Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman, illustrated by Caroline Binch
I read Amazing Grace to a kindergarten group. In it Grace
uses her imagination to play different roles, which kindergarteners always love
to do. Grace is told by her classmates that she can’t be Peter Pan in the
school play because she is a girl, and she is black. Her grandmother takes her
to see a ballet of Romeo and Juliet with a black girl playing the Juliet role.
Grace practices being Peter Pan and earns the part, and plays it beautifully.
Activity: As an activity, the children were randomly
partnered and they were to listen to their partner tell about a talent they had
or something they were good at. Each partner then drew the other doing that
activity, and told the class about their partner. At the end, we played a "guess
the animal" imagination game.
The message was that ALL people have talents and strengths
that have nothing to do with skin color (or gender) and that we should
appreciate what our classmates have to offer, and build admiration into our
ways of thinking about each other. Exclusion always leaves some out (hence
racism) but inclusion allows everyone to opt in!
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