Here are 36 books that Different Differenter fans have personally recommended if you like Different Differenter. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Our Skin: A First Conversation About Race

Shelley Rotner Author Of Shades of People

From my list on picture books about skin color.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an award-winning children’s book author and photo-illustrator of over sixty picture books. I got my first camera when I was five years old and have been taking pictures ever since. I realized in college that photography was my passion, and I studied photojournalism at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Soon after I received graduate degrees in early childhood education and museum education at Bank Street College of Education. After teaching kindergarten, first, and second grade, I combined my passions to create books. My books have always been about inclusivity and diversity. I hope all children can find themselves in my books to help them navigate the world they live in.

Shelley's book list on picture books about skin color

Shelley Rotner Why Shelley loves this book

I loved this book because it is a board book for a larger age group of kids and shows a range of kids and their skin color, showing kids doing what kids do—playing, learning, and living their lives.

I also love that this is a board book and appeals to younger children who are observing and trying to process the world they live in. Also, it is an early introduction to racism. This book represents all colors, and it is about inclusivity and the joy of being who you are.

By Megan Madison , Jessica Ralli , Isabel Roxas (illustrator)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Our Skin as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 2, 3, 4, and 5.

What is this book about?

Developed by experts in the fields of early childhood and activism against injustice, this topic-driven board book offers clear, concrete language and beautiful imagery that young children can grasp and adults can leverage for further discussion.

While young children are avid observers and questioners of their world, adults often shut down or postpone conversations on complicated topics because it's hard to know where to begin. Research shows that talking about issues like race and gender from the age of two not only helps children understand what they see, but also increases self-awareness, self-esteem, and allows them to recognize and confront…


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Book cover of The Time-Jinx Twins

The Time-Jinx Twins by Carol Fisher Saller,

Twelve-year-old identical twins Ellie and Kat accidentally trigger their physicist mom’s unfinished time machine, launching themselves into a high-stakes adventure in 1970 Chicago. If they learn how to join forces and keep time travel out of the wrong hands, they might be able find a way home. Ellie’s gymnastics and…

Book cover of The Colors of Us

Shelley Rotner Author Of Shades of People

From my list on picture books about skin color.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an award-winning children’s book author and photo-illustrator of over sixty picture books. I got my first camera when I was five years old and have been taking pictures ever since. I realized in college that photography was my passion, and I studied photojournalism at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Soon after I received graduate degrees in early childhood education and museum education at Bank Street College of Education. After teaching kindergarten, first, and second grade, I combined my passions to create books. My books have always been about inclusivity and diversity. I hope all children can find themselves in my books to help them navigate the world they live in.

Shelley's book list on picture books about skin color

Shelley Rotner Why Shelley loves this book

I loved this book because it is for younger kids who are just noticing details and differences in their new friends and people they have in their world.

Children are often asked to make self-portraits, and this book helps children focus on who they are, what they look like, and how to best try to represent themselves.

By Karen Katz ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Colors of Us as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

A positive and affirming look at skin color, from an artist's perspective.

Seven-year-old Lena is going to paint a picture of herself. She wants to use brown paint for her skin. But when she and her mother take a walk through the neighborhood, Lena learns that brown comes in many different shades.

Through the eyes of a little girl who begins to see her familiar world in a new way, this book celebrates the differences and similarities that connect all people.

Karen Katz created The Colors of Us for her daughter, Lena, whom she and her husband adopted from Guatemala…


Book cover of Happy in Our Skin

Shelley Rotner Author Of Shades of People

From my list on picture books about skin color.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an award-winning children’s book author and photo-illustrator of over sixty picture books. I got my first camera when I was five years old and have been taking pictures ever since. I realized in college that photography was my passion, and I studied photojournalism at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Soon after I received graduate degrees in early childhood education and museum education at Bank Street College of Education. After teaching kindergarten, first, and second grade, I combined my passions to create books. My books have always been about inclusivity and diversity. I hope all children can find themselves in my books to help them navigate the world they live in.

Shelley's book list on picture books about skin color

Shelley Rotner Why Shelley loves this book

This book is great for young kids as an introduction to the fact that we all come in many different skin colors and the joy of these differences is a good thing.

I really like the rhymes which add a playful tone for young readers. I also really like the energy of this book that makes for a fun read aloud.

By Fran Manushkin , Lauren Tobia (illustrator) ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Happy in Our Skin as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 2, 3, 4, and 5.

What is this book about?

“A cheeky meditation on the everyday miraculousness of skin. . . . It’s freewheeling fun.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Is there anything more splendid than a baby’s skin? Cocoa-brown, cinnamon, peaches and cream. As children grow, their clever skin does, too, enjoying hugs and tickles, protecting them inside and out, and making them one of a kind. Fran Manushkin’s rollicking text and Lauren Tobia’s delicious illustrations paint a breezy and irresistible picture of the human family — and how wonderful it is to be just who you are.


