The Skin You Live In
The Skin You Live In is children's picture book written by Michael Tyler and illustrated by David Lee Csicsko. Published by Chicago Children’s Museum in 2005, this delightful picture book offers a wonderful venue through which parents and teachers can discuss important social concepts with their children. With the ease and simplicity of a nursery rhyme, The Skin You Live In delivers an important message about race, inclusion, and social acceptance to young readers.[1]
Plot
The Skin You Live In explores the concept of skin to encourage self-esteem and to celebrate the ways in which children are both unique and similar. While Csicsko's cheerful, quirky art, which takes liberties with proportion and perspective, shows children of various skin colors engaged in different activities, the narrative invites readers to look at their skin.
"The skin you have fun in; the skin that you run in; the skin that you hop, skip and jump in the sun in." The text then uses food-related metaphors as it pays tribute to skin tones: "Your coffee and cream skin, your warm cocoa dream skin... Your chocolate chip, double dip sundae supreme skin!" By pointing out what skin is not , subsequent verses affably emphasize that skin should not be divisive: "It's not dumb skin or smart skin, or keep us apart skin; or weak skin or strong skin, I'm right and you're wrong skin." Portraying four smiling children, the concluding spread declares, "when we stand side-by-side in our wonderful hues... We all make a beauty, so wonderfully true. We are special and different and just the same, too!"[2]
Anti-racism value
The author, Michael Taylor, mentioned that ‘The Skin You Live In’ was written to promote acceptance, and he thinks that in this moment right now where we’ve seen division on a magnitude that we haven’t seen since 1968, perhaps, that this book can emerge as a tool for educators and parents to try to give that lesson to their children about acceptance. And it’s also the kind of book that when adults read it, it gives them a little internal audit themselves. The illustrator, David Lee Csicsko, also says that the book is a “really gentle way to talk about important issues.[3]
References
- ↑ The Skin You Live In. Retrieved on January 1, 2021.
- ↑ The Skin You Live In. Retrieved on January 1, 2021.
- ↑ Vitali, Marc (2020). Children’s Book ‘The Skin You Live In’ Back in the Spotlight. Retrieved on January 1, 2021.
