The Color of Us
By: Karen Katz
Genre: Multicultural
Grade:K-2
Have you ever wonder what shades people skin tone actually is. Even though you see a person of color and you think they are all actually the same color, is false because even comparing yourself to your own family, your shades are going to be some what different. Have you ever wonder what actually color you are, because I know I have wonder. Your race does tell you your color, but your skin tone defines you as a person from everyone else.
During this story, Lena’s mother is explaining to Lena that everyone is a different shade of color, that no one is the same shade. That even her and her mother have a different skin tone than each other and you would think they would have same since its her mother. Lena and her mother take a walk outside and through the park, looking at all the different peoples skin tones that they know and naming what color they would be. So show Lena that you may be the same race, but everyone has different shades some are lighter than others and some are darker and some are a mix of things. Its what makes them who they are but it doesn’t change who the person they actually are inside and outside. At the end of the book, when Lena goes back home with her mother she goes into her room, and mixes all the colors to make everyone’s skin tones she saw today and drew them all to show the colors of everyone they saw today.
This book, is a Multicultural book, because for younger kids it shows them that there are many different skin types out in the world. The one that they are isn’t the only one in the world, and the one that their parents and friends aren’t either. That in a unique way we all have our own skin tones that define us and stick with us through out our whole life. Don’t you hate when you had to make a picture of yourself in school and they never had the skin tone crayons, so you never knew what color to actually pick. Now this can kind of help students because they can put there skin tone up to the book, and kind of see which skin tone matches them best. It would be a fun little activity to see what colors made each person and have them hang all around the classroom and see how close they actually come to looking like the person, like Lena did in the end of the book. As a teacher you can tie this into a lesson about different races we have in the world and different skin tones that people have. Even just looking around your classroom you can see peoples difference doesn’t always have to happen in a diverse classroom. Just like Lena mother told her about different shades of African Americans, there is different shades of every culture, because people these days are mixes of many different cultures.