I had to stop at a bookseller’s today to pick up a gift for a friend. She’s expecting her second child and to me, the best gift is a book for the newborn as well as one for big sis! I was so excited to go looking for picture books, something I rarely enjoy anymore. I remember reading The Snowy Day, A Chair For My Mother, Tar Beach, Stories Julian Tells, Bringing the Rain to Kapita Plain, Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughter, A Chair For My Mother, Two Ways to Count to Ten and so many, many others to my children! I was so happy to find books with characters that looked like my babies and that led them to enjoy reading and I wanted my friend’s children to have the same delight!

O! I was so disappointed! What happened to all the books fo children of color? Now, the list I mentioned only reflected what was going on for my Black children. I know there were books for Asian and Latino children as well. Where are they?? Where are the multicultural folktales?? I really do think if I had visited the bookstore owned by own of my university instructors, I could have done better, but, that would have been a longer trip. Out of the way.And that could be an erroneous assumption.

So, what did I find? I found a couple of picture books about President Obama, and a couple by Whoopi Goldberg all of which would have been just too wordy for such a young child. I wanted something like the engaging and clever Mama Do You Love Me? that had cute baby animals and ended with a cute little curly haired blonde boy. What message would that send my friends child? No doubt, children should have a selection of books that represent the diversity of the world around them, but face it people: our corner of the world looks like us!

I saw a few books from my children’s day, Corduroy, and Snowy Day. There was Henry’s Freedom Box and I almost bought This Jazzman. I wanted to call Doret!  I was able to find Baby, Baby, Please and although I always have flashbacks to the movie when hear the title, that was the book. Simple. Warm. Loving. That’s what baby needs!

Big Sis got an I Can Read book about Michelle Obama.