Alma and How She Got Her Name
Theme: Religious Intolerance, Racism, Embracing Diversity
Our names are artefacts of our identities. Alma asks her family members to explain the various people she was named after.
Each Kindness
Theme: Bullying
Chloe and her friends won’t play with the new girl in class because she seems different. The teacher invites the class to think about the true meaning of kindness.
Go Show the World
Theme: Indigenous Voices
A celebration of Indigenous heroes.
Hidden
Theme: The Holocaust and Genocide
A graphic book in which a grandmother tells her story how, as a young Jewish girl in Paris, she was hidden away from the Nazis.
I Am Not a Number
Theme: Indigenous Voices
A powerful story of life in a residential school.
I Didn’t Stand Up
Theme: Bullying
Uses the poem “First They Came” as a model for her book about standing up to school bullies who target those they see as different.
Jack (Not Jackie)
Theme: Homophobia and Gender Differences
Jackie does not like dresses or her long hair and she would rather be called Jack.
Julián is a Mermaid
Theme: Homophobia and Gender Differences
The story of a boy who daydreams of dressing up in a mermaid costume, is a celebration of individuality and acceptance.
Let’s Talk About Race
Theme: Religious Intolerance, Racism, Embracing Diversity
Julius Lester shares his own identity as he explores what makes each of us special.
Missing Nimama
Theme: Indigenous Voices
A young mother, one of the many missing Indigenous women, watches over her small daughter. A story of love, loss, and acceptance told in alternating voices.
Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress
Theme: Homophobia and Gender Differences
Morris is teased by his classmates because he loves to wear a tangerine dress that reminds him of the sun, tigers and the colour of his mother’s hair.
Mustafa
Theme: Immigrants and Refugees
Young Mustafa and his family have travelled a long way to reach their new home, where he doesn’t speak the language and feels invisible.
My Beautiful Birds
Theme: Immigrants and Refugees
A moving story of refugees of the Syrian civil war. Sami worries about the birds he has left behind when his family is forced to flee.
My Name is Bilal
Theme: Religious Intolerance, Racism, Embracing Diversity
When Bilal and his sister move with their family, they have to attend a new school where they discover they might be the only Muslim students.
Out
Theme: Immigrants and Refugees
A little girl and her mother flee their homeland, even though their father stays behind.
Shi-shi-etko
Theme: Indigenous Voices
Shi-shi-etko is about to leave her family and all that she knows in order to attend a residential school.
Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox
Theme: Indigenous Voices
An introduction to the Anishinaabe tradition of totem animals, as young children explain why they identify with different creatures.
Spectacularly Beautiful: A refugee’s story
Theme: Immigrants and Refugees
Shahad’s teacher asks the class to draw pictures of a memory, and the young girls drawing reveals the scars she was stricken with in her home country.
Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family’s Journey
Theme: Immigrants and Refugees
Rama and her family are forced to flee their once peaceful village to escape the ravages of civil war. Intriguing illustrations of figures created with different stones.
Stolen Words
Theme: Indigenous Voices
The harsh reality of having Native language stolen while attending one of Canada’s former residential schools.
Teacup
Theme: Immigrants and Refugees
A boy must leave his home and find another. He travels the sea, bringing with him a teacup full of earth from the place where he grew up.
The Legend of Buffalo Stone
Theme: Indigenous Voices
For the Blackfoot people, everything is connected to the buffalo: food, clothing and shelter. A First Nations legend.
The Magician of Auschwitz
Theme: The Holocaust and Genocide
The story of a friendship that unfolds in the face of the atrocities committed during the Holocaust.
The Name Jar
Theme: Bullying
Unhei, a young girl from Korea is anxious to be liked. When challenged to find a name, her classmates help by offering suggestions in a glass jar.
The Promise
Theme: The Holocaust and Genocide
Two brave sisters whose promise to their parents that they would always stay together, helped them to survive Auschwitz.
The Salmon Twins
Theme: Indigenous Voices
Two twins, born in a Pacific Coast village, become greedy and are transformed into a two-headed sea serpent.
The Water Walker
Theme: Indigenous Voices
Josephine Mandamin, a determined Ojibwe Nokomis (grandmother), walks to raise awareness of our need to protect Nibi (water).
Viola Desmond Won’t Be Budged
Theme: Religious Intolerance, Racism, Embracing Diversity
In Nova Scotia, 1946, an usher in a movie theatre told Viola Desmond, who was Black, to move from her main floor seat. She refused to budge.
When I Was Eight
Theme: Indigenous Voices
Margaret is determined to learn how to read, even though it means leaving her Arctic home for the outsiders’ school.
When We Were Alone
Theme: Indigenous Voices
A young Cree girl is curious about her grandmother’s belongings and comes to learn about her past.
Yo Soy Muslim
Theme: Religious Intolerance, Racism, Embracing Diversity
Written as a letter to his daughter, this picture book is a celebration of social harmony and multicultural identities.