Fueling empathy: 10 children’s books that spur meaningful conversations

When a boy finds a “banned” book in his public library it sends him on a city-wide search for an “item” he uses to change his world. This book is beautifully illustrated mostly in gray scale with sparing and thoughtful use of color.

Jacqueline Woodson wrote Show Way after the death of her Grandma as a way to commemorate her personal history for her newborn daughter. It speaks of slavery, inequality and slow change while consistently maintaining a tone of hope. This is my older daughter’s favorite book. I think we have read it a thousand times. Though Jaqueline’s history is different from my family’s, my daughter relates to the fear and ultimate bravery of all the little girls in Woodson’s lineage and their stories have fed incredible conversations about what is right and wrong and why we must never stop working for change.

One is a very simple book with astounding depth. Otoshi addresses the idea of bullying in an unaffected and poignant way, using watercolors of basic colors and numbers. The characters are colors — Red is the bully whom all the other colors are afraid to stand up to, until the day “1” comes along. “1”, who is a different shape, rallies the colors (eventually also including Red) and brings out their courage to believe in and transform themselves so that in the end, “everyone counts”.

When Owen’s Mom Breathed Fire follows Owen, the only child of a hard working single mom. One day when Owen’s mom awakes, her usual hectic routine is interrupted by her transformation into a dragon.

The illustrations in this book are fantastic. They mix accessibly “naive” line drawings (like a child him or herself might draw) with a sophisticated sense of motion and character interaction. Frog Belly Rat Bone spins what a “treasure” truly is and how friends can help in achieving a mutually beneficial goal.

This is a re-telling of the challenge of the devil and the mortal at the cross-roads. Rosie is a relative recluse but when she plays her fiddle, everyone has to listen, including the jealous Devil himself. Of the many books I have read to preschool and grade-school aged children, this is consistently a favorite. The plot and imagery captivate reader and listener alike as Rosie duels with the Devil for her soul.

The death of Sendak last year was a loss for children’s literature and the world at large. While he is known globally for Where the Wild Things Are, Outside Over There and We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy are two books that speak to very important personal and social issues.

In Outside Over There, Ida is charged to watch her baby sister while papa is away at sea and mama is in the arbor. Yet while she plays her “wonder-horn” to rock the baby to sleep, she fails to notice the goblins have stolen the baby and replaced it with another made of ice. Hauntingly illustrated, the images of absent parents, loss, bravery and a reversal on the original telling of the Pied Piper, leave the reader chock full of things to think about.

We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy is a magical statement on the difficult topic of poverty and child abuse. The images are compellingly vivid and cartoonish in classic Sendak style, but the underlying message is extremely direct and poignant.

Some years ago, my Mom moved from our family home. While helping to weed and sort through generations of family items, I found this book in my personal boxes. My Mom had inscribed the cover, apologizing for giving me a “children’s book” at the age of 11. I promptly read it to my daughters, and read it, and read it… Susan Jeffers illustrates Robert Frost’s famous poem. Despite the beautiful serenity of Jeffers’ images, my daughter started asking about death. Her questions surprised my adult biases of the complexity of what a child understands. She realized the subtext within the poetry and was creating her own construct. Each reader will have their own interpretations of the poetry, but it is a great way to introduce kids to a different, layered way to read.

Eliza Prattlebottom is the daughter of an opera singing mother and a business man father. Feeling lonely and ignored, on her 8th birthday, she wishes for an elephant to come and take her away and it does. This book is filled with colorful, whimsical images of Eliza’s escape from her life, her adventures, and ultimately the woman who helps her return home. I expected this book to be a simple fairy tale, but found myself sobbing at the end. Berger and Juan masterfully grapple the concepts of childhood isolation, depression, aging, death and second chances.