Shades of Black: A Celebration of Our Children

This book is a great book for kids of color having a visual of the different shades that their color possesses.

I love this book While I purchased this book for the benefit of some of my students with racial identity issues, I found that all children seem to love it. It conveys such a wonderful message without browbeating. No one can "make" a child have positive self-esteem. I can tell a child all day that he or she is beautiful, intelligent, or talented but he or she won't necessarily buy into the idea. It is more important to SHOW children. This book celebrates diversity and not by chanting about beauty but by photographing children beautifully and articulating their gorgeous attributes. I cannot put into words the delight I see in several children's faces when discovering a child that resembles him or her in this book. Children loves saying that's MY HAIR or MY EYES ... with delicate streaks of amber. I found that Caucasian children enjoy the book as well with ravenous curiosity and enjoy the vocabulary that is relevant to their individuality. The book creates an appropriate forum for discussing ethnicity and pulls children away from the horrid question, "What is you?"

I saw this book and had to get it for my baby girl!! What a FIND!!!! My daughter is a gorgeous cocoa skinned little girl ~ I am white and her Papa is black.I thrive on showing my daughter how beautiful people of every color are!!! Though she is only a baby now I want to raise her so that she finds the beauty in every human being! I bought this book to show my little girl even more colorful faces - black, white, yellow, honey, ginger, brownsugar and more! This book is such a gem! What a treasure- gorgeous pictures, lovely text - a message as strong as the smiles on those adorable faces of so many Shades of Black.

I LOVE this book. I bought it for my grandchildren who are 8,4, and 2. All are different shades of brown with the same mother and father. I wanted to give them something that will teach them that no matter how light, dark or in-between they may be, they are ALL beautiful. Not only to me, but to each other. This book is so beautifully laid out and encompasses all the wonderful shades and hues we come in. The authors are to be commended for including EVERYBODY's color. While books celebrating our beautiful brown babies are to be commended, are our lighter-skinned ones to be forgotten? I don't think so, and obviously, neither did these authors. Thank you so much! Here is a book all three of my grandchildren can read together and all identify with.

I stumbled over this book while shopping in Barnes and Nobles. This book is one that should be on every childs bookshelf (especially if they are having an identity crisis). My three year old's friend who is 5 years old has starting calling my child yellow. This book is definitely a christmas item for her friend. At an early age, she is having some identity issues. This is just the book I was looking for to let her know that she is beautiful and that there are all shades of black. I am sure she will enjoy it.

This is essentially a picture book; but oh what wonderful pictures. The author and photographer, wife and husband, have celebrated the variety of black children by comparing their skin, eyes and hair to positive everyday images---peaches, brown sugar, chocolate, ebony, tiger's eye etc. It is a playful and imaginative way of adressing a serious subject---the self-worth of our children. I purchased this book for a brand new granddaughter---she is a delicious mixture of African, Italian and Irish American. She will grow up being proud of her heritage. BTW, I am the Italian grandmother who grew up with a extremely prejudiced parent-----there is hope