All About Me Topic Booklist

This bright and colourful picture book is a joyful celebration of the uniqueness of each individual. The positive message of the book is not to worry about what you are not but to enjoy the things you are and “all the brills you’ve got!”. The illustrations are bright and fun, adding to the celebratory feel of the book.

This is a feel-good book for EYFS class book corners or to support primary pupils with an ‘All About Me’ topic. It encourages children to be confident in who they are and to embrace differences and accept others.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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!).

The You Choose series of books have seen enormous popularity and are well-loved by children because of the premise of letting the reader choose items from an appealing illustrated scene on each page. Readers are invited to select their favourite food, destination, clothing, hobby and family from a mix of plausible and not-so-plausible cartoon options, illustrated by the inimitable Nick Sharratt. These engaging books have mileage to be read over and over again, and children love interacting with them together with friends or family as they discuss their choices.

There is nothing that can quite take the place of this fantastically engaging series!

This book will appeal to many children in EYFS and Key Stage 1. Often in these years, children are growing at different rates which sometimes leaves some children inevitably smaller than others. Children will quickly identify with the hero of the narrative. This book captures that feeling so well and does so with great humour that will appeal to young readers. The use of rhyme brings the story to life and enables the listener to be carried along. It also makes it a fabulous read aloud that children will be able to predict and join in with as they become familiar with it. The illustrations capture the child’s expressions so well: expressions that range from frustration and anger to happiness.

The simple message of the book about friendship and the uniqueness and specialness of each of us, is one that children can’t hear enough. The illustrations offer plenty to explore beyond the story itself and add a further dimension to the story. There is ample opportunity to pause and discuss the feelings of the character, particularly when his teddy bear is stuck on the branch that is too high for him to reach, as well as giving children the chance to reflect on his ‘schemes’ to ‘grow tall quick’! This is a great accompaniment to the author’s (Laura Ellen Anderson) book in the same vein, ‘I don’t want curly hair’. This is a delightful story for young children.

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.

The book is perfect for an Early Years classroom library or would support an All About Me topic, linking with Knowledge and Understanding of the world (Science) and Maths.

The story introduces children to concepts for different types of non-standard measurement, facts about the five senses and interesting information about the human body related to measurement, for example, the smallest and largest bones in the body. The height chart at the back was a bonus and is also full of facts, which, when put on the wall, facilitated a lot of comparative language conversations in the classroom between children about their height.

The diverse illustrations include a child with a walking frame, a girl with a head scarf and a child with a tracheostomy collar. The number of opportunities to be curious is maximised in this book- a book that we will come back to again and again for sure!

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.

Funnybones follows the adventures of a well-loved family of skeletons.

These classic stories are full of humour and provide a great curriculum link into finding out about what lies inside the human body, or simply to read for the sheer delight of enjoying the characters and their night time adventures.

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.

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. This portrayal of a school thriving on shared learning from one another’s traditions is both heartening and thought-provoking.

All Kind of Families, written and illustrated by Sophy Henn, is a wonderful book to use across various opportunities in the preschool or 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 of all shapes and sizes, including those with different parents and varying numbers of siblings as well as roles of other individuals and adoption. Each is done sensitively to help children understand and embrace the naturally different shapes of families, using animals as a way of showing natural differences.

The book would be most suitable for EYFS and KS1 but could be adapted for older age groups too. Each theme is linked to different animal families and the final pages of the books give more information about each of those animals.

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.

Me, in the Middle is a brilliant and inclusive picture book that touches upon the different family trees that we all have and how this makes us different, unique and wonderful.

Initially started as work in school, Georgie is worried about creating her family tree, as she isn’t sure where she belongs. Working with her parents and looking at pictures of her family, she soon realises that her family tree stretches far and wide, across different continents, representing her mixed heritage. The comparison to tree branches runs throughout the story and is symbolic of the different family trees: not one looks the same as the other and that is okay. Some trees, like families, spread far and wide, whilst others are tall and narrow. In particular, the reference to all tree roots digging down into the same rich earth is a pivotal message about the importance of inclusion and sense of belonging, as well as being proud of your roots.

Various family trees are explored including one with adoption and two mums. The illustrations used throughout the book are engaging and beautiful. Readers will enjoy studying the different trees and may even spot one that symbolises their own family tree. The vocabulary used make the story easy to follow and could be used as part of a PSHE lesson to support with learning about families.Overall, this was a very enjoyable read, which leaves a lasting impression on the reader about the importance of celebrating difference.