I found this book at the thrift store last week so I HAD to snatch it. The first two pages: "Have you noticed that people come in many different shades? Not colors exactly, but shades."
My girls consider me peach and they call themselves brown. My youngest wants to be peach in the worst way, but I tell her I would love to be a lovely brown like she is. I explain to her how most peach people lay out in the sun so they can get browner.
We were at our Ethiopian church a few years ago and the children's teacher explained to the children that we are not black and white. She held up examples and asked if she were as dark as black, and if I was as white as the white paper she held up. They responded no and that is where they got the brown and peach idea.
Keep your eyes open for little gems like this book. They're great to show your kids that people come in all shades and can look very different from one another, but w're all people!
This is an Editorial Review that was on Amazon.
Shades of People
Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 1—This book is filled with
wonderful photographs of happy, smiling, inquisitive, trusting, and adorable
children—all with varying skin tones, hair colors and textures, and facial
features. "Have you noticed that people come in many different shades?" is the
opening sentence, accompanied by framed head shots of youngsters. It is followed
on the next page by, "Not colors, exactly, but shades." The text is minimal,
with approximately 3 to 10 words per page. The last page features a large
photograph of eight little hands of varying shades. The message is clear and to
the point: "Our skin is just our covering, like wrapping paper. And, you can't
tell what someone is like from the color of their skin." A good introduction to
racial and ethnic diversity.—Mary N. Oluonye, Shaker Heights Public Library,
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