BOOKS: (There are many memoirs and thoughtful books about race available. These talk specifically about childhood but are just a beginning of what is there.)

• “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” and Other Conversations About Race, by Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D. (Basic Books, 1997)
• The Black Girl Next Door (A Memoir), by Jennifer Baszile (Touchstone, 2009)
• Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, by Barack Obama (Three Rivers Press, 1995)
• The Year of the Dog, by Grace Lin (Little, Brown and Company, 2006) – A novelized memoir.

WEB ARTICLES:

• Straight Talk on Race: Challenging the Stereotypes in Kids’ Books, by Mitali Perkins, School Library Journal (April 1, 2009)
• Mary Anne Mohanraj Gets You Up To Speed, Part II, by Mary Anne Mohanraj (John Scalzi’s Whatever blog, Mar. 13, 2009)
• “I Don’t See Color, Kids Are Just Kids”, by Tanisha Davis-Doss, Connections: the Journal of the National School Reform Faculty (Fall, 2006)
• Shame, by Pam Noles, The Infinite Matrix (Jan. 4, 2006)
• I Didn’t Dream of Dragons, by Deepa D. (Livejournal blog, Jan. 13, 2009)
• It’s not like choosing the color of her hair, by A.C.E. Bauer (In the Rabbit Hole, July 2008)
• What’s the Story? Reflections on White Privilege in the Publication of Children’s Books, by Laura Atkins (Roehampton University, London, July 2009)

CHILDREN’S BOOKS READING LISTS: (Some lists are within websites.)

• Cynthia Leitich Smith’s website
• The Brown Bookshelf
• American Indians in Children’s Literature
• Oyate
• Celebrating Cultural Diversity Through Children’s Literature
• Library Thing shelftalker

GRAPHIC NOVELS: (This is a sampling.)

• American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang (First Second, 2006) – Trials of a Chinese American boy in a white suburb, intertwined with the story of the Monkey King.
• Aya, by Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie (Drawn and Quarterly, 2007) – Life of an Ivory Coast teenage girl in 1970.
• Chess Rumble, by G. Neri and Jesse Joshua Watson (Lee & Low Books Inc., 2007) – An African American boy in the inner-city finds stability with chess.
• Exit Wounds, by Rutu Modan (Drawn and Quarterly, 2008) – Tracking down a bombing victim in Israel.
• Good As Lily, by Derek Kirk Kim and Jesse Hamm (Minx, 2007) – A Korean American teenage girl meets herself at three different ages.
• Incognegro: A Graphic Mystery, by Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece (Vertigo, 2008) – A northern black man goes down south to prevent a lynching in the early 1930s.
• Kampung Boy, by Lat (First Second, 2006) – Life of a Muslim boy in Malaysia.
• Love & Rockets, miscellaneous compilations and titles by Jaime, Gilbert and Mario Hernandez (Fantagraphics Books) – Multifaceted stories of Chicanas and Mexicans over generations.
• Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, by Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon, 2003) – Growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.
• Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, by Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon, 2003) – Sequel following main character’s travails abroad and return to Iran.
• The Rabbi’s Cat, by Joann Sfar (Pantheon, 2005) – Jewish life in Algeria in the 1930s, as narrated by a talking cat.
• Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms, by Fumiyo Kuono (Last Gasp, 2007) – Tale of Hiroshima bomb survivors over several generations.