Read It: Moon of the Crusted Snow

Taking place in an Anishinaabe community in Northern Ontario, Moon of the Crusted Snow tells the story of a man learning, growing, and finding his place within his community in a time of immense uncertainty (this is very vague, but I don't want to give away any details!). 

I would be lying if I said this wonderfully written, thrilling novel from Waubgeshig Rice didn't have me on the edge of my seat the whole time. It is one of only a few times in my life that I have read so quickly and urgently. I also liked that it gave me a window to a part of Canada that I know nothing about, especially because it gave me a little taste of Anishinaabe culture (the language is peppered throughout the book) and life on a reservation.

I never knew what was coming next, or even what to expect from certain characters (and I'm usually pretty good a figuring things out or finding patterns). I have so many questions about the book, but am very excited to have just found out that there will be a sequel that, upon learning about it, cleared up some of those questions.

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Talking about Racism with Children: Four Good Books to Start the Discussion

Don't Touch My Hair by Sharee Miller

Just over a year ago, my partner at work and I realised that we needed to do some teaching about our differences, especially skin colour, and talk about how we don't treat people differently based on the fact that they look different from ourselves. 

I went crazy in the book store trying to find books that were age appropriate (for 4-5 year-olds) that mentioned differences and made them into a positive thing. We wanted the books to spark a conversation so we could talk about the colours of our skin and teach the children that it is not okay to exclude people simply because of their skin colour.

The books that I found were We're Different, We're The Same and Happy in Our Skin. In the year and a half that I first purchased them, I have revisited them many times as we've had to circle back to this discussion time and again (it will never go away). 

Since then, I have been able to find more books at the library, including Don't Touch My Hair (a fantastic book about respecting people's bodies) and She Persisted (while not about race specifically, there are African American women mentioned in the book that started a discussion about slavery and race with my son).

**Please do not think that children do not see colour, because colour is exactly what they see. Their minds have the need to categorize things at this age, and unless we teach them that the categories they have created are incorrrect, they will stay that way. 

These four books have created a discussion both with my preschoolers and with my son at home. I highly recommend them if you are looking for books to start the discussion with your own little ones. However, this is an incredibly small list, and could use some improvement. 

Social Justice Books is an incredible resource that provides more than 60 carefully curated lists of multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults and educators. I learned about them from Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D on the Sesame Street/CNN racism town hall.

We're Different, We're The Same by Bobbi Kates and Joe Mathieu

She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger

Happy in Our Skin by Fran Manushkin and Lauren Tobia

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My 2-Year-Old's Favourite Books

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7

As the Little Boy has grown, so has his love of books. He has gone from having only a slight interest in what we were reading to him to attempting to interact with the characters in the books and reading the books to himself using his memory. For the last year, these seven books have been among his favourites. Right now the Little Boy is absolutely in love with all things Curious George.

Do your children enjoy some of these books as well? And, if you haven't read any of these books, I highly recommend all of them!

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