Shades of People

I've never felt compelled to write a review on a book before (and I buy a lot of books). This book is absolutely perfect. It is so innocently written, geared toward appreciating all our beautiful colors, without a heavy-handed moral message. Exactly what is needed to help foster a natural sense of appreciation for all people, and a great starter book for discussions about race and ethnicity. We are leaving this one out on the coffee table, and I wish I had bought the hard-back copy. In fact, I might still do that.

This book has beautiful, real life pictures of children. I love the language used to describe different shades of skin!! My 2 year old daughter loves reading this book. It would be a great book for school/classroom libraries.

Love how bright, clear and big the pictures are! I have a 5month old and I lay the book open and propped up for her to look at all the children. She loves observing them, the diversity and I appreciate that theres so many pictures on one page. Very sweet book. Almost Sesame Street vibes.

As a preschool teacher, I'm required to present and expose my children to multi-ethnic and multi-cultural coponents. I love this book because it helps me illustrate to my 4s and 5s that we are different but alike. The photos are big, vibrant and colorful and show how we're different [eye colors, skin colors, etc] but are alike [we have eyes, nose, mouth, hair, like to play, ect]. It's a must for any preschool teacher, people who work with young children and people who teach tolerance and acceptance of others.

I came across this book for my child when she was in daycare from a Scholastic book club flyer. She LOVED all of the pictures of the beautiful “shades of people”. Since then I’ve purchased this book for several baby showers. It’s a beautiful and simple message that all people’s shades are unique and beautiful.

I have shared this book with many and given it away during a workshop. One of the things that I really enjoy about this book is that it shows children of European heritage as having different shades and not just children of color as having different shades of skin. I think that to be brilliant! I enjoy this book as someone who works to help children love and appreciate cultural and heritage difference, finding and embracing all of those things that make us unique, but that also bring us together in sameness, as a teacher to teachers of how to genuinely incorporate multi- and interculturalism into their classes, and as a parent. This book can be used in many different fashions and can be a great conversation starter!

Well done book to show diversity to our 2 y/o

My 2-1/2 year old daughter loves this book, even though there isn't much of a story line. She loves to look at all the photos of all the kids, and I think at this age it is useful just for her to see kids of different races playing together and having fun. I like how the book emphasizes that people come in all different "shades" as opposed to talking about races or using words like "black" and "white" that may be confusing for such a young kid who thinks so literally about things. I'd rather introduce terms like those when she is old enough to learn that skin color doesn't necessarily tell you much about a person's ancestry (i.e. not all "black" people identify as African American, and not all latinos have darker skin than hers, etc.), and get more into discussions of cultural diversity rather than just skin color.