I recently had the pleasure of meeting the lovely Felicia Steves-Niles and was thrilled to learn that she was not only a cool mom, but a cool mom who ran her own cool online shop which sucked me into a marathon browsing session.
Update: this site is no longer in existence. Please see our archives for other resources for diversity in children’s books.
Nairobi’s Knapsack features a nice little selection of stuff for kids with an multicultural bent. There’s a sweet array of toys and dolls beyond what you’ll find in the local Tar-zhay, although what really anchors the shop is the virtual bookshelf.
You’ll find award-winning titles like Ellington Was Not a Street from poet Ntozake Shange, but particularly appealing to me are the fairy tales reinterpreted and modernized to feature children of color, like Kadir Nelson’s Hewitt Anderson’s Great Big Life (which will look familiar to Jack and the Beanstalk fans,) and Patricia Storace’s Sugar Cane: A Carribean Rapunzel Story.
The extra-cool part? Your kid will enjoy these stories no matter what color they are. Imagine that.
