Authors Melissa Cummings-Quarry and Natalie A. Carter know that growing up as a girl is often difficult, but growing up as a Black girl can be much more challenging. Grown, their carefully curated and lovingly crafted guide, is an educational and fun book aimed at teaching young Black girls (and other girls of colour) how to navigate the different challenges they may face.
Who has not been embarrassed by their parents? The Dressing-Up Dad by Maudie Smith and Paul Howard introduces a dad who loves to dress up. His young son Danny and he dress up as a chicken, a rocket or a pirate and have a great time together. But Danny is getting older, and he starts to wonder if it wouldn’t be better to have an ordinary dad.
From its opening acknowledgements and introduction, this book draws you in and demands that you take notice of every word. Part memoir, part poetry, part polemic of the life she was forced to live, Rosaleen McDonagh’s extraordinary debut is a rich and complex portrayal of one woman’s life in modern Ireland.
Angie Thomas’s début novel is warm, empathic and timely. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is the story of a young woman coming of age in two worlds, the warm yet troubled community she was raised in and that of the largely white private school she attends. When she witnesses her unarmed friend Khalil shot and killed by a police officer, Starr finds herself at a crossroads. Should she remain silent and keep safe as tensions escalate? Or should she speak out against racism and police corruption?
Inspired by real-life events that saw three British Muslim schoolgirls leave their lives behind to become brides of ISIS, this outstanding début interrogates religious extremism and what it really means to be both British and Muslim.
Piecing Me Together is a thought-provoking and engrossing novel about a young teenager, Jade, who describes herself as one of those girls ‘with coal skin and hula-hoop hips’ brought up to ‘take opportunities every chance we get’. Raised in New Columbia, one of the poorer areas of Portland, Oregon (the author’s native city), Jade, a bright, creative girl with a particular interest in learning new languages and the arts, certainly does avail, or at least is encouraged to avail, of many opportunities.
Hari and his Electric Feet is the latest offering from celebrated author Alexander McCall Smith. It is the story of an Indian boy bringing joy to others through the medium of dance.
The Free To Be Me reading guide celebrates diversity, representation and inclusion in books for children and young people aged 0–18, to ensure equity and visibility, so that all children can see themselves reflected and celebrated in the books they read and in the stories and images they hear and see and are offered equality of participation in all aspects of their cultural lives. In the Free To Be Me reading guide you will find over 360 carefully selected books broken down by age, and each with a ‘read also', a suggestion of another excellent title to read.
Published in 2021, this themed reading guide highlights books that celebrate diversity, representation and inclusion for children and young people aged 0–18. The Free to Be Me reading guide promotes equity and visibility of diverse stories in both school and public libraries, bookshops and shelves in the home. Every child has the right to be free to be themselves.
This delightful picturebook by author– illustrator Emma Dodd is a sweet and gentle celebration of the wonderful person that is, well … me! In rhyming verse, the reader thanks each part of their body: toes for wiggling, mouth for giggling and so on. The take-home message is: with all of these wonderful parts that my body has, I should be very happy to be me.
