When Benjamin Cohen sat down to read the story King and King, in which a prince falls in love with another prince, to his little nieces, he probably wasn’t expecting an outpouring of abuse from Twitter. But that’s exactly what he got.
Been busy reading a lovely gay inclusive book to my 3 and 1-year-old nieces 😀 pic.twitter.com/hKbfnSa5wt
— Benjamin Cohen (@benjamincohen) May 29, 2016
There are many children’s and YA books out there that teach tolerance and encourage their readers to be respectful of all types of people regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, disability, gender or sexuality.
Here are the top 10 quotes on tolerance from children and YA books:
A person’s a person no matter how small.
― Dr Seuss, Horton Hears a Who!
We all live with the objective of being happy: our lives are all different and yet the same.
― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
What was it about the differences in others that scared some people so much?
― Malorie Blackman, Noughts and Crosses
Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving.
― Kingsley Shacklebolt via JK Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
What exactly was the difference? he wondered to himself. And who decided which people wore the striped pyjamas and which people wore the uniforms?
― John Boyne, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Part of love is letting a person be who they want to be.
― David Levithan, Boy Meets Boy
This planet is for everyone, borders are for no one. It’s all about freedom.
― Benjamin Zephaniah, Refugee Boy
Any problem can be solved between people if only they can trust each other.
― Michael Morpurgo, War Horse
Just remember that sometimes the way you think about a person isn’t the way they actually are.
― John Green, Paper Towns
And it occurred to him that there were two parts to being a better person. One part was thinking about other people. The other part was not giving a toss what other people thought.
― Mark Haddon, A Spot of Bother
