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Readers Recommend a Diverse Children’s Bookshelf

Favorites about race, protest, and non-white protagonists.

Credit...Covers: Simon and Schuster; Penguin Random House; HarperCollins

As unrest over the killing of black Americans and police brutality continued across the country, Jessica Grose, the lead editor of NYT Parenting, asked experts how to talk about the protests with kids. In the interest of keeping an open dialogue about racism, she heard from pediatricians and childhood psychologists about the importance of making sure your home library has books with black people at the center of their stories. To start, children’s book authors and Times staffers gave us their favorites. We also heard from nearly a hundred readers with more recommendations of books that their kids have loved over the years.

Here are 12 of the most popular suggestions we received, including books with black protagonists, plots centered on racism and activism, and beloved gems by black authors.

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Credit...Simon and Schuster

Parents and children will recognize the struggle of pleading with a baby (“Go back to bed, not on your HEAD!”, the narrator implores), as told by award-winning filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife, the producer Tonya Lewis Lee.

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Credit...HarperCollins

This board book focuses on three tiny playmates — Little Guy, Little Pumpkin and Little Bird — and the adults who take care of them.

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Credit...HarperCollins

This rhyming board book counts down through bedtime rituals, until “one big girl” is ready for sleep.

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Credit...Penguin Random House

As a little boy rides the bus across town with his grandma every Sunday after church, he asks her a series of questions about their city and circumstances.

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Credit...Penguin Random House

The classic picture book tells the story of a sentient teddy bear wandering through a department store in search of a missing button, and the little girl who eventually gets to bring him home.

Younger readers (particularly those who might need a little encouragement come bath time) will relish this rhyming board book about washing tiny toes and quacking rubber ducks.

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Credit...Simon and Schuster

Lupita Nyong’o, the Oscar-winning actress, tells the story of a girl with “skin the color of midnight,” darker than everyone else in her family, who takes a journey into the night sky.

When the mother of the central family goes out for the evening, the kids are left to bicker among themselves — until Dad swoops in with a round of goofy games.

An illustrated account of the 1963 March on Washington can help put the moment into historical context and explain the power of protest movements throughout time.

One of the most frequently recommended books among our readers, “Ada Twist, Scientist” focuses on an especially curious second-grade scientist and the experiments she embarks on.

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Credit...Penguin Random House

“There will be times when you walk into a room, and there is no one quite like you,” Woodson writes in this lyrical book for early readers.

“Where are all the girls?” asks the title character as she embarks on an illustrated journey to become the first female president of the United States — starting with participating in her elementary school’s mock election.

Dani Blum is a news assistant on the Parenting desk. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2018. More about Dani Blum

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