Resources and Book Recommendations

Raising Race Concious Children offers resources to adults to talk with young children about race with the goal of dismantling the color-blind framework and laying the groundwork for young people to work towards racial justice. We Stories challenges white famlies to rethink race and step forward towards the movement for racial justice. Though localized to the St. Louis region, their website models an approach to integrating anti-racism practices in parenting. Learning for Justice offers insight from a teaching perspective, including lessonplans and activities for a wide array of social justice issues Embrace Race's vision statement says it all: "Let’s Raise a Generation of Children Who Are Thoughtful, Informed, and Brave About Race." Along with sharing insights and knowledge, their team hosts informative webinars on various topics which are also available for viewing after the fact. A pretty great resource from pretty good design with resources for kids and parents alike.

Gender Spectrum works to create gender sensitive and inclusive environments for all children and teens, and offers a repository of filterable resources based on need. Amy Poehler's Smart Girls organization, hosted on Medium, is dedicated to helping young people cultivate their authentic selves. The Gender Unicorn is a cool graphic developed by Trans Student Educational Resources, (2015) which helps to differentiate between gender identity, gender expression, sex assigned at birth, sexual attraction and romantic attraction.

Cath Hakanson's website, Sex Ed Rescue offers resources to speak with your children "with less cringe and more confidence, and empower them to (one day) make smart sexual decision" and includes wonderful resources including book lists sorted by age.

5 Things every kid should know about Disability - Raising anti-Ableist kids - A four-series blog post offrring insight into how to teach your kids about disability inclusion, how to know what to look for in books fostering equality for kids with disabilities, how to spot ableist tropes, and offering some awesome picture book recommendations to get started. Learn what to look for in kids books fostering equity for kids with disabilities – and how to spot ableist tropes.

Local (to Switzerland) activist and author Louise Gooding is destigmatizing conversations around neurodiversity. Her blog post "Why there is a need for more own-voice neurodivergent representation in KidLit" is a great starting point. Louise also offers a PHENOMENAL reading list of books that expand our understanding of physical and neurological diversity. You can access that PDF here

We Need Diverse Books™ is a non-profit, grassroots organization of children’s book lovers that advocates essential changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people. A go-to resources for building a robust and diverse library for your family. Baobab Books is my go-to publisher in Switzerland (Basel-based) for finding diverse authors and children's books. While their catalogue is mostly in German, you can also find bi- and multi-lingual versions of many of the stories. Especially wonderful for promoting "own voice" storytelling and for beautifully designed picture books! My Favorite Books (coming soon!)