Children And Elders Need To Know One Another

Communities are built on connections across differences. Among the most important connections are between elders and children. For stories, for wisdom, for laughter, and for gentleness, children and elders need to know one another. Books help build those connections.

Here are some favorite children’s books our team likes, with selective annotation. And, a reminder: children’s books are not just for children.

• M is for Melanin by Tiffany Rose
• Going Home with Daddy by Kelly Starling Lyons. The main characters head to a family reunion, where they encounter a great celebration of past, present, and future.
• God’s Dream by Archbishop Desmond Tutu
• Who Counts? By Amy-Jill Levine. Levine is both Jewish and a scholar of the New Testament. This is part of a series of children’s book that retells New Testament parables.
• Before John was a Jazz Giant by Carole Boston Weatherford. Ostensibly about John Coltrane. Below the surface, about listening to the whole wide world.
• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
• Bubba the Cowboy Prince by Helen Ketteman. A riotous retelling of an old story.
• The Stinky Cheese Man: And Other Fairly Fractured Tales by Jon Scieszka.
• The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter. A classic of juvenile fiction, about telling stories and sharing the good things of life.
• Little Women by Louisa Mae Alcott