Six books for talking with your child about race, racism, and what's fair. Pick the one that fits your child's age and whatever has actually come up, or read only ever the one. Every book here says what it contains up front: a fence through a segregated town, doors that won't open on a road trip, a child turned away from a school, police dogs turned on child marchers, the small daily sting of being the only Black boy in the room, a police officer shooting a Black man and two families answering their children about it. Nothing here tells your family what to think. They give your child something true to hold and you something to say back.
Every book here covers a full, distinct subject, so any single one does the job. Pick by your child's age and by what's actually come up in your house. If your child asked a question about something on the news, Something Happened in Our Town is the closest thing to a script anybody has written. If your child is six and you want to start with the shape of the thing rather than the news, The Other Side is a fence and two girls and about two hundred words. If they want to know what segregation actually was, day to day, Ruth and the Green Book is a car trip where nobody will let a family stop, and Separate Is Never Equal is a girl sent to the shabbier school and a family that took it to court. If they're old enough to hear what standing up cost, Let the Children March is the week in 1963 when the children marched because their parents would have lost their jobs. And if your child is eleven and would rather chew glass than read a Book About Race, New Kid is a funny graphic novel about a boy who loves drawing, and it gets there anyway. Read the heads-up on whichever one you're reaching for. They're different weights, and they're not interchangeable.