Publisher: Lantana Publishing

Lantana Publishing is an award-winning children’s book publisher and social enterprise with a mission to publish inclusive books by authors from under-represented groups and from around the world.

Alice Curry founded Lantana when only one per cent of the children’s books published in the UK featured a character of colour as a protagonist. She wanted her biracial niece and nephews, and others like them, to be able to grow up seeing themselves in the books they read.

Each year, Lantana publishes a select list of exceptional titles promoting diversity and inclusion, social and racial justice, gender equality, pride, empathy, mindfulness and wellbeing, with beautifully illustrated stories that help happy little minds to flourish. Visit the Lantana Publishing website to find out more.

See all of the Lantana Publishing books featured on BooksForTopics below.

A Card for My Mum

Bashabi Fraser & Maanvi Kapur

Picturebook

This colourful, beautifully illustrated picture book delivers a deeply thoughtful and essential message to its young readers. With Mother’s Day fast approaching, the high street shops are overflowing with gifts. However, the young girl at the heart of this story only has enough pocket money for a card – subtly teaching children that it isn’t about how much you spend, but the love and thought that counts.

When she begins her search, she gives it a great deal of consideration. She reflects on what her mum looks like and the unique things she does that reflect their rich cultural heritage. Heartbreakingly, she cannot find a single card that mirrors her own mother.

Beyond celebrating the beautiful, enduring bond between a mother and daughter, this poignant story raises vital questions about belonging, inclusion and representation in arts and society – every child deserves to see their family reflected on the shelves. This is a heartwarming, culturally rich book which will could also spark meaningful conversations about diversity and love.

Mama’s Special Wonton Soup

Wai Mei Wong & Xin Yue Zhu

Picturebook

A gentle, feel-good tale about hospitality and the joy of sharing a meal, this is a good choice for looking at food, community or Chinese culture.

This story follows a young girl in a Southern Chinese village who is sent to the market to buy meat for Mama’s wonton soup. Her trip is full of classic childhood distractions, like splashing in puddles and trying to turn toads into princes. But it’s the kindness of her neighbours that really shines through. As she greets everyone with a zǎo ān (good morning), her empty basket is quickly loaded up with unexpected gifts like radishes, shrimps and sweet persimmons for the soup. In turn, she will share the food with the community once it’s ready.

There’s something a bit different about this book and it will add depth to your EYFS or KS1 collection. The earthy illustrations bring a warm-hearted community to life as well as connecting to the colours of the soup. It’s a lovely look at local life, community and the theme of ‘sharing is caring’.

The Playdate

Clara Dackenberg & Uje Brandelius

Picturebook

This is a unique and thought-provoking picture book about a girl’s playdate at another house. While the text describes a simple afternoon of games with her friend Henry, the illustrations quietly reveal a different story – the families live in completely different worlds, that Henry has access to (and even discards) toys that she can only dream of having, and the girl’s mum is evidently there to clean.

This is a book to truly ponder over, offering no easy answers or neat resolutions. Children can be prompted to consider the unspoken divide between words and pictures, which mirrors the unspoken class divide between the girl and her playdate companion. A brilliant pick for KS2 to explore subtext, social inequality and throwaway culture, especially as the words and pictures tell two very different versions of the narrative.

Rajiv’s Starry Feelings

Nanette Regan & Niall Moorjani

Picturebook

A lyrical, gentle and beautifully told story to help children name, understand and navigate a whole range feelings.

Ravi, like all of us, experiences the full spectrum of emotions from happy, silly and excited through to impatient or angry – and he beautifully articulates how confusing feelings can be as a young child, as sometimes he’s not sure why he feels a certain way or how he will feel next! After an angry outburst, Dad supports Ravi by gazing at the constellations in the night sky and they create their own shapes associated with different memories and feelings – the shape of happiness for Ravi being an astronaut chasing the moon, silliness is playing with the dog and gentleness is a soft hug. Other emotions are then represented allowing Ravi to describe why he was angry after an unkind incident at school, and Dad shows that with time and patience he can feel and work through these challenging experiences.

The link between constellations as an ancient guide and emotions as a guide to our actions is a deep and powerful theme within the story. The themes align with the PSHE curriculum and support the teaching of emotional literacy and developing empathy. This is such a beautiful and heartfelt story, and a really unique way to think about our emotions. It is great to see such a supportive father-son relationship represented too.

