PENGUIN OUR SKIN: 1ST CONVO ABOUT RACE

We bought this book for my 3 year old who had started to notice and ask about skin colour. Of course I can do my best to educate her but I thought a book might help her understand things clearly and possibly articulate it in terms she'd find easier to relate to but I can't help feeling like that wasn't the case with this book. It starts out very light hearted, how we are all the same, how no one is better because of the colour of their skin and lighthearted examples of what racism can look like, thumbs up from me. However - it then started to turn into a rather controversial history lesson. It isn't that it wasn't factual as such, I just think it was too in depth for a 3 year old to fathom which was surprising considering the recommended age was between 2 and 5. Think they should've just stopped while they were ahead and perhaps released a second book for slightly older children who may have a more extensive understanding.

I would like to think that my wife and I are antiracist. I speak out against racism that I see and advocate for change in policy that marginalize people base on race or sexual orientation. We search for tools to assist us in educating our children on these subjects.This book is not it. Rather than focusing on identifying and combating racism, the authors of this book chose to include two pages that are, in fact, racist. Although in North America racism is predominantly perpetrated by whites on people of colour, this book insinuates that white people "invented" racism and are the only racists in the world.I can't have my two year old child thinking he IS a racist because he is white. It's unfortunate because the book started off well and had some good messages.and lessons about racism. Unfortunately the authors chose to include racism in the book itself.It will be returned.

I loved this book but had to return it. I found one page disappointing- the page with the definition of racism being about white people getting more power. Unfortunately, that may be true in the US but it’s biased and globally doing a disservice to other suppressed groups. Additionally, the strength of this book is teaching about racism not defining a perpetrator as this definition has done. I simply want my kid to understand race not develop a guilty complex because she’s white- this crossed a line for me.

I got this for my daughter who has been noticing people's skin colour and asking about it. She really loves this book and I love her response to it. It does have American spellings but I'll let it off because the message is clear and put across in a way that she understands.

I come from a south asian family and my husband from a european-latin family. I bought this book for my toddlers in hopes to educate them about diversity and different races. We both are anti-racist people and definitely stand up agaisnt racism but this book was very dissapointing. It starts of with a great message, but turns into something else. This book teaches children that white people are the only racist people around the world. This book excludes the struggles that other races also face and focuses mainly on Black people. This book teaches the opposite of acceptance and respect for other races and culture. I will not be reading this to my children!!