There’s been a fabulous meme running around twitter for a little while now, with lots of people tweeting the reasons #WeNeedDiverseBooks.
It made me think about what I’m offering the children in their picture books. So when I was idly flicking through a pile in a charity shop I was pleased to pick up some slightly more varied ones.
There was Arion and the Dolphin – has an ancient civilisation vibe to it, with Arion the musician begging leave to sail from Corinth to Sicily for a competition which he wins, then being thrown overboard by the sailors who want his money on the way home. He’s rescued by a dolphin, but it doesn’t end well for the aquatic mammal, and we had (lots of) tears at bedtime. Oops.
Handa’s surprise much better. Lovely story of Handa packing the basket on her head with a variety of fruit to take to her friend. But when she gets there, it’s Handa who gets the surprise.
There were a couple more as well, but I can’t reach them from here, and we haven’t read them yet, so I won’t go into them.
We also got a great selection of books sent over by Amber from the Mile Long Bookshelf – mostly unsolicited review copies that aren’t quite her cup of tea. Today we read Hedgehugs and Princess Stay awake. I like the Hedgehugs, apart from the one completely stereotyped page (when Horace is busy, Hatty puts on a tutu and dances in the bluebells, when Hatty is busy, Horace searches for spiders in the woods. Really??) and absolutely adore the fabric style pictures.
Princess Stay Awake didn’t do much for me, but Smallest enjoyed it. Although I could do without her getting any more ideas about postponing bedtime.
I’m aware that we’ve not had a proper 300 picture book update for a little while. I will try to schedule that in. Milly Molly Mandy is still eating most of our bedtime slots – she had to have a chapter to recover after the Arion fiasco 🙁 Must track down the next book, we’re perilously near the end of the first one now. I know we have it though.
Got any suggestions of diverse picture books for me?
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