200 of the Best Diverse Children’s Books for Preschoolers
An epic book list to teach empathy, anti-racism, feminism, and diversity
Children’s books have the power to change the world.
As a Parent Education college instructor who leads storytimes for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, I often get asked for children’s book recommendations.
Specifically, parents want book recommendations about kindness, empathy, sharing, and how to talk with young children about hard topics like race. And parents want to know, “How do I get my kids to love books?”
I’ve written before about the benefits of reading to kids and how to make books a bigger part of your lives. Now I want to share with you over 200 of the best diverse children’s books for preschoolers and toddlers.
I personally read and re-read every book on this list to my own kindergartner during the first 5 years of her life. These books helped me teach her about empathy and kindness in our beautiful, diverse world; they also started conversations about impossibly hard topics like slavery, war, and bigotry, and what it means to be an ally.
Along the way, we also read books we loved that didn’t necessarily teach a lesson; they were just fun books that made her excited to keep on…