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Book cover of The Time-Jinx Twins

The Time-Jinx Twins by Carol Fisher Saller,

Twelve-year-old identical twins Ellie and Kat accidentally trigger their physicist mom’s unfinished time machine, launching themselves into a high-stakes adventure in 1970 Chicago. If they learn how to join forces and keep time travel out of the wrong hands, they might be able find a way home. Ellie’s gymnastics and…

Book cover of All The Colors We Are / Todos los colores de nuestra piel: The Story of How We Get Our Skin Color/La historia de por que tenemos diferentes colores de piel

Shelley Rotner Author Of Shades of People

From my list on picture books about skin color.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an award-winning children’s book author and photo-illustrator of over sixty picture books. I got my first camera when I was five years old and have been taking pictures ever since. I realized in college that photography was my passion, and I studied photojournalism at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Soon after I received graduate degrees in early childhood education and museum education at Bank Street College of Education. After teaching kindergarten, first, and second grade, I combined my passions to create books. My books have always been about inclusivity and diversity. I hope all children can find themselves in my books to help them navigate the world they live in.

Shelley's book list on picture books about skin color

Shelley Rotner Why Shelley loves this book

I love this book because it is photographs showing real kids and real skin colors.

I also love that it is bilingual. I like that it offers information about our ancestors and how geography makes a difference in your skin color because of the amounts of sun and melanin. It also includes activity ideas.

By Katie Kissinger ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked All The Colors We Are / Todos los colores de nuestra piel as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 3, 4, 5, and 6.

What is this book about?

The essential resource for 20 years!

Celebrate the essence of one way we are all special and different from one another—our skin color! This bilingual (English/Spanish) book offers children a simple, scientifically accurate explanation about how our skin color is determined by our ancestors, the sun, and melanin. It’s also filled with colorful photographs that capture the beautiful variety of skin tones. Reading this book frees children from the myths and stereotypes associated with skin color and helps them build positive identities as they accept, understand, and value our rich and diverse world. Unique activity ideas are included to help…


Book cover of Cyberfunk!

Eugen Bacon Author Of Mage of Fools

From my list on afro-centric speculative fiction from Africa.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am an African Australian writer and have a deep passion for black people's stories. I write across genres and forms, and my award-winning works are mostly Afrocentric. I have a master's degree in distributed computer systems, with distinction, a master's degree in creative writing, and a PhD in creative writing. I am especially curious about unique voices in black speculative fiction in transformative stories of culture, diversity, climate change, writing the other, and betwixt. I am an author of several novels and fiction collections, and a finalist in the 2022 World Fantasy Award. I was announced in the honor list of the 2022 Otherwise Fellowships for ‘doing exciting work in gender and speculative fiction’.

Eugen's book list on afro-centric speculative fiction from Africa

Eugen Bacon Why Eugen loves this book

Cyberfunk! Anthology extends a new conversation in black speculative fiction by offering cyberpunk with an Afrocentric flavour. Taking stories from Africa and the diaspora, this anthology integrates light and darkness, social justice, and inclusion in black hero/ines as you’ve never seen them before. Each story invites openness and expands the interpretation of black writing and the rising power of the black voice. Featuring stories from Hannibal Tabu, John Jennings, Balogun Ojetade, and edited by a keen-sighted pioneer author, editor, and publisher Milton J. Davis. Find out how to play the odds in a twisted world.   

By Milton Davis ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Cyberfunk! as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

What is Cyberfunk? It is a vision of the future with an Afrocentric flavor. It is the Singularity without the Eurocentric foundation. It's Bladerunner with sunlight, Neuromancer with melanin, cybernetics with rhythm.
Nineteen amazing Black Speculative Fiction authors have come together to share their visions on the pages of this book. Prepare to be mesmerized by their stories.

Featuring stories by Eugen Bacon, Zig Zag Clayborne, Gerald L. Coleman, Ashleigh Davenport, Milton J. Davis, Minister Faust, Donovan Hall, John Jennings, Ronald Jones, Nicole Givens Kurtz, Kyoko M, Carole McDonnell, Violette Meier, T.C. Morgan, Balogun Ojetade, Hannibal Tabu, Jarla Tangh, Napoleon…


Book cover of Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times

Jesse Cohn Author Of Underground Passages: Anarchist Resistance Culture, 1848-2011

From my list on how might one live an anarchist life.

Why am I passionate about this?

