Diversity Board Books - For Our Younger Children

For our children to build kindness and tolerance, we must support them to view, appreciate and recognise the differences and similarities of our world from an early age. Babies begin the journey of learning about the world around them by first learning about themselves.

Babies need to be encouraged to explore their physical and emotional selves by looking at themselves in the mirror, exploring their bodies, physical movements, and gestures learning how they work, and learning about their and others’ emotions. For our children to recognise and celebrate diversity, they must be exposed to the different gender, cultures, colours, religions, customs, and people in our world.

One of the best ways to educate our young children about diversity is through age-appropriate books and stories representing babies and children from different races and ethnicities.

Representation in books matters, and our babies and children must see characters that look like them and those that don’t in the books they read. Books can teach us more about who we are and the world around us.

This collection of diverse board books will show babies and toddlers the beautiful rainbow of people in our world. It’s never too early to start teaching your little ones about the beauty of diversity. We’ve compiled a list of 10 top baby board books that feature characters of all different ethnicities, races, religions and gender identities.

One Love by Cedella Marley

Adapted from Bob Marley’s most beloved songs, One Love brings his music’s joyful spirit and unforgettable lyrics to life for a new generation. This book was written and adapted by Bob's first child, Cedella. This beautifully illustrated and heartwarming book offers an optimistic testament to the fantastic things that can happen when we all get together with ‘One Love’ in our hearts. 

Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers

Young children love to look at other young children, and this beautifully illustrated book is full of babies and toddlers of all races and ethnicities. With an irresistible rhyming text and delightfully endearing illustrations, this book is the perfect book for young children to listen to again and again.

Global Babies by The Global Fund for Children

Babies love seeing other babies in images, and this book is a collection of beautiful photographs showing babies from around the globe. It’s an excellent addition to your library and will help your baby learn about our diverse world and its different people.

The Family Book by Todd Parr

This colourful picture book talks about the importance of family and celebrates the diversity of families in a funny and reassuring way. It also focuses on how the ‘normal’ family doesn’t exist; all families are normal and accepted.

The colourful illustrations show both human and animal family life. There are adoptive families, step-families, two mums or two dads, noisy dog families, a single bird parent looking after its nest and families without children giving it a modern feel. 

Baby girl looking in the mirror

Baby Faces Series by Roberta Grobel

This is a beautiful book series to add to your library; this gem is full of babies from different parts of the world. Have fun looking at pictures, copying other smiles and expressions, and playing peek-a-boo!

Books in the collection: 

• PEEK-A-BOO!

• EAT!

• SLEEP

• SPLASH!

• HUGS & KISSES

Mirror baby Series - Hello You! and Peekaboo by Campbell Books 

Recognising faces is one of your baby’s first social skills. These lovely first baby books are a fantastic tool to support your baby’s personal and social development. They will meet a group of babies just like them; photographs reflect babies from different ethnicities. The fold-out mirror is perfect for your baby's extra stimulation, discovering a sense of self whilst learning about similarities and differences.

Ten Tiny Babies by Karen Katz 

This colourful, rhyming book introduces your baby to numbers; it counts the number of babies in the story and adds another baby to each page. The illustrations feature babies from different ethnic backgrounds engaged in typical routine behaviour. Babies spin and bounce, bang and shout, wiggle their toes, take a bath, put on their pj’s and snuggle in for the night.

Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox

This gentle rhyming and beautifully illustrated story talk about different babies from all over the world, how they are born in other countries, look a little different and have different needs. Yet, they are very much the same in some ways: each has ten little fingers and ten little toes – to play with, tickle, and wave. 

Baby love Series: Clap hands, All fall down, Tickle Tickle by Helen Oxenbury

Babies come in all shapes and sizes, and this series of books celebrates just that! The beautifully illustrated pictures represent our diverse world by featuring babies from different ethnicities.

The simple text and gentle rhyming make these books a must-read for babies and toddlers; they engage your baby's senses by asking them to copy actions, create sounds and play games using their bodies.

More More More, Said the Baby by Vera B. Williams

From beneath the tickles, kisses, and unfettered affection showered on them by adults, the children in this book cry out for more, more, more! The stars of three little love stories - toddlers with nicknames like "Little Pumpkin" - run giggling until they are scooped up by adoring adults to be swung around, kissed, and finally tucked into bed.

Quirky watercolour drawings and colourful text feature multi-ethnic families, and young readers will rejoice in seeing the centre of all the attention: the wiggly, chubby, irresistible toddlers.