The Skin You Live In

The Skin You Live In

by Michael Tyler

Through this lively, sing-song nursery rhyme, Tyler provides stories and moments that are critical for children to form healthier attitudes about race. I think this book is perfect for the child that has begun to verbalize that they notice that people have different colors of skin. The story allows children to explore that curiosity in a positive, inclusive and anti-racist way.

The book could be divided into three sections. In the first, Tyler celebrates how beautiful and useful skin is. The skin is something that allows us to move and wraps up our amazing bodies! Through all of this is illustrations of kids with many different colors of skin. In the second section, Tyler talks about what skin is not. Through these clever rhymes, he shows that there is not a good skin and a bad skin and that skin doesn't determine what you are good at and what your weaknesses are. To me, this is the most important part of the book. I have read research that argued that by the age of four, many children have already internalized that white skin is preferable to dark skin. Of course, un-teaching all of those implicit cultural messages goes much deeper than one picture book, but I think Tyler provides a start here.

In the final section, Tyler shows that the world is better with more colors of skin in it and encourages readers to celebrate the diversity of shades of skin in their lives. 

In this book, Tyler broaches the important topic of race and racism in a way that all young children need to heat it. The celebration of diversity and the warning against the language of racism are lessons that I hope stick with young readers.