SHADES OF PEOPLE

Author and photographer join forces again in this photographic essay on skin color. Having previously tackled family members, feelings and faiths (May Ways: How Families Practice Their Beliefs and Religions, 2006, etc.), they now showcase—in full color—many smiling, appealing, friendly, loving, creative, thoughtful, hugging, eye-catching young ones. The connection, rather than the difference, is that all these children are many different shades, “not colors, exactly…. / There’s creamy, ivory, / sandy and peach, / coffee, cocoa, / copper and tan.” And all of this is “our covering, like wrapping paper.” The authors take care to state explicitly that “you can’t tell what someone is like from the color of their skin.” Children of many different ethnicities are here, sometimes in the same family. It’s a heartwarming effort that teachers and families can embrace and will doubtless find its way into many a curriculum on celebrating difference. (Picture book. 3-6)