I knew I was an anti-authoritarian before I had words for it, and my education in social justice has been long and slow. I have been researching and writing about anarchism for the better part of three decades, and am now a board member of the Institute for Anarchist Studies. Anarchy is a subject that engages me both at the level of intellectual passion, what lights up my mind, and on a visceral level, in my revulsion at the inequalities and iniquities in this world and my yearning for a fully emancipated way of life.

Jesse's book list on how might one live an anarchist life

Jesse Cohn Why Jesse loves this book

When I opened this book, I knew immediately that I was among friends. This is a handbook for constructing the kind of life in which joyful effects—associated with comradeship and mutual empowermentmight flourish. Eminently practical and down-to-earth, but also informed by a philosophical tradition stretching back through the anarchists to Baruch Spinoza in which life is not reducible to the “recipes” of self-help books but is a creative search for wider possibilities, for the “capacity to participate in something life-giving.” Written in contact with Indigenous and feminist social movements, this is also a guide to avoiding the kinds of blockages and dead ends on which such movements often founder.

By Nick Montgomery , Carla Bergman ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Joyful Militancy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Absolutely what we need in these days of spreading gloom." —John Holloway, author of Crack Capitalism

"A guide to a fulfilling militant life." —Michael Hardt, co-author of Assembly

"Rigid radicalism" is the congealed and debilitating practices that suck life and inspiration from the fight for a better world. Joyful Militancy investigates how fear, self-righteousness, and moralism infiltrate and take root within liberation movements, what to do about them, and ultimately how tenderness and vulnerability can thrive alongside fierce militant commitment.

Carla Bergman co-edited Stay Solid: A Radical Handbook For Youth.

Nick Montgomery is an organizer and writer currently at Queen's…


Book cover of 'I Still Find That Offensive!'

Dennis Hayes Author Of The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education

From my list on recognising the therapeutic turn in education.

Why am I passionate about this?

Writing articles for the education press I became aware of how children and young people were presented as vulnerable, as potential victims. Sometimes they also saw themselves in this way as weak, unable to cope, and lacking in the ability to take control of their lives. This seemed to me to be damaging and needed challenging. But writing about the therapeutic turn was not enough. What had to be challenged was the fear of freedom and speech and debate that were essential to beginning to take control of your life. In response I set up Academics For Academic Freedom, the leading campaign group for free speech, no ifs, no buts. 

Dennis' book list on recognising the therapeutic turn in education

Dennis Hayes Why Dennis loves this book

Claire Fox is the founder of the Academy of Ideas, a think tank that has produced the annual Battle of Ideas Festival for over a decade and a half. Fox is passionate about freedom and speech and debate. This short polemical book begins and ends with how young people have adapted to victim culture. It begins with an example of how genuinely hurt young people are when hearing views that they found offensive. This book is said to have been responsible for the introduction of the concept of the ’snowflake generation’ into the UK. But Fox is nuanced in her approach, and she ends her book with a ‘Letter to the Snowflake Generation’ and a ‘Letter to the Anti-Snowflake Generation’. Her book should be mandatory reading for anyone beginning university.

By Claire Fox ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked 'I Still Find That Offensive!' as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW AND UPDATED EDITION OF THE BOOK THAT INTRODUCED THE TERM `SNOWFLAKE'

When you hear that now ubiquitous phrase `I find that offensive', you know you're being told to shut up. While the terrible murder of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists demonstrated that those who offend can face the most brutal form of censorship, it also served to intensify the pre-existing climate that dictates we all have to walk on eggshells to avoid saying anything offensive - or else.
Indeed, competitive offence-claiming is ratcheting up well beyond religious sensibilities. So, while Islamists and feminists may seem to have little in common,…


Book cover of The Rise of Victimhood Culture: Microaggressions, Safe Spaces, and the New Culture Wars

Keith E. Stanovich Author Of The Bias That Divides Us: The Science and Politics of Myside Thinking

From my list on university identity politics and political correctness.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an emeritus professor living in Portland, Oregon, officially retired, but still writing articles and books. Although I am a lifelong US citizen, I spent the heart of my career as the Canada Research Chair of Applied Cognitive Science at the University of Toronto. Most of my books are about aspects of rationality, especially cognitive biases. I have also worked on tools for measuring individual differences in rationality. Lately, I have focused on ways to reduce political polarization by taming the myside bias that plagues all human thought, and by reforming institutions (especially universities) that are currently failing in their role as knowledge adjudicators. 

