Something Happened in Our Town (A Child's Story About Racial Injustice)

Unfortunately, this is a much needed book in our world right now. It tries to explain to children about the shooting of an unarmed black man. The parents of a white child and of a black child each explain to their children about the history of racism, slavery and how people are unfairly treated

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based upont he colour of their skin or their names. In one family a teenage brother also shared his ideas, which show us that there is much work to be done. The idea is to try and teach them to change this pattern and unfairness. In the book, the children pair up to help a new child feel welcome in their school. This child is named Omad. This is also timely as there are so many refugees in both Canada and the U.S. and are often targeted as terrorists. Even though the book is explaining the shooting of a black man, it is able to be used to show racism about any group. What a wonderful book to read to children in middle grades, especially when doing a unit on Social Justice. The youth will change the world and this is a good start to education them about the injustices that occur. This is not a book I would read to young children, I would use it with children in junior grades and up. The publisher, Magination Press, generously provided me with a copy of this book to read. The rating, opinions and ideas are my own.

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This is a bit didactic, but it's a great conversation starter with kids. I wish this existed when I was a kid.

I picked this up for Banned Book Week back in September but didn't manage to get to it for a while. But it's definitely a worthwhile read and deserves a wide audience as a tool to help open conversations with children about racism and injustice. It's a little awkward as far as being a story, but

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that's obviously not its main purpose.

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This book is about two children - one white girl, one black boy - and how their family talks to them about an event that happens in their town. The event, a cop killing an unarmed black man, raises questions for both children about why this happens, and the history of white vs. black.

Wow! I hate that this book must exist, but it must. A black man was shot. Exactly why or what happened is not known. It doesn’t need to be known because this book is about how it impacts the town's kids. They see and hear things just like adults, but they need more context, more explanation on

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why things happen. They also want to know how to keep it from happening again. Everything about this book is spot on. Even the information in the back is expansive, important, and necessary. For those out there trying to ban this book because it might make white children feel inferior or sad for history and current society, too bad. Because the black, brown, and other children feel worse as it is their people, they see these bad things happening to. This book is a very important resource that should be in all libraries and schools. We need to learn from history to make a better society, for if we don’t we will repeat it.

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