Books as Mirrors and Windows
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Author(s): Jennifer Susko
January 1, 2021
Using children’s books to address young students’ social/emotional learning (SEL) is a valuable strategy and one school counselors have used for a long time. Children’s books engage students and can help explain complicated topics. Although using children’s books to teach social/ emotional skills is nothing new, what may be new is using these books as part of a culturally sustaining school counseling program.
The ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors state that all students have a right to a comprehensive school counseling program that affirms students from diverse populations. A powerful way to ensure all students feel affirmed is by using children’s books featuring characters from diverse backgrounds. Rudine Sims Bishop is a legendary professor who coined the terms “windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors” in her famous essay on children’s literature to describe the significance of children reading books featuring characters from diverse backgrounds. It’s vital for students to read books with characters who look like them (mirrors) so they see their stories told and know that they matter. When students read books featuring characters they can relate to, who are also going through similar difficulties or achievements, it can affirm and empower students, especially when they have never encountered someone like themselves in books.
Additionally, it’s imperative for students to read books with characters who don’t look like them (windows) so they recognize the existence and value of other identities and appreciate and celebrate differences. Using their imagination, students can enter the story (sliding glass doors) and become part of that world.
Along with developing our multicultural competency, employing the concept of windows and mirrors when selecting literature to use in classroom lessons, groups and individual sessions instead of only choosing books based on specific topics enhances our impact, particularly if we utilize an anti-bias, anti-racist lens. Students of color already experience trauma from current media showing systemic racism playing out across the country and world. Not seeing themselves in books or stories featuring characters experiencing joy or achieving hopes and dreams diminishes their self-empowerment and self-love. The Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin – Madison collaborated with David Huyck and Sarah Park Dahlen to illustrate this problem in the publishing industry with a telling graphic rooted in Bishop’s windows and mirrors theory.
Obviously, white children are overrepresented in children’s books, and this can cause white students to develop an overinflated sense of self or superiority if all the books we use to teach SEL feature only white characters. Children of color in the Cooperative Children’s Book Center illustration are looking into much smaller mirrors to indicate how they have fewer opportunities to see themselves in stories. They are also looking into cracked mirrors meant to symbolize that even when they do see themselves reflected in books, it can be a skewed or stereotyped version of who they are depending on who wrote the book.
Although there are tons of children’s books out there written to confront specific social/emotional concerns, there are also award-winning children’s books by Black authors, Indigenous authors, authors of color and those from diverse backgrounds in terms of identity. The books may not be about the exact SEL issue you’re trying to address; however, they still tell stories about characters and families dealing with difficult issues in ways that engage and instruct.
Using books by authors from diverse communities instead of only books focused on a particular issue does more than just avoid the cracked-mirror representations. Incorporating books with diverse characters contributes to building an anti-racist school counseling program.
Including authors of color writing about their own communities ensures accurate, nonstereotyped character portrayal. Students then don’t see or internalize biased representations of groups of people, helping them learn to appreciate and celebrate others instead of discriminate or appropriate. Books by these authors also often relay important history and sociopolitical context related to various identities, races and cultures students otherwise might not learn about in their school curriculum.
For example, I use the book “As Good as Anybody” by Richard Michelson when teaching about test and general anxiety. The author was raised in a Jewish family, and the story is about the relationship between the actions of Rabbi Heschel and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the historic march to Selma for voting rights. Obviously, it’s not a book about test anxiety and, thus, not a conventional way to use children’s books to teach SEL. However, by discussing what the marchers might have said to themselves to be brave enough to continue marching after facing violence, my students learn about managing strong emotions through helpful self-talk. As a bonus, they also learn about a hugely important event during the Civil Rights Movement and how two leaders of different faiths worked together to achieve justice.
Using the book, “We are Water Protectors” by Carole Lindstrom when teaching about self-management addresses and broadens students’ understanding of responsibility and taking care of what belongs to us, as well as exposing them to people and perspectives often completely erased from their curriculum in school. While also not written specifically to address this SEL skill, when combined with discussion and carefully planned activities, this book could guide students to achieve ASCA’s behavior standard, B-SMS 1. Demonstrate ability to assume responsibility. Simultaneously, it opens their minds to learn about inexcusably underrepresented Indigenous people and their commitment to taking care of our Earth. The book’s author is enrolled tribally in the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe, which lends authenticity to the story and expands students’ multicultural knowledge.
School counselors must be intentional when deciding what to read to students. Choosing books and stories for students is a privilege and holds a lot of weight for several reasons. According to child development expert, Louise Derman Sparks, “The visual and verbal messages young children absorb from books (and other media) heavily influence their ideas about themselves and others. Depending on the quality of the book, they can reinforce (or undermine) children’s affirmative self-concept, teach accurate (or misleading) information about people of various identities and foster positive (or negative) attitudes about diversity. Children’s books teach children about who is important, who matters, who is even visible.”
