Let’s explore diverse children’s literature as a gateway for conversation, developing empathy, and moving toward advocacy. Reading can validate our identity and expose us to new ideas and ways of being. Readers leave a story feeling affirmed when we connect with characters and experiences like our own. In fact, the work of Rudine Sims Bishop (1990) reminds us that literature can serve as mirrors, windows, and doors to examine our own identities, the lived experiences of others, and through discussion and consideration of alternative perspectives, we open doors between both worlds to deepen understanding of the human experience regardless of our differences. Carefully selected book collections allow readers to explore and compare characters, settings, and problems similar and different from their own lives. In this way, students begin to see themselves, see others ways of being, and deepen respect for differences.
