Multicultural Literature
Bibliography
This bibliography was developed by Dr. Nancy Hansen Krening, Associate Professor in the College of Education at the University of Washington in Seattle. Nancy is also a professor at the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington.
Nancy teaches courses in
multicultural education as well as courses in children's
literature. She is committed to bringing the superior
quality of
literature written by authors of color to all
students, and to enriching
the lives of all children through making those
voices, those stories part
of each student's daily life.
This bibliography of books by
authors of color will start you off in your search for literature
that portrays protagonists as heroes and not victims.
Reading these stories to children and encouraging children to
read these books empowers them. It is important that
children see people in books who look like them and read stories
by authors who belong to the cultural group with which they
identify.
The literature has been
categorized by culture only for convenience. We do not
believe in singling out ethnic groups; however, teachers have
requested that the books be sorted in this fashion. The
following codes will help you as you skim through the
bibliography: EL = elementary level; MS = middle school; HS
= high school. Books tell the stories of people from the
following various ethnic groups:
Asian Pacific Americans/Multicultural Crosscultural