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All About Me Topic

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‘All About Me’ Topic Best Books for Children

Celebrate individuality with our list of the best children’s books to support an ‘All About Me’ topic – a popular topic in classrooms as children get to know more about themselves and others. From the tips of their toes to the end of their nose, each child is truly unique – with different hobbies, feelings, hairstyles, eye colour, cultural heritages or body shapes. Our booklist is here to help children to understand that everyone is wonderfully unique and to positively celebrate the similarities and differences individuals encounter as they find their place within their communities. 

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Books that celebrate individuality

Sophy Henn
Picturebook
Sometimes you are twinkly and floaty, sometimes you are soft and cuddly. Sometimes you are quiet and gentle, sometimes you are loud and clanky. Whatever you are, let's be proud of you being you! This bright and colourful picture book is a joyful celebration of the uniqueness of each individual. “The trick is not to worry about what you are not. Instead enjoy the things you are and all the brills you've got!”
Marvyn Harrison
 & Diane Ewen
Picturebook

Author Marvyn Harrison (founder of Dope Black Dads) has a mission… ‘each and every child is special, and it is important to tell them so every day.’ And so begins this empowering picture book. The story follows the characters from Monday through to Sunday, to help with learning the days of the week and family routines. Each day, the characters look at themselves in the mirror and say positive affirmations to their reflections. A different affirmation each day, with examples of how to be that person. The book also encourages children to talk about themselves and express their thoughts and feelings. The colourful pages burst to life thanks to the illustrations of Diane Ewen who is able to show how to be brave, smart, strong, kind, happy, loving and beautiful. This book is vibrant and energetic, and sure to engage our youngest children. Harrison describes his philosophy on affirmations as ‘just as regular exercise and a balanced diet set up strong patterns for good physical health, so can practising affirmations lead to better mental health’. You can read more about affirmations, Black Dope Dads and tips for reading with your child, at the back of the book.

Shinsuke Yoshitake
Picturebook

This is a wonderful picturebook about the nature of individuality, perfect for building a classroom or school culture where the uniqueness of each person is celebrated.

The book invites readers on a whimsical journey that follows a young boy’s desire to create a robot clone of himself. However, before he can bring his cloned self to life, he must embark on a quest to uncover the essence of his individuality. What is it, exactly, that makes him who he is?

Bursting with imaginative illustrations, this thought-provoking book offers an engaging and enjoyable experience that not only sparks discussion but also serves as an ideal catalyst for exploring the concept of each person’s distinct uniqueness. Teachers could use this book as an icebreaker discussion to enable a new class to get to know themselves and others, for thoughtful artwork based on the fun labelled diagrams in the book or for PSHE lessons about expressing and celebrating individuality.

Younger classes will enjoy imagining what a robot close of themselves might look, act and feel like, while older children can get philosophical about the factors that have come together to make them who they are, or even about the potential ethics of cloning oneself (I’m sure overly busy teachers may also be tempted to wish for a clone!).

Either way, this is a really fun focal point for classrooms and one that works best if children are given enlarged or close-up access to the illustrations.

Sam Bishop
 & Fiona Lumbers
Picturebook
A beautifully illustrated, funny and thought-provoking book for building confidence and encouraging children to express their feelings - about anything and everything. This book will help enable a much broader conversation about individuality, fear and hopes.All author royalties are being donated to the NSPCC.
Smriti Halls
 & Ali Pye
This is a joyful celebration of all the pieces, places and people that make us who we are. It is a wonderful way to get children thinking about and learning about their own families, and also opening up discussions about all of the other pieces that come together to make us all unique: from our friends and food we eat, to activities we get up to and the places we go.Children will enjoy finding out more about themselves and their families, and thinking about other families and friends who are similar or different to their own.

Alexandra Strick
 & Steve Antony
Picturebook

Written with Alexandra Strick, co-founder of Inclusive Minds, You Can! sets out to celebrate the joy and empowerment that can be found in following your dreams and believing in yourself.

