When we decided to adopt transracially, we knew we wanted to have a diverse library in our home to reflect the ethnicities and beauty of our diverse kids. I’ve continued to add to that library over the years as we’ve added more kids to our family. This last week I got “Black Girls Can: An Empowering Story of Yesterdays and Todays” by Rachel Garlinghouse for my daughter. And she loved it.
(You can click the picture above to buy the book through Amazon.)
This is a simple book with beautiful illustrations. I wish they made it as a board book, because I would have loved to have had this available on day one for my daughter to be listening to, chewing on, and playing with in her crib. On one page it has a sweet picture of a young black girl with an inspiring phrase (“I can be brave like. . . “) and on the next page it has an illustration of a black woman who has made history (Rosa Parks). In the back of the book it has additional information about each of the women featured so you can talk to your daughter about these influential women. I love that it gives little girls like my daughter a familiarity with these inspiring women who look like them.
I wish you could have seen my two year-old when she first looked through this book. It was a tear-jerker moment for me. I told her this was a book for her with girls like her in it. At each page she squealed “Like me! It Carrie!” Just now she came to sit next to me as I was writing and saw the book. She immediately yelled, “MY BOOK!” She definitely has an identification with these pictures and I hope it will grow into an identification with these admirable women.
Each day I do my daughter’s hair and tell her how much I love her beautiful brown curls. She now likes to pat her own hair and say, “Curly. Curly.” When I turn her to face the mirror after doing her hair she says, “Pretty.” I love this. We are doing what we can to instill in her a love of how God made her and an understanding of her potential. We know the world may give her contrary messages, so we want to use these years where our voices are the most influential to help her feel confident of her worth and have confidence in who she is (physically, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually). This book is a good compliment to the lessons we’re giving her.
If you have a young (I would say it’s ideally suited to ages 2-6) black girl in your life (daughter, foster daughter, granddaughter, niece), this is would be a sweet addition to your library. I think this could be great as a baby shower gift, adoption gift, or present for a foster family. Along with providing an inspiring message for our daughters, there’s some education in it for the rest of us. Personally, I didn’t know the story of Marian Anderson and I’m glad this book introduced me to her.
I love that Carrie is carrying this book around the house with her and has to have it on her dresser beside her when she sleeps. I love that she points to an illustration of Ruby Bridges and says “It ME!” I love that she holds up the pictures of little girls and says, “Curly!” It is so important for her to see herself reflected in the pages of the books we own and to imagine the ways she might impact the world as a black girl and black woman. This book is a great start to that educational journey we’ll be continuing for years to come.