Book Selection
To ensure you’re selecting quality children’s books to enhance students SEL development, it’s paramount to use websites and resources rooted in the foundational theory from Bishop’s essay on windows and mirrors. Additionally, to make the right selection of books to affirm all students, research and choose sites promoting anti-bias and anti-racist children’s literature. Here are a few websites I use when selecting the books for my classroom lessons and groups:
The Conscious Kid: This organization has been invaluable to me in my efforts to find anti-bias, anti-racist children’s books. In fact, I recently applied for their Anti-Racist Children’s Book Education Fund and received nearly 50 brand-new, free books aimed at empowering and educating my students. Their description of the program and why school counselors should care is worth reading: “Our Anti-Racist Children’s Book Education Fund provides children around the country access to books and resources that support important conversations about race, racism and resilience. These books affirm students from Black and brown communities, while also empowering youth from all backgrounds to take action against racism. Although over 50% of students in public school are students of color, curriculum remains Eurocentric and often lacks equitable and diverse representation of Black and brown experiences. Moreover, white students are not given models for how to disrupt racial inequity and demonstrate solidarity with Black and brown communities. There is considerable research showing that empowering representation, paired with content that specifically names and addresses race and racism, has positive academic and social outcomes for students of all races.”
Social Justice Books: This website contains a guide to selecting anti-bias children’s books using a traffic light system. Red lights signify “not recommended,” yellow lights mean “recommended with caveat” and green lights equal “recommended.”
The Tutu Teacher and Diverse Reads: Brooklyn kindergarten teacher Vera Ahiyya is known as @TheTutuTeacher on social media, where she shares excellent book recommendations. She also runs the account @diversereads on Instagram, where she shares books for all levels on many important topics that could be used powerfully in SEL lessons.
After ensuring you’ve chosen quality anti-bias/anti-racist books, you can begin to design classroom lessons and groups using bibliocounseling grounded in the windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors theory. First, by thinking creatively, identify the ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors standards you need to address, and then add a children’s book to help teach the associated SEL skills. Children’s books not only have the magical ability to help us teach students how to cope with and understand complex topics, they are also highly engaging, especially when we choose the ones our students relate to and learn from naturally.
Whether it’s reading “The Name Jar” to teach B-SS 4. Demonstrate empathy or “Mae Among the Stars” during a careers unit addressing M 4. Understanding that postsecondary education and lifelong learning are necessary for long-term career success, “The Proudest Blue” to tackle identity and M 3. Sense of belonging in the school environment or “Separate is Never Equal” to impart the importance of knowing when to B-SS 8. Demonstrate advocacy skills and ability to assert self when necessary, carefully selected children’s books go way beyond teaching SEL skills. School counselors who take advantage of that power offer a world of benefits to students.
Jennifer Susko is an elementary school counselor in Metro Atlanta. She serves on ASCA’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee and is a RAMP Award recipient who is passionate about doing anti-bias, anti-racist work to increase equity in schools.
The ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors state that all students have a right to a comprehensive school counseling program that affirms students from diverse populations. A powerful way to ensure all students feel affirmed is by using children’s books featuring characters from diverse backgrounds. Rudine Sims Bishop is a legendary professor who coined the terms “windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors” in her famous essay on children’s literature to describe the significance of children reading books featuring characters from diverse backgrounds. It’s vital for students to read books with characters who look like them (mirrors) so they see their stories told and know that they matter. When students read books featuring characters they can relate to, who are also going through similar difficulties or achievements, it can affirm and empower students, especially when they have never encountered someone like themselves in books.
Additionally, it’s imperative for students to read books with characters who don’t look like them.
Additionally, it’s imperative for students to read books with characters who don’t look like them (windows) so they recognize the existence and value of other identities and appreciate and celebrate differences. Using their imagination, students can enter the story (sliding glass doors) and become part of that world.
Along with developing our multicultural competency, employing the concept of windows and mirrors when selecting literature to use in classroom lessons, groups and individual sessions instead of only choosing books based on specific topics enhances our impact, particularly if we utilize an anti-bias, anti-racist lens. Students of color already experience trauma from current media showing systemic racism playing out across the country and world. Not seeing themselves in books or stories featuring characters experiencing joy or achieving hopes and dreams diminishes their self-empowerment and self-love. The Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin – Madison collaborated with David Huyck and Sarah Park Dahlen to illustrate this problem in the publishing industry with a telling graphic rooted in Bishop’s windows and mirrors theory.
Obviously, white children are overrepresented in children’s books, and this can cause white students to develop an overinflated sense of self or superiority if all the books we use to teach SEL feature only white characters. Children of color in the Cooperative Children’s Book Center illustration are looking into much smaller mirrors to indicate how they have fewer opportunities to see themselves in stories. They are also looking into cracked mirrors meant to symbolize that even when they do see themselves reflected in books, it can be a skewed or stereotyped version of who they are depending on who wrote the book.
Although there are tons of children’s books out there written to confront specific social/emotional concerns, there are also award-winning children’s books by Black authors, Indigenous authors, authors of color and those from diverse backgrounds in terms of identity. The books may not be about the exact SEL issue you’re trying to address; however, they still tell stories about characters and families dealing with difficult issues in ways that engage and instruct.
Using books by authors from diverse communities instead of only books focused on a particular issue does more than just avoid the cracked-mirror representations. Incorporating books with diverse characters contributes to building an anti-racist school counseling program.
