Two new children's books show dilemmas that deal with children's economic situations. Adults might think this is something unknown to children, but my guess is that most children are a lot more aware of these differences than adults realize. The problem is that it's not something anyone talks about...maybe these books will help.

Isaac Jackson's Somebody's New Pajamas is a book for children in lower elementary school. Jerome, the main character becomes immediate friends with Robert, a new boy at school. Jerome's family faces economic problems, but the family's caring is as clear as their difficulties. It's also clear that Jerome has never thought about these things until he visits Robert's house where he's taken to a fancy restaurant, delights in the spaciousness, and is loaned a pair of pajamas. At home Jerome always sleeps in his underwear, and suddenly discovering the silky coolness of pajamas, makes him question how his family operates. Jerome grows quiet with these difficult thoughts, until he wonders aloud at using an old tablecloth when his grandmother visits. "There's been so much laughing around this table cloth, it could tell its own jokes, " his father says. "This family has it's own way of doing things. Grandma wouldn't have it any other way." Jerome's instantly relieved and grows even happier when Robert enjoys the differences when he spends the night at Jerome's. One of my favorite elements of the book is that both young boys are black, making a statement I've never seen in a children's book, that class and color are not always related. And most important of all, that while families may have different amounts of money, there can be equality in family love and respect.

Evelyn Coleman's The Glass Bottle Tree is a courageous picture book that I recommend for older elementary school students. The title refers to an African-American custom brought from Africa, where colorful bottles are stuck on a tree's limbs to contain the spirits of the family's ancestors. The young heroine lives with her grandmother and loves those spirits, but respects her grandmother's decision to "put all the spirits inside bottles, so they'd get ahold of themselves and behave." The girl and her grandmother have a deep and unwavering relationship with each other and their land. That relationship is often understood without words and this is misinterpreted when the "state's folk" visit. They decide that the grandmother's age and silence mean that the little girl "would be much better off living with a well-to-do family in a beautiful yuppety house....a real family." When they come to take the child, they believe the grandmother has gone even stranger, rocking and humming while the child grieves the coming loss. They can't hear, don't understand that the old woman is speaking to the spirits who are unleased and fling "those state's folks here and there and everywhere until they lie like worn out rag dolls." Their mind's entirely reversed, the state's folk leave forever. Evelyn Coleman's book can help children talk about everything from different ways of expressing love, prejudice, and definition of family by love, not economic circumstances.