Keith's book list on university identity politics and political correctness

Keith E. Stanovich Why Keith loves this book

Campbell and Manning are sociologists who trace how a new moral culture of victimhood has given rise to political correctness. The new moral culture combines the properties of the old culture of honor and the old culture of dignity in a uniquely toxic way. The new victimhood culture borrows from honor culture its extreme sensitivity to insult, but borrows from the culture of dignity the tendency to call upon authorities and institutions to resolve disputes, rather than deal with them on a personal level. The victimhood culture is what has spawned the repressive campus environment of micro-aggressions, deplatforming, and bias response teams.

By Bradley Campbell , Jason Manning ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Rise of Victimhood Culture as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Rise of Victimhood Culture offers a framework for understanding recent moral conflicts at U.S. universities, which have bled into society at large. These are not the familiar clashes between liberals and conservatives or the religious and the secular: instead, they are clashes between a new moral culture-victimhood culture-and a more traditional culture of dignity. Even as students increasingly demand trigger warnings and "safe spaces," many young people are quick to police the words and deeds of others, who in turn claim that political correctness has run amok. Interestingly, members of both camps often consider themselves victims of the other.…


Book cover of Smokepit Fairytales

Damien Larkin Author Of Big Red

From my list on military books written by veterans.

Why am I passionate about this?

I served for seven years in the Irish Reserve Defence Forces, finishing as a weapons specialist in the infantry. I’m very grateful for the time I served in uniform and the lifelong lessons I learned that have helped me in my personal and professional life. Being a lifelong fan of military science fiction, I wrote Big Red from the point of view of a young Irish soldier thrown into a genocidal war on Mars. I’m a co-founder of the British and Irish Writing Community and our online magazine Bard of the Isles.

Damien's book list on military books written by veterans

Damien Larkin Why Damien loves this book

Smokepit Fairytales is one of the most provocative, original and surreal works of military science fiction I’ve ever read. Written by US Marine veteran Tripp Ainsworth, Smokepit Fairytales is the first book in an epic series following the trials and tribulations of a small band of Marines. Each of the characters in this book are normal, flawed human beings trying to pass the boredom in between deployments with anything they can do to distract themselves. When a war unexpectedly breaks out, they must face down their fears and band together to get the job done and get home in once piece.

This book is not for the fainthearted, but from the sheer volume of 5-star rankings on Amazon, it is not one to be missed.

By Tripp Ainsworth ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Smokepit Fairytales as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Hank and his trusty Corpsman, "Doc," only thought they knew what to expect when they were deployed to Iraq, but after getting trapped in an ancient Babylonian temple, things only got weird. After months of combat in a war that wouldn't end, Hank returns to California to face a different type of immigrant, the kind that comes from space.
Follow Hank through this wildly imaginative science fiction romp as he tries to figure out what it means to be human, or if he even still is one.


Book cover of The Remarkable Life of the Skin: An Intimate Journey Across Our Largest Organ

Roy A. Meals Author Of Muscle: The Gripping Story of Strength and Movement

From my list on friend your body’s marvelous machines.

Why am I passionate about this?

I've been in love with biology since first playing with earthworms and marveling at the sprouting of radish seeds as a five-year-old. Further interest and curiosity led me to positions as nature counselor at summer camps and an eventual college degree in biology. Medical school was at times tedious, but the efficient, compact, durable mechanics of the musculoskeletal system totally engaged my interest. A residency in orthopedic surgery and a fellowship in hand surgery were natural follow-ons. My other passion is a love of teaching, taking a learner from where ever their understanding is presently and guiding them to what they need to know next. And they should have fun in the process.

Roy's book list on friend your body’s marvelous machines

Roy A. Meals Why Roy loves this book

Although skin is highly visible and a good indicator of health, habits, and age, its complexity and significance for overall health are often overlooked. Dermatologist, historian, and world traveler, Lyman demystifies the body’s largest organ.

He explains commonly encountered conditions such as blushing, goosebumps, and itching. With engaging stories, Lyman also informs about rarely encountered conditions, past and present, that illustrate the amazing capacity of the skin to fend off infection, dehydration, and other perils of the outside world as well as assaults from within.

Additionally, skin is rich with social and psychological significance. You will be compelled to take better care of your body’s wrapping having read the book. 

By Monty Lyman ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Remarkable Life of the Skin as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

- Shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2019
- A Sunday Times 'MUST READ'
- 'An exciting introduction to a little-known microscopic universe.' Sunday Times
- 'A seriously entertaining book.' Melanie Reid, The Times
- As read on RADIO 4's BOOK OF THE WEEK
_______________

How does our diet affect our skin? What makes the skin age? And why can't we tickle ourselves?

Providing a cover for our delicate and intricate bodies, the skin is our largest, fastest growing and yet least understood organ. We see it, touch it and live in it every day. It's a habitat…


Book cover of Our Skin: A First Conversation About Race
Book cover of The Colors of Us
Book cover of Happy in Our Skin

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