Including authors of color writing about their own communities ensures accurate, nonstereotyped character portrayal. Students then don’t see or internalize biased representations of groups of people, helping them learn to appreciate and celebrate others instead of discriminate or appropriate. Books by these authors also often relay important history and sociopolitical context related to various identities, races and cultures students otherwise might not learn about in their school curriculum.
For example, I use the book “As Good as Anybody” by Richard Michelson when teaching about test and general anxiety. The author was raised in a Jewish family, and the story is about the relationship between the actions of Rabbi Heschel and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the historic march to Selma for voting rights. Obviously, it’s not a book about test anxiety and, thus, not a conventional way to use children’s books to teach SEL. However, by discussing what the marchers might have said to themselves to be brave enough to continue marching after facing violence, my students learn about managing strong emotions through helpful self-talk. As a bonus, they also learn about a hugely important event during the Civil Rights Movement and how two leaders of different faiths worked together to achieve justice.
Using the book, “We are Water Protectors” by Carole Lindstrom when teaching about self-management addresses and broadens students’ understanding of responsibility and taking care of what belongs to us, as well as exposing them to people and perspectives often completely erased from their curriculum in school. While also not written specifically to address this SEL skill, when combined with discussion and carefully planned activities, this book could guide students to achieve ASCA’s behavior standard, B-SMS 1. Demonstrate ability to assume responsibility. Simultaneously, it opens their minds to learn about inexcusably underrepresented Indigenous people and their commitment to taking care of our Earth. The book’s author is enrolled tribally in the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe, which lends authenticity to the story and expands students’ multicultural knowledge.
School counselors must be intentional when deciding what to read to students. Choosing books and stories for students is a privilege and holds a lot of weight for several reasons. According to child development expert, Louise Derman Sparks, “The visual and verbal messages young children absorb from books (and other media) heavily influence their ideas about themselves and others. Depending on the quality of the book, they can reinforce (or undermine) children’s affirmative self-concept, teach accurate (or misleading) information about people of various identities and foster positive (or negative) attitudes about diversity. Children’s books teach children about who is important, who matters, who is even visible.”
Book Selection
To ensure you’re selecting quality children’s books to enhance students SEL development, it’s paramount to use websites and resources rooted in the foundational theory from Bishop’s essay on windows and mirrors. Additionally, to make the right selection of books to affirm all students, research and choose sites promoting anti-bias and anti-racist children’s literature. Here are a few websites I use when selecting the books for my classroom lessons and groups:
The Conscious Kid: This organization has been invaluable to me in my efforts to find anti-bias, anti-racist children’s books. In fact, I recently applied for their Anti-Racist Children’s Book Education Fund and received nearly 50 brand-new, free books aimed at empowering and educating my students. Their description of the program and why school counselors should care is worth reading: “Our Anti-Racist Children’s Book Education Fund provides children around the country access to books and resources that support important conversations about race, racism and resilience. These books affirm students from Black and brown communities, while also empowering youth from all backgrounds to take action against racism. Although over 50% of students in public school are students of color, curriculum remains Eurocentric and often lacks equitable and diverse representation of Black and brown experiences. Moreover, white students are not given models for how to disrupt racial inequity and demonstrate solidarity with Black and brown communities. There is considerable research showing that empowering representation, paired with content that specifically names and addresses race and racism, has positive academic and social outcomes for students of all races.”
Social Justice Books: This website contains a guide to selecting anti-bias children’s books using a traffic light system. Red lights signify “not recommended,” yellow lights mean “recommended with caveat” and green lights equal “recommended.”
The Tutu Teacher and Diverse Reads: Brooklyn kindergarten teacher Vera Ahiyya is known as @TheTutuTeacher on social media, where she shares excellent book recommendations. She also runs the account @diversereads on Instagram, where she shares books for all levels on many important topics that could be used powerfully in SEL lessons.
After ensuring you’ve chosen quality anti-bias/anti-racist books, you can begin to design classroom lessons and groups using bibliocounseling grounded in the windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors theory. First, by thinking creatively, identify the ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors standards you need to address, and then add a children’s book to help teach the associated SEL skills. Children’s books not only have the magical ability to help us teach students how to cope with and understand complex topics, they are also highly engaging, especially when we choose the ones our students relate to and learn from naturally.
Whether it’s reading “The Name Jar” to teach B-SS 4. Demonstrate empathy or “Mae Among the Stars” during a careers unit addressing M 4. Understanding that postsecondary education and lifelong learning are necessary for long-term career success, “The Proudest Blue” to tackle identity and M 3. Sense of belonging in the school environment or “Separate is Never Equal” to impart the importance of knowing when to B-SS 8. Demonstrate advocacy skills and ability to assert self when necessary, carefully selected children’s books go way beyond teaching SEL skills. School counselors who take advantage of that power offer a world of benefits to students.
Jennifer Susko is an elementary school counselor in Metro Atlanta. She serves on ASCA’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee and is a RAMP Award recipient who is passionate about doing anti-bias, anti-racist work to increase equity in schools.