cover image Raising the Rainbow Generation: Teaching Your Children to Be Successful in a Multicultural Society

Raising the Rainbow Generation: Teaching Your Children to Be Successful in a Multicultural Society

Darlene Powell Hopson. Simon & Schuster, $10 (205pp) ISBN 978-0-671-79806-2

``Whether a child is black, white, brown, yellow, or red, he or she is growing up with a negative or uninformed outlook toward people of other colors.'' The Hopsons, who are both parents and psychologists, concluded this after conducting the study that led to their previous book, Different and Wonderful: Raising Black Children in a Race-Conscious Society . Their new book is needed. In it, the authors examine the sources of racial and ethnic stereotypes and explore the attitudes of parents before dispensing advice about raising offspring. When they do dispense it (``Monitor what your youngsters watch on TV''; ``Encourage your child to have contact outside the school with classmates of other races''), the advice is grounded in real-life scenarios and current (or recent) events. It is realistic, not Pollyannaish, and well-focused, not preachy. A final chapter supplies folktales from around the world for reading aloud to young children. (Dec.)