Our First Talk About Diversity
by Dr. Jillian Roberts
illustrated by Cindy Revell
Orca Book Publishers, 2021
ISBN 978-1-4598-2825-4 $
12.95, 32 pp, ages 6 – 8
orcabook.com
What Makes Us Unique? is a non-fiction picture book in Orca’s Just Enough: Difficult Topics Made Easy book series. The colourful illustrations and simple text are appropriate for primary-grade children and provide an accessible introduction to the concept of diversity. A question and answer section at the back of the book gives word definitions as well as brief explanations for concepts that might come up in discussion. This book would be an effective resource for the classroom or school library.
Classroom Connections: What Makes Us Unique? is a good starting place for classroom discussions about diversity and inclusion. Some of the reading strategies that would be appropriate for this book are making connections, questioning, inferring and transforming.
Review by Brenda Boreham.
This review is featured in Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Fall 2022 issue.