I am the mother of a biracial child. I want him to grow up with an awareness that he is equally black and white. It is hard to find toys and books that feature and are geared towards biracial children. Here are a few products that I’ve found that do feature biracial children that my own son and other mixed kids can identify with.
One of my favorite finds is Bur Bur and Friends by JoAnne Pastel, Kakie Fitzsimmons, and Lindsay VanDeWeghe. Bur Bur is a biracial character with his own series of children’s books. His friends are all children from an array of different countries and cultures. The Bur Bur character is mainly found in the book series, but you can also buy clothing, puzzles, and plush dolls. One of my favorite things about these books is that the emphasis is not on Bur Bur race. The books are mostly about sports and activities that Bur Bur enjoys. He just happens to be a biracial child.
Karen’s Kids is a company that makes dolls from every race, including biracial dolls. They have many biracial dolls to choose from. The biracial dolls also feature different color skin tones, acknowledging that not all biracial children have the same color skin. These dolls can be purchased at http://www.karenskottage.org. This is a good option for little girls.
I haven’t been successful in finding too many books outside of the Bur Bur books that feature biracial children without making their race the central issue. However, some books that are focused on race, but are still excellent books for biracial children include the Amy Hodgepodge books by Kim Wayans and Kevin Knotts. These are a series of books about a girl that is part Asian, Caucasian, and African American. The books definitely focus on her race, but they’re still well-written books with a strong central character that children will be able to relate to. Another good book featuring a biracial main character is You Be Me, I’ll Be You by Pili Mandelbaum. It’s about a white father and his biracial daughter. It is a good book about self-acceptance. One more book along these same lines is Black, White, Just Right by Marguerite W. Davol. It is about a girl of mixed race that realizes the combination of two different races makes her just right.
A website called http://www.dollslikeme.com features most of the aforementioned products and many more. It is a large multicultural toy store. It carries dolls, toys, books, and games for biracial children and other minority groups. This store has the potential to be one of my favorite places to buy toys for my son as he grows older.
If you have biracial children or just want your child to learn about acceptance of children from all different backgrounds, hopefully these product ideas will be helpful and enlightening.
