Skin You Live In Book

In this simple, yet beautiful book, Michael Tyler portrays different boys and girls of all different races doing everyday things and feeling everyday ways. On one page, he portrays an African American little girl splashing in the water with the text "hey, look at your skin" and on the next page is a Caucasian boy doing the exact same thing with text saying "The wonderful skin YOU live in". The story goes on to talk about eating ice cream, snuggling up to go to sleep at night, playing in the sun, being happy, and even being sad. What I love most about this story is that race is not talked about, but the way Tyler effortlessly gets his message across by putting kids that may look differently than the reader in relatable situations as the reader portrays the ideology that race truly is skin deep and we truly are all the one human race who face similar struggles and enjoy similar things. I also really enjoy the illustrations in this book because the author did a great job of portraying actual skin tones- there are too many children's books trying to teach diversity that incorporate blue people or purple people... This story is realistic in skin tone and I think that is a vital component. One thing, however, that could have been done better is portraying more than just Caucasian and African American. There are some illustrations that could be up for interpretation, but overall I believe that diversity is not just a 'black and white' issue- especially for our children today. I really liked the cover of this book... it is very simple and what is there truly pops off of the cover. I also really liked how he put the word "skin" in different skin tones.
With this book, there are many ways to incorporate it into instruction. One way I would use this book is in a writing lesson- First I would read this story, then I would give each student the time to draw what it looks like for them to live in their own skin. After that I would put them in to groups and have them discuss with one another what it means for them to be in their own skin... from there they would go back and write a reflection on the similarities and differences they found to have with their classmates that may not look exactly the way they do.