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It is important to introduce your students (or own bilingual children) to diverse people and perspectives from a young age. Making sure they know that everyone is different in their own special way is a very important lesson in life. Young kids need to hear a variety of stories about different being different and unique and accepting everyone how they are.
Below we have compiled a list of books in Spanish that you could use in your bilingual classroom or with bilingual children that all touch on topics of diversity, inclusion and being different or unique.
1.Amor By Matt de la Pena
Amor a beautiful book published in 2018 is a poetic story of all the places that we can find love.
2. Crisantemo By Kevin Henkes
A story about a student with a long unique name that learns to love her name by the end of the story even though other kids made fun of it.
3. Ultima parada en la calle Market By Matt de la Pena
A story about a boy that wonders why his family doesn’t own a car.
4. Wonder. Todos somos únicos By R.J. Palacio
The story of a child with a different face than most people and the lesson he and the people around him learn. This is a picture book and great for the students that aren’t yet ready to read the chapter book version of this story. Many kids have seen this movie, so they might be familiar with the story.
5. The Noisy Little Rooster / El gallito ruidoso By Carmen Agra Deedy
The story of a rooster that would not be quiet even though the new rules prohibited him from making noise.
6. Ella persistió: 13 mujeres americanas que cambiaron el mundo By Chelsea Clinton
Short biographies about 13 important American women that changed the U.S and/or the world.
7. El monstruo rosa By Olga de Dios Ruiz
About a pink monster that has been different since the day she was born.
8. Ni Guau ni Miau By Blanca Lacasa
The story of a dog acts differently than other dogs because on the inside he feels like a cat.
9. El día en que descubres quién eres By Jacqueline Woodson
This story is about a girl that immigrates to the US and discovers what it is like to be different from the other people around her.
10. Lola By Junot Diaz
Lola attends a very diverse school in New York. Her teacher assigns students to make a project about each students country but Lola doesn’t remember her island because she came to the US when she was a baby. She has to talk to other people in her family/neighborhood to find out the good and bad or her island so that she can do her school project
Hopefully, you will be able to use one of these books in Spanish to spark a discussion or start a unit on inclusion or diversity in your bilingual classroom.
