Books for Third Culture Kids (Ages 3-8)
"Where are you from?" is a longer conversation in our house than it looks.
I am Rwandan. I was born in Burundi. I grew up across seven countries on three continents. My husband is Ghanaian. He was also raised in multiple countries. Our children are going to spend their lives deciding, every single time, whether the person asking wants the short version or the real one.
I went looking for these books to complement my own. These nine are the ones I keep coming back to.
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1. Where Are You From? by Yamile Saied Méndez
For the child who gets asked where they are really from. A girl takes the question to her grandfather, and his answer is the one I wish somebody had given me at thirteen years old.
He reaches past countries and into lineage, which turns out to be a much better place to look.
2. Your Name Is a Song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow
Munyuzangabo. Five syllables, and I watched a lot of people decide that was several too many.
This book hands a child the confidence to say their own name properly and let the room catch up. I could have used it at about age twelve 😅
3. The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson and Rafael López
About walking into a room where nobody looks like you or sounds like you.
Woodson writes about difference while treating it as ordinary, and Rafael López's illustrations are genuinely stunning. This is the one I would give a family in the middle of a move.
4. Islandborn by Junot Díaz and Leo Espinosa
A girl is given homework to draw the country she came from, and she cannot remember it, because she left as a baby. So she goes around her neighbourhood asking everyone else to describe it for her.
Every diaspora child meets this homework eventually. Mine will. This is the only picture book I have found that takes it seriously.
5. Auntie Zuba's Magical Wedding by Michaella Mutoni-Dorvlo
Mine. Isaro and Juru travel to Rwanda for a Gusaba (traditional dowry/engagement) ceremony: the Imishanana, the dancing, the long-horned cows, and an enormous family they have met exactly once.
When I got married, I realized how much I didn’t understand about my own culture, so I wrote it myself. 🙃
6. Isaro and Juru's Big Trip to Accra by Michaella Mutoni-Dorvlo
The other half. Ghana this time, with Makola Market, the food, and the naming ceremony where the children receive their Ghanaian day-names.
Between the two books my children get both sides of themselves, and nobody asks them to choose.
7. Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson
A grandmother teaching her grandson to see beauty in a place he had already written off.
It won the Newbery Medal, which picture books almost never do, and it earns every bit of it.
8. Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry and Vashti Harrison
A father learning to do his daughter's hair, and getting there in the end.
Buy it for the dad in the house. I am serious. It is as much for him as it is for her 🥰
9. Sulwe by Lupita Nyong'o and Vashti Harrison
On colourism, which most children's books will not go anywhere near. My four year old son started asking me why his skin was darker than his peers. It made me realize how early these conversations begin. He loves the story of Day and Night in Sulwe. Gentle enough for a five-year-old and honest enough for an eight-year-old, which is a very hard thing to pull off.
Here's to raising children who can hold more than one place at once 💫
Starting school this term? I wrote a companion list: First Day of School Books for Black Kids