African American Literature: Books to Stoke Dreams

In addition to market forces, unconsciously damaging trends in many textbooks for teacher education have resulted in classroom trade book collections that represent children who are primarily white and middle class. While all children—whether from Argentina, Afghanistan, or Algeria—deserve to see themselves and their families in books, the focus of this article is on new publications that depict African Americans. Teachers who are committed to learning all they can about multicultural literature and culturally and gender relevant pedagogy become agents of change. Includes significant bibliography of Resources and list of Children’s Literature That Picture Children of African Descent