15 Picture Books to Help Learners Consider Different Viewpoints

We can’t truly feel how another person feels. However, we can begin to consider life experiences through another person’s point of view. As we explore different perspectives, we can begin to grow into more compassionate, understanding, and kind individuals. 

Picture books are a great resource for helping learners consider different viewpoints. They provide the opportunity for learners to step inside different characters and situations, to see things from multiple angles, and to view life through the eyes of another, which helps to break down preconceived ideas and stereotypes. 

Pairing picture books with thinking routines is another great resource to foster the thinking of considering different viewpoints. The thinking routines create a structure for learners to document their thinking as they explore different perspectives and uncover new insights and understandings. These tools can be used individually or as a way to document the collective thinking of a group. 

To help you and your learners consider different viewpoints, I’ve created a list of 15 picture books for you to use. The recommended books explore topics of poverty, injustice, bullying, loss, and cultural identity. Below each recommended book, you will find some suggested routines you can use to push your students’ thinking and understanding. Together, we can help increase our awareness of perspectives and experiences that are different from our own. 

Knock Knock: My Dad’s Dream For Me by Daniel Beaty and illustrated by Bryan Collier

Synopsis: A boy wakes up one morning to find his father gone. At first, he feels lost. But his father has left him a letter filled with advice to guide him through the times he cannot be there.

Beaty shares in his author’s note how difficult life was growing up with a single mom and an incarcerated dad. He decided to write this story to share the perspective of loss from a child’s point of view and show fatherless children that they can still grow up into greatness.

Routine to Use: Step Inside– Consider the thoughts, feelings, and viewpoint of the son

Extension- Listen to the author’s poetry retelling of Knock Knock 

The Water Princess by Susan Verde and Georgie Badiel and illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds 

Synopsis: A young girl named Gie Gie must walk for miles each day to bring drinking water to her African village. She dreams of the day when her village will have access to fresh, clean, crystal-clear water. 

Based on Georgie Badiel’s true childhood experiences, this novel illuminates the suffering and struggles of the one billion people in the world who do not have access to fresh, clean water. 

Routine to Use: Step Inside– Consider the thoughts, feelings, and viewpoint of young Gie Gie

We’re All Wonders by R.J Palacio

Synopsis: Auggie enjoys the company of his dog, Daisy, and using his imagination, but painfully endures the taunts of his peers because of his facial deformity.

Routine to Use: Step Inside– Consider the thoughts, feelings, and viewpoint of Auggie

Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña and illustrated by Christian Robinson 

Synopsis: A young boy rides the bus across town with his grandmother and learns to appreciate the beauty in everyday things.

Routine to Use: Circle of Viewpoints

Tight Times by Barbara Shook Hazen and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman 

Synopsis: A small boy, not allowed to have a dog because times are tight, finds a starving kitten in a trash can on the same day his father loses his job.

Routine to Use: Circle of Viewpoints

The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig and illustrated by Patrice Barton

Synopsis: Brian has always felt invisible at school, but when a new student, Justin, arrives, everything changes.

Routine to Use: Circle of Viewpoints

A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams

Synopsis: A child, her mother, and grandmother save dimes to buy a comfortable chair after all their furniture is lost in a fire.

Routine to Use: Step Inside

Those Shoes by Beth Boelts and illustrated by Noah Z. Jones

Synopsis: Jeremy, who longs to have the black high tops that everyone at school seems to have but his grandmother cannot afford, is excited when he sees them for sale in a thrift shop and decides to buy them even though they are the wrong size.

Routine to Use: Circle of Viewpoints

Why Am I Me? by Paige Britt and illustrated by Selina Alko and Sean Qualls

Synopsis: In a poetic, philosophical exchange, two children of different races ask themselves why they are who and what they are, and speculate on how they could be different.

Routine to Use: Step Inside 

Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine and illustrated Kadir Nelson 

Synopsis: The story of how, in 1849, a Virginia slave, Henry “Box” Brown, escaped to freedom by shipping himself in a wooden crate from Richmond to Philadelphia.

Routine to Use: Step Inside

Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn and illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright & Ying-Hwa Hu

Synopsis: Sam must decide how to spend the lucky money he’s received for Chinese New Year.

Routine to Use: Circle of Viewpoints

My Two Blankets by Irena Kobald and illustrated by Freya Blackwood 

Synopsis: A homesick little girl who has recently moved to an unfamiliar country comforts herself by clinging to an old blanket, but when she meets a new friend, the relationship helps her take her first steps into a new culture.

Routine to Use: Circle of Viewpoints

Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson and illustrated by E. B. Lewis 

Synopsis: When Ms. Albert teaches a lesson on kindness, Chloe realizes that she and her friends have been wrong in making fun of new student Maya’s shabby clothes and refusing to play with her.

Routine to Use: Step Inside or Circle of Viewpoints

I Am Not a Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis & Kathy Kacer and illustrated by Gillian Newland 

Synopsis: A picture book based on a true story about a young First Nations girl who was sent to a residential school.

Routine to Use: Step Inside

Zen Ties by Jon J Muth

Synopsis: Summer has arrived — and so has Koo, Stillwater’s haiku-speaking young nephew. And when Stillwater encourages Koo, and his friends Addy, Michael, and Karl to help a grouchy old neighbor in need, their efforts are rewarded in unexpected ways.

Routine to Use: Circle of Viewpoints

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Have an idea for a picture book you think I missed? Let me know in the comments below!