The words tell a simple list of the things ‘You can…’ do, such as be brave, talk about how you feel, make mistakes and learn from them, and could be read straight through from start to finish in less than 3 minutes. But this would defeat the purpose of the book – there is so much to interrogate and discuss on each page. The pictures bring another dimension, showing each child gradually developing from toddler to child to young adult and challenging themselves at each stage of the journey. The challenges gradually broaden and deepen to reflect the age of the characters, from the toddlers being encouraged to try new things and be brave, to the young adults refusing to be put in a box and being determined to reach their goals. The endpapers contribute to this sense of growth and progress with the front showing 14 babies (which one looks most like you?) and the end showing 14 adults engaged in various jobs (which job would you most like to have?).

This book would be great to share with a whole class, particularly during a unit on Ourselves, but would also make a brilliant resource to share with an individual child, such as the one in every class whose first response is ‘I can’t!”

Thoughtful, uplifting and empowering, ‘You Can!’ is a joy to explore.

Pippa Goodhart
 & Nick Sharratt
Picturebook
Get pupils choosing, imagining and expressing their own preferences with this massively appealing picture book full of choices. Each double-page spread is themed around a different choice to make and packed with all sorts of possibilities from the tame to the outright wacky; choose furniture for your ideal house, choose a pet (watch out for the dragon) and choose favourite food (the ice cream looks good but I'm not sure about the boar's head!).
Dr. Ranj Singh
 & Liam Darcy
Picturebook
A celebration of incredible key-workers by Dr Ranj, presenter of CBeebies series Get Well Soon, resident doctor on ITV's This Morning and front line NHS paediatrician.Lily knows exactly what she wants to be when she grows up: a superhero! But she's not interested in being a silly superhero. She doesn't want to wear her pants outside her trousers! Lily wants to be a REAL superhero: the kind who helps people and makes the world a better place.Join Lily as she meets the extraordinary superheroes all around us, from doctors, teachers and air ambulance paramedics to scientists, recycling truck drivers and carers. Discover the amazing work these real-life heroes do using their incredible superpowers of kindness, care and love.This uplifting picture book celebrates key-workers, and shows little readers that we all have the potential within us to be superheroes.

Books about growing

Laura Ellen Anderson
Picturebook
This little boy is fed up with being so little. He wants to be as tall as his friends and his big brother. But when he loses his teddy bear up a tree, not even his new tall friend can get it back for him. Maybe with a little bit of help they can reach the bear together ...A fun and inspiring tale about learning to love who we are, no matter what size. A perfect picture book for little people who don't want to be so little.
Ruth Krauss
 & Helen Oxenbury
Picturebook
The Growing Story is an enchanting story about a boy who watched living things grow and change through the seasons. Just as he begins to think that he will be small forever, he learns to see the signs that he is growing and changing too.
Pat Hutchins
Picturebook
It's not easy being the smallest in the family, like Titch. But Titch soon discovers that even something as tiny as a little seed has the potential to grow into a plant that is very big indeed. Titch is a story for anyone who knows what it is like to feel small.
Justin Roberts
 & Christian Robinson
Picturebook
An inspiring and empowering rhyming story that's a joy to read aloud, all about the power of children to change the world.Sally McBrass is the smallest girl in the youngest class – but Sally knows you don't have to be big to be strong. From kites stuck up trees to howling dogs to stray cats in the car park, little Sally notices things that others don't, and when she sees people being mean at school, she is brave enough to speak up.The Smallest Girl in the Class by Justin Roberts and Christian Robinson is a moving and gorgeously illustrated story about bravery and changing the world for the better. The perfect book to build empathy and start discussions about kindness with young children.

Books about human bodies, hair and bones

Kim Norman
 & Bob Kolar
Picturebook
A pirate skeleton seeks to put its bones back together in this rhyming first book of anatomy! A stormy night at sea has uncovered some long-buried secrets and surprises. Is that the mast of a shipwreck? A faded pirate hat? And what's that hiding in the sand? A mandible and a clavicle, phalanges and femurs, a tibia and a fibula - could there be a complete set of bones scattered across the ocean floor? And who might they belong to? A jaunty rhyme takes readers on an underwater scavenger hunt as a comical skeleton tries to put itself back together piece by piece. Make no bones about it - this rollicking read-aloud will have young ones learning anatomy without even realising.
Matthew Cherry
 & Vashti Harrison
Picturebook
Zuri loves her beautiful hair. Even though it has a mind of its own, it lets her feel like a superhero. Mum usually styles Zuri's hair, but one day Mum is away and Daddy has to step in and create a wonderful hairstyle for her - with plenty of help from Zuri. This is a lovely story showcasing a tender father-daughter relationship and encouraging young readers to love the hair they have just as much as Zuri does.
Idan Ben-Barak & Julian Frost
Picturebook
Quog and Oort are on their way to Kevin's birthday party. Unfortunately, their spaceship has crashed. Pick up this book to lend them a hand!An interstellar exploration of hands and what's inside them, from the award-winning creators of the internationally successful Do Not Lick This Book.
Paul Mason
 & Dave Smith
Non-fiction

