Select language, opens an overlay
  • Topic Guide
  • Staff-Created List

Reading and talking about race and racism: grades 3-5 |from Multcolib Kids

Fiction and nonfiction books for grades 3, 4, 5 about prejudice, race, racism and anti-racism. Many of the titles are available as print books, ebooks, and downloadable audiobooks; click on a title to find all available formats.

Multnomah County Library

42 items

  • In Racism and Intolerance, children can get answers to questions like: "What does it mean to be a racist--or intolerant?" and "How can I help?" Children will begin to understand the way others struggle with these issues and become…
    BookHauppauge, NY : Barron's, 2018. — j Facts 305.8 S756r 2018
  • Grades K-4. The skin I'm in is just a covering. It cannot tell my story. The skin I'm in is just a covering. If you want to know who I am, you have got to come inside and open your heart way wide.
    BookNew York : Hyperion Books for Children, ©2004. — jE HOOKS
  • Grades K-4. A book about intersectionality that depicts the nuances of identity and embraces difference as a source of community.
    BookNew York City : Dottir Press, 2019. — jE JOHNSON 2019
  • A clear description of what racism is, how it makes people feel when they experience it, and how to spot it when it happens. This is one conversation that's never too early to start, and this book was written to be an introduction for kids…
    Book[United States] : [A Kids Book About, Inc.], [2019] — j Facts 305.8 M5337k 2019
  • Grades K-4. The first day of wearing hijab is important. It means being strong. With her new backpack and light-up shoes, Faizah knows the first day of school is going to be special. It's the start of a brand-new year, and best of all,…
    BookNew York ; Boston : Little, Brown and Company, 2019. — jE MUHAMMAD 2019
  • Grades 1-3. Rhyming text and photographs of children underscore the diversity which is America.
    UnknownNew York : Scholastic, [2003] — j Facts 305.23 S644i 2003
  • Grades 1-4. Traces the history of the inspiring anthem and explains how it has come to represent the right for equality and freedom around the world.
    BookNew York : Disney/Jump at the Sun Books, [2013] — j Facts 782.42162 L6683w 2013
  • Separate Is Never Equal

    Sylvia Mendez & Her Family's Fight for Desegregation

    Tonatiuh, Duncan,
    Grades 1-4. Almost 10 years before Brown vs. Board of Education, Sylvia Mendez and her parents helped end school segregation in California. An American citizen of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage who spoke and wrote perfect English,…
    BookNew York : Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2014. — j 379.263 T663s 2014
  • Separate Is Never Equal

    Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation

    Streaming Video[United States] : Dreamscape Media, LLC, 2014. — Hoopla Streaming Video
  • The Case for Loving

    the Fight for Interracial Marriage

    Alko, Selina,
    Grades 1-5. Imagine not being able to marry the person you loved, just because they were of a race different from your own. This is the story of one brave family who fought an unfair law, taking their case all the way to the Supreme Court
    BookNew York : Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., [2015] — j Facts 306.846 A415c 2015
  • Grades 1-5. The author shares his own story as he explores what makes each of us special. I am a story. So are you. So is everyone.
    BookNew York : HarperCollinsPublishers, [2005] — j 305.8 L642L 2005
  • Grades 1-5. Inspired by a true story, this is a tale of a community that banded together to spread light.
    BookMontclair : Levine Querido, [2021] — jE Holiday WIND 2021
  • All the Colors We Are

    the Story of How We Get Our Skin Color = Todos Los Colores De Nuestra Piel : La Historia De Por Qué Tenemos Diferentes Colores De Piel

    Kissinger, Katie, 1951-
    Explains, in simple terms, the reasons for skin color, how it is determined by heredity, and how various environmental factors affect it.
    BookSt. Paul, MN : Redleaf Press, [2014] — j 612.79 K61a 2014
  • Woke

    a Young Poet's Call to Justice

    Browne, Mahogany L.,
    Grades 3-6. A collection of poems by women that reflects the joy and passion in the fight for social justice, tackling topics from discrimination to empathy, and acceptance to speaking out.
    BookNew York : Roaring Brook Press, 2020. — j 323 B883w 2020
  • Grades 3-7. What do we tell our children when the world seems bleak, and prejudice and racism run rampant? With 96 lavishly designed pages of original art, poetry, and prose, fifty diverse creators lend voice and comfort to young activists.
    BookNew York : Crown Books for Young Readers, [2018] — j 303.4 W3615 2018
  • Grades 3 & up. This poem is a love letter to black life in the United States. It highlights the unspeakable trauma of slavery, the faith and fire of the civil rights movement, and the grit, passion, and perseverance of some of the world's…
    BookBoston : Versify, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2019] — j Facts 811.6 A3767u 2019
  • Grades 4-6. "A white child sees a news report of a white police officer shooting and killing a person with brown skin who had their hands up. "We don't see color," the child's mother says, but the child senses a deeper truth. An afternoon…
    BookNew York, NY : Dottir Press, 2018. — j Facts 305.8009 H635n 2018
  • Grades 4-6. Twin daughters of interracial parents, eleven-year-olds Keira and Minna have very different skin tones and personalities, but it is not until their African American grandmother enters them in the Miss Black Pearl Pre-Teen…
    BookNew York : Delacorte Press, [2010] — j FRAZIER 2010
  • The story of Fred Korematsu's fight against discrimination explores the life of one courageous person who made the United States a fairer place for all Americans, and it encourages all of us to speak up for justice.
    BookBerkeley, California : Heyday, [2017] — j BIO 341.67 KOREMATSU 2017