Letters in Charcoal

Irene Vasco & Juan Palomino

Picturebook

In the pueblo of Palenque in Colombia, hardly anybody knows how to read. Curious about the letters her older sister Gina receives from a young doctor each month — letters that she is sure contain promises of love — one young girl makes a decision that will change her life, and the lives of every child in the pueblo, forever. With the help of Señor Velandia, the owner of the village shop, she will slowly unlock the letters of the alphabet and discover the magic of reading. And soon she will make a discovery that is more miraculous still — that letters are literally all around her . . .

Translated by Lawrence Schimel.

The Brighter I Shine

Kamee Abrahamian & Lusine Ghukasyan

Picturebook

The Brighter I Shine is a wonderfully written and illustrated book that helps evoke conversations about family history and the importance of keeping memories alive. Intricately drawn pictures help bring the story together, with something different to look at each time you read the story.

Following a young girl, we learn about her ancestors through the stories she has been told, as all the things she discovers come to life through her birthday celebration.

This is a beautifully written story and the fact there are Armenian words intertwined within the text add to the depth of the story. The Brighter I Shine, would be a great book to use when exploring family trees or helping link to a topic about finding out more about a child’s own heritage. This book would be a wonderful introduction to exploring different cultures within a class. The note from the author at the end of the story featuring questions to help you explore your own ancestors really helps encapsulate and conclude the ideas of the book.

The Language of Flowers

Aaron Asis & Shyala Smith

Picturebook

Juhi helps her Appa in the flower shop. She understands the language of love and the messages that flowers can share e.g. affection, sorrow or an embrace. She knows how flowers can be offered as a language of faith such as offerings at a temple. But Juhi does not understand the language of grief.

In this evocative picturebook, Smith’s graceful writing is complimented beautifully by Asis’ illustrations. We learn with Juhi what grief looks like and how beauty can offer comfort in times of loss.

A heartfelt story about navigating grief, embracing self-expression, and discovering reasons to celebrate even in life’s most challenging times. Great for children who are curious about the loss of their loved ones.

Step Into My Shoes

Alkisti Halikia & Fotini Tikkou & Konstantine Matsoukas

Picturebook

Step Into My Shoes is a beautifully illustrated book that follows a little girl exploring the lives of others by ‘stepping into their shoes’. The story uses informal language to make it feel as if the little girl (Matou) is talking to you – the reader. This helps connect the reader and immerse them into the story.

The little girl discovers the mosque and sees the sea of shoes outside, by trying on different shoes she thinks about who they may belong to. The story follows Matou meeting new characters and bonding with new friends. This book makes you predict and think about what we can learn from others. The book can help enable conversations about how to consider other people’s feelings and what we can learn from the people around us. At first, Matou struggles with understanding why her Mum is so busy with work but once she steps inside her Mum’s shoes she starts to realise how hard her Mum is working.

This book would be perfect to help children widen their understanding of others and how important it is to consider how others are feeling.

Freedom Braids

Monique Duncan & Oboh Moses

Picturebook

Freedom Braids is a poignant, beautiful story about slaves finding an ingenious way to escape their captors.

Nemy is a little girl who is a slave on a Columbian plantation. Every day is the same – she sows seeds, pulls up weeds and strips leaves. One night she follows a woman everyone calls ‘Big Mother’ to a shack where women are gathered. They are braiding each other’s hair but these braids are extraordinary braids. Some hold seeds, some hide gold and some map out escape routes to help these slaves leave their captors to set up their own villages and communities.

I love how this book is based on the hope, strength and determination of the enslaved African women (and men). Their story deserves to be told again and again, and this book helps to do that. The next time I braid my daughters’ hair I will think about these enslaved women who were bold and brave enough to escape.

My Momo-La is a Museum

Mamta Nainy & Violet Kim

Picturebook

This book has such an intriguing title to explore with children – what or who is a momo-la and how can they be a museum? A moma-la, we soon infer, is the Tibetan name for a grandmother and the grandmother in this story takes her granddaughter on a day trip to lots of museums to show her where stories come from.

For many children, a visit from a grandparent is a special event and this story can encourage children to share some of their own stories about their grandparents and perhaps also inspire a renewed curiosity about the life of their grandparent. The Moma-la in this story reveals various aspects of her life through the objects and wonders found in the different museums, art galleries and craft centres that the pair visit. There is ample opportunity to explore the Tibetan culture through the traditional dress that is highlighted and through glimpses of the history of these people.

The clear and vibrant illustrations very effectively support the meaning of the words. The end note is a direct letter to the reader and is as important to read as the story, as it helps children begin to think about the stories that all families have in their histories. This is a powerful story and one that children will relate to.

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