposing Viewpoints-this series has articles that show both sides to issues – good for classroom debate/discussion:
Illegal Immigration Race Relations
Culture Wars Male/Female Roles
Quotes:
We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the treads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color. ~ Maya Angelou
Toward no crimes have men shown themselves so cold-bloodedly cruel as in punishing differences of belief ~ James Russell Lowell
The real death of America will come when everyone is alike. ~James T. Ellison
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