Besides a lot of the classic children's books (goodnight moon and stuff) I'm looking to get some left leaning children's books. Stuff with like a pro-union/anti-capitalist/anti-fascist slant. I'm also queer so LGBTQ children's books recommendations would be welcome, I didn't have anything like that when I was growing up and I probably would have appreciated it.

  • bubbalu [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Was thrown into being a pre-k teacher for while with a similar goal as you! Here were the ones I liked the most out of my school's library. I couldn't afford to buy my own books, but there are actually a lot of great themes in most children's books that you can expand upon with just a little effort. A lot of the learning that comes from storybooks comes from discussion and questions during and after reading. The resonance of the symbols, characters, and stories is the most important thing in my opinion. Little guys don't hold onto didactic explanations that well, but if you get them to feel a certain way about a story and its lesson that will stick.

    Really really recommend 'The Giving Tree' which is a parable about greed and our relationship with nature. You can have really good conversations with kids starting around 4 about greed and how we should treat the Earth. The beings and objects children are willing to ascribe consciousness to is very wide. You can help them generalize from the tree's love for the little boy to the whole Earth's love for all of us, and then get them to think about how they can love the Earth! I got my little guys excited to pick up litter after discussing Giving Tree.

    Todd Parr's 'The Family Book' is incredibly colorful and fun and is casually gay inclusive. I had a lot of students who lived in multigenerational households, and a lot of students whose families lived overseas. This book normalizes that in really simple terms for kids and let them tell each other about how their families worked in a safe way. The framing provided by the story made acceptance the assumption and it went real well. All of Parr's stuff is great for little guys but 'The Earth Book' is very lib-brained.

    'Star Belly Sneetches' is a wonderful parable about racism, the hollowness of consumer identity, and how social categories are (in the book literally) printed onto us by capitalism.

    • DBVegas [any, comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Thanks, I loved the Giving Tree growing up. Definitely don't want to forget getting that, I'll check out the others as well :hexbear-retro:

      • bubbalu [they/them]
        ·
        1 year ago

        I actually never heard of these before! In general, I think books with a simple and continuous story, or ones that repeat or explore a simple theme a number of times are best. Examples of the first are 'the Little Engine That Could' and 'the Giving Tree'. Examples of the later are 'I love you Stinky Face' which features a child asking their mother 'would you still love me if I was (gross thing)' and their mother telling how she would care for them, and 'The Family Book' which colorfully normalizes lots and lots of different ways families can be (big, small, straight, gay, in one house, separated by borders).

        Things with no throughline like the classic readers 'See Spot Run.' stuff I have a harder time making lessons out of because there isn't enough substance to incorporate.