diverse book recommendations for young children

June 3, 2019 3:16 AM

Book recommendations for ages 3-6 for children of mixed-race heritage? Complication: princessses.

My princess-obsessed nieces (3 and 6) are mixed-race, and all the ballerinas, fairies and princesses etc in their books appear to be Caucasian.

What are some engaging books within this age-range about and for children of color? They were cautiously approving of the wonderful Ada Twist, Scientist, but it wasn't princess-y enough for them. In general they are imaginative and show a marked preference for fairy tales over stories about children set in the real world. However I've found that it's the more real-world books that tend to have better representation.

I've googled, of course, but I'm sure that better recommendations will come from personal experience.

posted by unicorn chaser to Media & Arts (20 answers total)

Julián Is a Mermaid - picture book and about a boy, but beautifully illustrated and lovely sentiment (be who you want to be).
posted by peanut butter milkshake at 3:33 AM on June 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

The Princess and The Pony features a princess who has mixed race parents.
posted by tchemgrrl at 4:20 AM on June 3, 2019 [6 favorites]

This one's recommended for ages 8-12 but if you want to maybe try it out on your older niece or just keep it in your back pocket for a couple of years down the road, the Princeless graphic novels by Jeremy Whitley and Mia Goodwin are a lot of fun. (And then shortly after that you're going to want the spin-off, Raven the Pirate Princess, but the original Princeless series skews younger than Raven.)
posted by Stacey at 5:04 AM on June 3, 2019

Here's a coloring book!
posted by teremala at 5:06 AM on June 3, 2019

My own mixed-race princess- loving daughter liked Princess Grace which I also loved because there's discussion of "what makes a princess look like a princess" and some cultural stuff about that. There's also a series of books called Jump At The Sun that are retellings of classic fairy tales with non-white main characters that we got from the library and liked a lot. My kid is seven and starting to shift to superheroes and we found Mighty Meg too be pretty great.
posted by SeedStitch at 5:12 AM on June 3, 2019 [3 favorites]

Probably too young for the 6yo, but my 3yo enjoys Princess Hair by Sharee Miller.
posted by JuliaJellicoe at 5:18 AM on June 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

Firebird is factual but about a ballerina.
posted by BibiRose at 5:59 AM on June 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

There's Tiana, too. I'm guessing if they are into Disney they have some of that stuff.
posted by BibiRose at 6:04 AM on June 3, 2019

My 1st and 2nd grade students looooove the Princess Pink series. So cute and funny (and fun for adults to read, too, which is good because they're almost-chapter books and might be tough for a 3 and 6 year old to read independently).
posted by goodbyewaffles at 6:19 AM on June 3, 2019

Not all of these are princess-y, but I think you'll find some good options:

Princess Hair

The Very Last Castle


Fancy Party Gowns

Princess Truly in My Magical, Sparkling Curls


this version of The Princess and the Pea

Mae Among the Stars

What if

Violet's Music


Grandma's Purse

Princess Grace

I am Enough

I am Famous

Hands up!
posted by nuclear_soup at 7:02 AM on June 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

La Princesa and the Pea by Susan Middleton Elya is a bilingual, Latinx retelling of the tale. The review site I linked to, Latinos in Kidlit, has a Booklist for Picture Books and Early Readers, so you may find other books that fit their interests there. They cover the Pura Belpre award on that site, but here's the awards site for "a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth."

Danza!: Amalia Hernández and Mexico's Folkloric Ballet by Duncan Tonatiuh won the Americas Award. It's nonfiction, but is about a ballet dancer. See also Tonatiuh's The Princess and the Warrior, a retelling of a Mexican legend (and an Americas Award Winner).

Sharee Miller (mentioned above) illustrated Afro: The Girl with the Magical Hair by Okechukwu Ofili, which is spin on Rapunzel.

A few other picture book retellings:
Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale by John Steptoe (Caldecott Honor book for illustration and Coretta Scott King Award Winner)
The Rough-Face Girl by Rafe Martin (from Algonquin folklore)
Beauty and the Beast by H. Chuku Lee and Pat Cummings is set in West Africa
Rachel Isadora has several fairy tale re-tellings in an African setting, including Rapunzel, The Princess and the Pea, and the Twelve Dancing Princesses
posted by carrioncomfort at 7:11 AM on June 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

Maiden and Princess
posted by tan_coul at 8:49 AM on June 3, 2019

When my daughter was that age, I found these delightful books - Princess Cupcake Jones - I love the illustrations.
posted by bijou243 at 9:42 AM on June 3, 2019

We have this good-looking book about Josephine Baker; it's a biography but has costumes and clothes that might appeal.
posted by vunder at 10:08 AM on June 3, 2019

Response by poster: Thank you so much, everyone!
posted by unicorn chaser at 2:27 PM on June 3, 2019

I don't have a specific book to recommend, but here is a tool that may be useful for you in the future. It's called Diverse BookFinder and is connected to the library collection at Bates College. Because it's specific to an existing collection, it's not going to find all possible books that would meet the critera but it's a useful starting point. Their focus is entirely on children's picture books, so it's great for your children's age range.
posted by acidnova at 3:28 PM on June 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

I really loved Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, which is set in a fairytaleish Zimbabwe and sort of like Cinderella. Yeh-Shen is a Chinese retelling of Cinderella I also vividly remember reading.
posted by ChuraChura at 6:22 PM on June 3, 2019

Disney's Princess Elena is Latina. She's mostly TV-only, no movies (yet?) but I know there are many picture books because I see them all over the house of my friend who is raising a mixed-race daughter.
posted by aimedwander at 12:10 PM on June 4, 2019

Two books my kids have enjoyed that fit this criterion are this lift-the-flaps version of the Princess and the Pea and The Fairytale Hairdresser and Beauty and the Beast.
posted by tomcooke at 10:58 PM on June 7, 2019

Brave Ballerina is another picture book biography about a black ballerina. (About Janet Collins specifically)
posted by (Over) Thinking at 12:13 PM on June 9, 2019