Saturday, January 12 at 10 am, the Orion Township Public Library will hold a Family Reading and Science Workshop, a free, hands-on learning event for the whole family. The University of Michigan Museum of Natural History is partnering with the Orion Library to present Family Reading & Science Workshops once a month now through April. The theme for January 12 is "Just Like Me? Exploring Culture, Biology and the Human Experience."

To get even more out of the workshop with your young ones, check out Shades of People, a gorgeous book by Shelley Rotner and Sheila M. Kelly!

“Have you noticed that people come in many different shades? Not colors, exactly, but shades.” Rotner and Kelly open the door to discuss skin colors in the most lovely of ways, with photographs of smiling children. Children with golden skin, with freckles, with lusciously dark skin, with rosy pink cheeks. “Our skin is just our covering, like wrapping paper. And, you can’t tell what someone is like from the color of their skin.”

So before you read this book, wrap it up in paper so the cover can’t be seen. Hold it up for your kids to guess what the book is about. Can’t tell what’s inside just by looking at the wrapping? Just like a present! And, just like a person! Read Shades of People with your kids and talk about the descriptive adjectives. How would you describe your skin? I’m sort of peachy-ivory – how about you? After you’ve read and enjoyed the book, get out the paint and let kids paint pictures of themselves. Let them experiment with mixing colors to match their skin tones. Even if you only have the basic primaries, it’s a good science and art experiment to add a bit of red and yellow and even blue to white and black and brown. Celebrate all the colors in our world!

For more information, visit shelleyrotner.com.

For more book recommendations and fun activities, please visit kristenremenar.com.