Business in the Community (BITC), an Irish business organisation has launched a collaboration between the international consultancy group KPMG and Children’s Books Ireland.
The FREE TO BE ME collaboration “is a themed reading guide highlighting books that celebrate diversity, representation and inclusion for children and young people aged 0–18.” Resource packs have been produced for both Primary schools and Secondary schools in Ireland.
Primary school book suggestions include The Pirate Mums “suitable for children between the ages of 3 and 7.” This book is about a boy with lesbian parents.
Secondary school book recommendation includes titles like “This book is Anti-Racist – 20 lessons on how to wake up and take action and do the work” and “Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating” , a book “that’s great for talking about LGBTQ+ relationships, bullying and discrimination and growing up in Ireland as a person of colour, an immigrant or an ethnic minority”.
The full list of 369 children’s books can be viewed here including “When We say Black Lives Matter” and “Sex Ed – An inclusive teenage guide to sex and relationships”.
Children’s Books Ireland or KPMG do not mention if their joint initiative is approved by the Department of Education.
To date, 43 Primary Schools in Ireland have received a Free To Be Me Little Library. Thanks to the generous funding of KPMG, Citi, The Ireland Funds, DCEDIY, and William Fry, each winning school will receive:
• A diverse library of over 100 books from the Free To Be Me reading guide
• A specially designed Free To Be Me resource pack to support use of the books in the classroom
• Display materials including posters, stickers bunting and bookmarks
You can find out more about Children’s Books Ireland here.
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