Importance of Diversity in Children's Literature

       I believe it is extremely important to incorporate stories including diversity in your classroom library. Children's literature involving diversity not only gives students the opportunity to see life from another perspective, but helps them develop good character education as well. Diversity in children's literature can include cultural diversity, religious diversity, aging, gender equity, exceptionalities, language, social diversity, and family structures. Here are some benefits of using diversity in children's literature in the classroom found in my Children's Literacy Textbook, The Joy of Children's Literature:

• It connects children to the world by exposing them to diverse viewpoints other than the mainstream
• It fosters awareness, appreciation, and understanding of people who are different from and similar to themselves
• It promotes critical inquiry into issues of equal representation of how people of diverse cultures are depicted in all book.

Here are the top 10 diversity read alouds found in The Job of Children's Literature:

• El Barrio by Debbi Chocolate
• Faith by Maya Ajmera
• I Lost My Tooth in Africa by Penda Diakite
• Jazzy Miz Mozetta by Brenda Roberts
• Only One Year by Andrea Cheng
• Poems to Dream Together by Francisco X. Alacron
• Rickshaw Girl by Mitali Perkins
• Saltypie: A Choctaw Journey from Darkness into Light by Tim Tingle
• Uncle Peter's Amazing Chinese Wedding by Lenore Look
• We by Alice Schertle 

 Johnson, D. (2009). The joy of children's literature. (2 ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.