Talking With Kids About Protests

The most appropriate kids books for this moment

Many of us parents/caregivers have seen protests across the country over the past few days, including Los Angeles, California and New York City, where everyday people are pushing back against ICE in our communities and their ongoing attack on immigrants.

If you are in one of these communities, you remain in our hearts and on our minds.

If you are an immigrant parent/caregiver living in fear because of the brutal attacks from this administration, please know that you are loved and cherished beyond measure. If you are in need of legal support, Immigration Advocates Network provides the National Immigration Legal Services Directory here.

As parents/caregivers, we might be thinking about if and how to talk with our kids about protests happening in our communities. It’s critically important that we talk with our kids about these protests, even if they’re not in your direct community. We are living through historic times and our kids are absorbing more than we think they are.

Tabitha here: I did Career Day at our kids’ school recently and one child asked me if I include trans and non-binary people in the marches I help organize. Another asked if I ever help/go to marches for Palestine. Kids talk to each other and we want them to get accurate, fact-based knowledge about these critical times from us, their parents/caregivers.

So, if you’re in need of a conversation starter as it pertains to protest, we offer you the following resource in the form of a kids book with a educational parent/educator guide at the end: Daddy, There’s A Noise Outside by Kenneth Braswell.

This book was written in 2015 but is still applicable to this day. You’ll find excerpts from the Parent/Teacher Guide at the back, as well as some questions to be prepared to answer.

Here are a few more books to talk with kids about protests in the past and how they can inform us in the present. This video is dated a few weeks but it’s still very applicable.

@tabithastbIn the midst of convos about bouncy houses at protests, it’s important to teach our kids about what resistance to injustice has looked like in the past. This should not limit us but our ancestors’ activism can inspire us. This is not a comprehensive list because my family does not own every book in existence (we hope to one day), so please feel free to share any that you use with your kids to teach them about resisting unjust power. 👉🏽 Finding Lincoln 👉🏽 Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down 👉🏽 Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky 👉🏽 My Red, White and Blue

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

Over the next week, we’re launching a series on kids and protests where we’ll be delving into types of protests, safety, tips we’ve gathered from protesting with our kids for close to a decade, and so much more. Look out for that soon.

Take good care of yourself and your loved ones, okay? We have each other and together, we are building the antiracist world our children deserve. Let’s hold on to that.

Tabitha & Adam