Shades of People

I've never felt compelled to write a review on a book before (and I buy a lot of books). This book is absolutely perfect. It is so innocently written, geared toward appreciating all our beautiful colors, without a heavy-handed moral message. Exactly what is needed to help foster a natural sense of appreciation for all people, and a great starter book for discussions about race and ethnicity. We are leaving this one out on the coffee table, and I wish I had bought the hard-back copy. In fact, I might still do that.

This book has beautiful, real life pictures of children. I love the language used to describe different shades of skin!! My 2 year old daughter loves reading this book. It would be a great book for school/classroom libraries.

My 2-1/2 year old daughter loves this book, even though there isn't much of a story line. She loves to look at all the photos of all the kids, and I think at this age it is useful just for her to see kids of different races playing together and having fun. I like how the book emphasizes that people come in all different "shades" as opposed to talking about races or using words like "black" and "white" that may be confusing for such a young kid who thinks so literally about things. I'd rather introduce terms like those when she is old enough to learn that skin color doesn't necessarily tell you much about a person's ancestry (i.e. not all "black" people identify as African American, and not all latinos have darker skin than hers, etc.), and get more into discussions of cultural diversity rather than just skin color.

Well done book to show diversity to our 2 y/o

Love how bright, clear and big the pictures are! I have a 5month old and I lay the book open and propped up for her to look at all the children. She loves observing them, the diversity and I appreciate that theres so many pictures on one page. Very sweet book. Almost Sesame Street vibes.

We buy books with photos for our daughter that has autism. She loves looking at photos of faces. This book has some of the best and most diverse photography. The only reason I give it 4 stars is that it isn't bound very securely. The pages came out after only a couple of days of use. Make it in a board book!!

I came across this book for my child when she was in daycare from a Scholastic book club flyer. She LOVED all of the pictures of the beautiful “shades of people”. Since then I’ve purchased this book for several baby showers. It’s a beautiful and simple message that all people’s shades are unique and beautiful.

This book takes the word color out of the skin discussion. It’s well written and has changed the conversation with my preschool children. They aren’t prejudiced but prior to this book discussions of skin color focused on one child being different. Now the children just say “oh he’s a different shade!”

Good little book. Simple read that explains all the different skin tones of people.

My 3 year old loves this book. Great way to help explain the differences that he sees in the world with great photos and high quality pages.

I had been looking for a book that represented all the preschool children I work with. This is my second copy as the first one was so well used. I may have to purchase a few more

Good

Beautiful pictures, does the job of showing people of different colours in a similar light.