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Children's and Young Adult Literature: Multicultural books

Appreciating differences...

globe"Literature can serve as a bridge to awareness and understanding and help students make intercultural connections. Opening their eyes and their minds requires helping them discern the similarities  among cultures while learning to appreciate the differences. Multicultural books that assist students in seeing the "commonalities across cultures...play an important role in helping students cross cultural borders" (Cai, 2002, p. 121). When students reading about diverse cultures discover similarities with their own, they begin to look beyond the differences and take a step toward appreciating the cultural connectedness of all humanity."

Landt, S. M. (2006). Multicultural literature and young adolescents: A kaleidoscope of opportunity. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 49(8), 690-697.

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International Children's Books

International Children's Digital Library is a free library with access to children's ebooks in over 60 languages.

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Locating multicultural children's books

Fiction featuring:  African-Americans   Black Canadians   Chinese-Americans   Chinese-Canadians  Japanese-Americans   Japanese-Canadians   Indo-Americans   Indo-Canadians   Immigrants  

Fiction set in:  Afghanistan   China   France   Ghana   Guatemala   Haiti   India   Iraq   Italy   Kenya   Korea   Mexico   South Africa   Switzerland   Taiwan   Tanzania  Vietnam

*Hint: To locate additional multicultural titles in the Library Catalogue, combine any country or cultural group with the heading juvenile fiction. Example: Germany - juvenile fiction.

*Note: For First Nations, Inuit, and Métis fiction, please refer to the Indigenous Children's Literature section of this guide.