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Open Books | Open Minds
Buy diverse books for your home library and give the same books to a child in the North Lawndale community.
Research shows that exposing children to a diverse array of characters in literature can affirm their own cultural identities and foster positive insights about those who are different from them.
But the vast majority of children’s books contain only white characters – and 61% of low-income families have no books at all in their homes.
Open Books | Open Minds seeks to address both sides of this problem. It’s simple:
- Parents who can afford to buy books for their early-grade children purchase a set of either 3 or 5 books featuring diverse characters and cultures for use in their home libraries.
- For every purchase Open Books provides the same 3 or 5 books to kids in the North Lawndale community.
To purchase books, click on your child’s grade level.
First Grade | Second Grade | Third Grade | Fourth Grade | Fifth Grade


I Walk With Vanessa 
I Love My Hair 
A Chair for My Mother 
Sweet Smell of Roses 

Not Norman: A Goldfish Story by Kelly Bennett 
Hot Day on Abbott Avenue by Karen English 
Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts 
Abuela’s Weave by Omar S. Castaneda 

Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold 
I Am Human: A Book of Empathy by Susan Verde 
Ron’s Big Mission by Rose Blue 
Ellray Jakes Is Not a Chicken by Sally Warner 

Seed Folks by Paul Fleischman 
Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson 
From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Jaene Marks 
Dough Boys 

Heart and Soul by Kadir Nelson 
Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes 
Rebound by Kwame Alexander 
Ghost by Jason Reynolds