All the Colors We Are/Todos los colores de nuestra piel: The Story of How We Get Our Skin Color/La historia de por qué tenemos diferentes colores de piel

I had mixed feelings about the book “All the Colors We Are”. One reason that I liked the book was because it was very multicultural and answered a question that many children have- “How do we get our own special color of skin?” The book includes photographs of people that have all different

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shades of skin and includes text in Spanish, as well as English. The book explains how our skin color is determined by our ancestors, the sun, and melanin, which was meant to celebrate the essence of one way that we are all special and different from one another. However, I think that this book might lead children to believe that a lot of focus needs to be put on skin color and sounds a bit racist in parts. For instance, “Even though we often say the words, ‘He is black,’ or ‘She is white,’ all of us have skin that is a different shade of brown.” Some children may have been taught that it is rude and inappropriate to describe someone by saying “white” or “black” so this may confuse or offend them. Another instance is when the author writes, “What color is your skin? What name would you like to give the color of your skin?” I don’t think this is a good message to pass on to children, that you must name the color of your skin. While this book tackles an important issue, it seems to me that the book insinuates that our skin color is a defining factor of our person when we often try to teach children the opposite of this. The big idea of the book is to teach children why everyone’s skin is a different color.

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