Resources for Raising Conscious Kids: February 2023 Edition

As an agency, Bridgetown Baby is deeply committed to confronting bias within ourselves, building our skills, and creating an inclusive model of care that authentically serves our clients and contributes to culture change. This is work we all can do. It starts with us; it continues with our children - and we are their most important teachers. Each month, we'll be sharing resources for talking with kids about bias, celebrating diversity, and actions our families can take to create a world we all can live in.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones’ 1619 podcast was a guiding resource in the first year of our social justice study group at Bridgetown Baby. So we’re delighted to highlight her collaboration with Newbery honor-winning author Renée Watson as our book recommendation for this Black History Month.

Born on the Water follows the process of discovery for one young student whose family history assignment hits a roadblock when she can only trace back three generations. Her grandmother and the rest of her family fill in the gaps, weaving a fuller story that started not on US soil but when their ancestors were stolen from their homes and brought to America by slave traders.

This is a story of how those born on the water survived, and in the lyric verse of this one family’s tale readers will find a celebration of the richness of African American history - land, language and traditions; the consequences of slavery - and of a future shaped by Black resistance and resilience.

You can find Born on the Water at Portland’s local Black-owned independent book shop, Third Eye Books.