Alaafia Kids Price $6.99
Item# AK-BK01

Product Description:
This book is a celebration of the relationships between babies and their parents and grandparents. It really is composed of three different love stories with people of all different colors! The gouache art and repetitive prose combine to make this a spectacular book for the littlest ones in your life. This is a classic tribute to babies and the people who love them that’s sure to be enjoyed by everyone.

Alaafia Kids Price $6.99
Item# AK-BK02

Product Description:
This is one thick board book that will withstand lots of busy fingers! It’s wonderfully celebratory of hair and will be sure to make every little girl proud of whom she is. The palette of skin tone colors in this book is unsurpassable! The text reads like a poem and is very recitable. It’s one of our favorite singable books!

Alaafia Kids Price $15.99
Item# AK-BK03

Product Description:
The Sesame Street House Band originally recorded this song-made-into-a-book in 1982. The book is filled with beautiful drawings of children from around the world. The text reads like a poem and the free CD accompaniment allows you to sing along with it! The book makes the simple but profound point that despite differences, people are all the same where it really counts: at heart.
Recommended Reading Level: ages 5-7

Alaafia Kids Price $13.95
Item# AK-BK04

Product Description:
This book is a celebration of the diversity present in an interracial family, including the author’s. If fact, the author dedicates the book to her Alaafia GrandKids; a great family photo appears on the dedication page. The little girl in the story describes the differences between her African American mom and her Caucasian dad, states that all the differences apply to her…just right, and so make her different, too! She thinks of herself as a super-blended mix of her mom and dad and a whole lot more. This book celebrates diverse families and will impart a sense of pride to all the Alaafia Kids who read it. The gouache art is fabulous and contributes greatly to the poetic nature of the text.
Recommended Reading Level: ages 6-8

Alaafia Kids Price $16.95
Item# AK-BK05

Product Description:
This is book 1 in “The People” series presented by The Culture C.O.-O.P, an organization devoted to assisting people in working with and addressing diversity in education, business and the community. Grandpa, Is Everything Black Bad? is written by The Culture C.O.-O.P’s founder. This book is autobiographical in nature in that it is based on the author’s own childhood experiences of listening to her grandfather tell stories of their Heritage. The story is about a young African American boy who comes to appreciate his dark skin by listening to his grandfather talk about their African Heritage. This award-winning book reads like a poem and it packed with gorgeous illustrations. The ending is especially captivating by its expression of the power of the talking African drum. This book is a favorite in our house! Dr. Wade Nobles of San Francisco State University has said that “All parents should read this story to their children…because of its precious lesson.”
Recommended Reading Level: ages 6-8

Alaafia Kids Price $16.95
Item# AK-BK06

Product Description:
This is book 2 in “The People” series presented by The Culture C.O.-O.P, an organization devoted to assisting people in working with and addressing diversity in education, business and the community. We All Have a Heritage is written by The Culture C.O.-O.P’s founder. The book is about children from diverse backgrounds who celebrate the fact that they all have a Heritage, “yes, this is true” as the book proclaims repeatedly. The rainbow imagery in the book, signifying diversity, reminds us of our Alaafia Kids! The rhythmic text is easy to read and very enjoyable. The drawings are extremely eye-catching and attention-drawing. Elizabeth Salett, President of the National MultiCultural Institute, comments on this book: “What a wonderful way to introduce our youth to the abundant diversity of the world’s people!”
Recommended Reading Level: ages 5-7

Alaafia Kids Price $14.99
Item# AK-BK07

Product Description:
This is a classic book that draws a profound conclusion: despite outside differences in skin color, language, and country, children from around the world are all alike inside. They all have the same smiles and the same tears. This book is beautifully illustrated with oil paintings, and each page is displayed in a hand-carved frame made from plaster, wood, and faux gems. Whoever You Are would be a simply stunning addition to your home library!
Recommended Reading Level: ages 5-7

Alaafia Kids Price $10.95
Item# AK-BK08

Product Description:
This is an autobiographical story of Noelle, a brown-skinned adoptee in a white family. She writes in the epilogue that the book serves as her affirmation of who she is and is a constant reminder that being brown and looking different is a good thing. The images are pictures of the author and her family that have been modified, enhancing the artistic quality of this photo album-like book. This book celebrates diverse families and the color brown. Children’s author Reeve Lindbergh described Brown Like Me as “simple and inclusive and embracing, like a strong family hug.”
Recommended Reading Level: ages 5-7

Alaafia Kids Price $12.00
Item# AK-BK09

Product Description:
This is a great book for little people who are carving out their own identities as unique individuals. It’s filled with rhyme that explores the similarities between a girl and the members of her family. At the end, the girl concludes that she is “positively, absolutely, altogether no one else but me.”
Recommended Reading Level: ages 5-7

