My school always makes a big effort for Harmony Week and Harmony Day, whereas I do think it should be every day. That aside, our school library has a very diverse collection of picture books suitable for 3 to 8 year olds and when I am purchasing books or planning wish lists I do have specific things I look for. I want the book to be representative of the school population and the population beyond the school. I ensure that things such as the main characters' gender, ethnicity and values are in line with what we want to espouse. I find the website for Inclusive Children's Books for Children particularly helpful for this. They have put together age appropriate booklists and then for each book on the list they have listed the criteria that pertains to the book. They use great criteria such as, 'own voice'; 'challenges stereotypes'; 'disabled representation' and 'female lead'.
Another source I use for decision making is the Empathy Lab booklists. The books they list for the year, together with lists from other years means that you will have a very inclusive and diverse set of books to choose from on days like these.
I have just been putting a bundle of books together for my Preschool and Kindergarten classes. This is what I put in the pile. They all address diversity, empathy, inclusion and harmony.
• Wide Big World by Maxine Beneba Clarke
• I'm Australian Too by Mem Fox
• Room on Our Rock by Jol and Kate Temple
• Everybody's Welcome and Everybody's Equal by Patricia Hegarty
• This Love by Isabel Otter
• Hello by Tony Flowers
• Same, but a Little Bit Diff'rent by Kylie Dunstan
• Mixed by Arree Chung
• Hello! A Counting Book of Kindness by Kurman Hollis
• We Are Together by Britta Teckentrup
• There's Room for Everyone by Anahita Teymorian
• All Are Welcome and We Are All Neighbours by Alexandra Penfold
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