I Love My Mocha Skin written by Crystal Garry, pictures by Mocha Decor
From Goodreads: I Love My Mocha Skin is a short, poetic book that encourages African-American children to love themselves and embrace the skin they were born with.
At its heart this is such a simple book. Each page features a doe-eyed girl in a variety of outfits and hairstyles (although mostly the puffs seen on the cover), while the text celebrates something about her skin color. But there is nothing simple about taking joy in black skin.
I Love My Mocha Skin is such an effervescent celebration of girls of color. Crystal Garry and Mocha Decor have made an appealing character with large brown eyes, cute hair, and exciting outfits that are sure to grab your girly girls. She embraces all the varieties of color skin can come in and how it makes her feel empowered, beautiful, and alive.
Even if you only have one or two kids of color in your library or school or classroom population you need to be sure to have books like this one on your shelves. It’s vitally important that those kids see themselves reflected in your collection in positive, affirming ways. The book is not designed for white children, but don’t discount the importance of white children seeing positive, loving, beautiful representations of children of color. Constantly seeing an all-white cast of characters in books and media gives very powerful messages to all children about who is valuable and who is not.
Do you do a storytime that celebrates black boy joy and/or black girl magic? This would be perfect for younger audiences.
Another lovely book to encourage positive self image in kids of color.
athomelibrarian 