Hair-Raising Human Body Facts is a fascinating tour of the human body. As they read, children will learn a huge amount of intriguing facts about the body that they have inhabited since they were born. They will be desperate to share information – such as how your body sheds 50kg of skin by the time you are seventy and that the average human passes wind about twelve times a day!

Each colourful double-page spread focuses on one aspect of the body. The information is a mix of explanations, fact boxes, historical information and common myths about the body feature being discussed (Did you know that kissing a donkey was thought to be a cure for toothache in medieval Germany?).

Learners will enjoy the mixture of photographs, illustrations, speech bubbles and cartoons. The photographs also include images from a microscope, which are captivating.


Books about different types of people

Helen Hancocks
Non-fiction
Do you know why a chef's hat has 100 pleats? Or how many ways there are to tie a tie?Packed full of whacky facts and stunning clothes from designers and cultures around the world, as well as glorious illustrations featuring objects from the V&A, this book is a must-have for anyone who has ever wondered why we wear the clothes we do. 
Medeia Cohan-Petrolino
 & Sarah Walsh
Non-fiction
This book is a beautifully illustrated introduction to the shared custom of head covering. Using accurate terminology and brightly coloured imagery, Hats of Faith helps educate and prepare young children for our culturally diverse modern world. Encouraging an early and open dialogue between parents and children.
Nicola Edwards
 & Andrea Stegmaier
Non-fiction
Discover what daily life is like for children across the world as we explore everything from food to family, and learn how to greet new friends in lots of different languages. See where it's polite to slurp your food and bad manners to give the thumbs up, and find out where you might travel to school by cable car or sleep on an oven bed at night! A fascinating look at the lives of children across the globe.
Alexandra Penfold
 & Suzanne Kaufman
Picturebook

A simple but powerful rhyming picture book that shines a light on the importance of diversity and inclusivity in the classroom.

Right from its opening lines, “Pencils sharpened in their case, Bells are ringing, let’s make haste, School’s beginning, dreams to chase. All are welcome here,” the book exudes an essence of acceptance and unity that strikes a chord as pupils settle into the culture of their new class. The book uses the format of a school day to show how different classmates are equally included, and the repeated refrain of ‘All Are Welcome Here‘ is one that classes could easily adopt as their own motto.

For any school or teacher committed to diversity and inclusion, this is an essential book with a clear message elegantly conveyed through the journey of a group of children as they navigate a day at their school, where the very essence of seeking to make every individual welcome is the thread the runs through all of the pages. Each double page spreads come alive with vibrant depictions of children donning different cultural clothing, all engaged harmoniously in activities in an environment that is intentionally inclusive. This portrayal of a school thriving on shared learning from one another’s traditions is both heartening and thought-provoking.

Sophy Henn
Picturebook

All Kind of Families, written and illustrated by Sophy Henn, is a wonderful book to use across various opportunities in the primary classroom. It is an excellent resource to promote discussion and understanding of family diversity in humans and animals. By making links to animals, children gain a wider experience of different families, all underpinned by the theme of love. The book explores and promotes families with different parents, varying numbers of siblings and family sizes, roles of other individuals and adoption. Each is done sensitively to help children understand and embrace the naturally different shapes of families. The book would be most suitable for KS1 or lower KS2 but could be adapted for any age. Each theme is linked to a different animal and the final pages of the books give more information about each of those animals.


Jonathan Litton
 & L'Atelier Cartographik
Non-fiction

How do you say hello? How many other ways can you think of? This lift-the-flap book is a celebration of languages and cultures, showing people from different countries saying ‘hello’ in their native language. Find out what ‘hello’ in different languages looks and sounds like in this visually appealing non-fiction text.

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