Alaafia Kids Price $2.95
Item# AK-BK10

Product Description:
I don’t know any child who doesn’t like Sesame Street! This book features the much-loved characters from that award-winning show. It makes its point that the world is such an interesting, never boring place to be in because it’s filled with all kinds of people, all different but also much the same. There is a reference to rainbows at the end that makes this book the perfect one for all rainbow children, otherwise known as Alaafia Kids!
Recommended Reading Level: ages 5-7

Alaafia Kids Price $5.95
Item# AK-BK11

Product Description:
This book is written from the point of view of seven-year-old Lena, self-described as being cinnamon in color. Her mom is the color of French toast, and her friends are the colors of honey, butterscotch, and creamy peanut butter. This book is packed with fun and tasty descriptions of the many shades of skin. At the end, Lena uses her multicultural paints to create portraits of everyone. This book is favorably noted by Kirkus Reviews, which was impressed by Lena’s “open-hearted sensibility” in describing all the people in her world. This book would make a great gift in combination with our multicultural paints set listed on our Multicultural Arts and Crafts page.
Recommended Reading Level: ages 6-8

Alaafia Kids Price $4.99
Item# AK-BK12

Product Description:
This book, first published in 1973, portrays a mixed race family. It is considered the first of its kind. At the time, the book received some raised brows because of its non-traditional subject matter, but now it is credited with being the forerunner of an accepted category of books. This book is unique in its fragmented verse that is easily sung. The illustrations lovingly portray a multicultural family. In fact, the School Library Journal has called black is brown is tan “an artistic achievement.” We certainly agree!
Recommended Reading Level: ages 6-8

Alaafia Kids Price $6.95
Item# AK-BK13

Product Description:
This book was originally published in Belgium and had a French title, translated as Black Like Coffee, White Like the Moon. It’s the story about the relationship between a white father and his brown-skinned daughter, Anna. The little girl is sad about the color of her skin, so her dad plays around with paints, coffee and milk, and coffee grinds and flour to make the point that beauty lies in the mind’s eye. Little Anna concludes that she is a piece of moon that fell into a cup of coffee. This is a delightful book for a child who is just developing an awareness of color in general, and of her color in particular.
Recommended Reading Level: ages 6-8

Alaafia Kids Price $4.99
Item# AK-BK14

Product Description:
This Mulberry Book is loaded with vibrant colors of children and of the natural world. It’s a true celebration of multiculturalism at its finest. The text is vibrant, too, using such terms as “roaring brown” and “whispering gold” to describe skin shades. The School Library Journal has given All the Colors of the Earth a starred review, calling it “a poetic picture book and an exemplary work of art.”
Recommended Reading Level: ages 5-7

Alaafia Kids Price $4.95
Item# AK-BK15

Product Description:
This book is about how a little girl comes to love her hair…and herself. It is autobiographical in nature as it reminisces about the nightly ritual when mom combed her hair, sometimes causing tears. It describes all the interesting ways the little girl can wear her hair, too. The book concludes on a positive note, with the little girl proudly proclaiming, “I love my hair because it is thick as a forest, soft as cotton candy, and curly as a vine winding upward.” The wonderful watercolors contribute to the elegance of “this sensitive, sweet story of learning to love yourself without compromise.” (Chicago Tribune)
Recommended Reading Level: ages 6-8

Alaafia Kids Price $6.95
Item# AK-BK16

Product Description:
This book derives its charm from the fact that it is autobiographical. A young Japanese-African American girl describes her childhood growing up with two Mrs. Gibsons, one is her Japanese mother, and the second is her African American grandmother. The astute little girl concludes that her two Mrs. Gibsons were different but still had a lot in common. Most of all, they both loved her daddy and they both loved her.
Recommended Reading Level: ages 5-7

Alaafia Kids Price $14.95
Item# AK-BK17

Product Description:
This is a great book for those searching for their African heritage in a way that is accessible to children. The author has selected a variety of African proverbs, both humorous and serious, and brought them to life in fantastic drawings that will hold the attention of even the busiest toddler! Ms. Bryan attributes each proverb to a particular African ethnic group, but notes in her introduction that many proverbs span the heritage of several African groups. Read this book to get a sense of the power of age-old African wisdom! Sure to lead to lots of interesting family discussions as this book does in our home!
Recommended Reading Level: ages 6-8

Alaafia Kids Price $6.95
Item# AK-BK18

Product Description:
This is a delightful book that tells the story of Soro, a little African boy. It is a book written in the ancient tradition of African oral storytelling. Soro discovers that objects, no matter how precious they are, can never equal the priceless value of friendship. This is a great book for children of African descent because it serves as a pleasant manifestation of a part of their heritage.
Recommended Reading Level: ages 5-7