Clive and His Babies

Inclusive Children's Book Teaching Guide

by Jessica Spanyol

What is this book about?

In this gentle, affectionate book—which celebrates diversity and challenges gender stereotypes—Clive tenderly cares for his two baby dolls as depicted on the cover.

Clive loves his dolls. He enjoys playing with them and sharing them with his playmates. Clive and his friends give the dolls stroller rides, feed them meals, dress them up, teach them how to use the potty and tuck them into their cardboard box bed.

A refreshing departure from children's stories that are too often implicitly or explicitly gendered, Clive and His Babies is a total delight!

Who is depicted in this book?

Children who transcend gender stereotypes about toys and forms of play

What early childhood themes and concepts does this book explore?

How to "care for" a baby doll, learned through pretend play

How does this book support anti-bias education?

Clive and His Babies highlights Clive's awareness of his play preferences and his self-confidence as he shares his dolls with various friends. Clive's play and toy choices represent a range of activities that move beyond gender stereotypes.

Depending on how the book is shared or used—and the developmental levels of the children—Clive and His Babies may be used to support the following core goal from Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves:

Identity—Teachers will nurture each child’s construction of knowledgeable and confident personal and social identities so that children will demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride and positive social identities.

How can this book be used to meet early childhood learning standards?

For all ages

Use Clive and His Babies to meet early childhood literacy standards >

For children from birth to age three

Teaching suggestion: Model different aspects of the babies’ daily routine—such as feeding, splashing, dressing and reading—while looking through the book. This can be done by imitating actions from the book, with or without a baby doll.

What Illinois Early Learning Guideline does this meet for children from birth to age three?

Developmental DomainCognitive Development

Standard: Symbolic ThoughtChildren demonstrate the understanding of concepts, experiences, and ideas through symbolic representation.

Indicators for children:

Engages in simple pretend play, such as pretending to feed a baby doll with toy bottle (7–18 months)
Engages in pretend play with familiar objects and experiences (16–24 months)
Builds in sequencing while engaged in play, such as getting a baby doll dressed to go outside, feeding the doll or putting the doll to bed (21–36 months)

Teaching suggestion: Point out the familiar forms of play that even the youngest children can react to, point at or name.

What Illinois Early Learning Guideline does this meet for children from birth to age three?

Developmental DomainSocial-Emotional Development

Standard: Relationship with PeersChildren demonstrate the desire and develop the ability to engage and interact with other children.

Indicators for children:

Begins to engage in parallel play, in closer proximity to other children but no interaction is attempted (7–18 months)
Begins to engage in simple reciprocal interactions, such as rolling a ball back and forth (16–24 months)
Demonstrates a preference for select peers (21–36 months)

For preschoolers (ages three to five)

Teaching suggestion: Clive and his friends care for their dolls in a variety of ways, acting out many different activities. Have children discuss the different actions that they see in the book and then act out ways to care for baby dolls in the dramatic play area. You can also incorporate dolls into a book share!

What Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards does this meet for preschoolers?

The Arts Standard25AInvestigate, begin to appreciate, and participate in the arts.

Benchmark 25.A.ECb:

Drama: Begin to appreciate and participate in dramatic activities.

See inside this book.

What other resources are available?

What are the four core goals of anti-bias education,and how do they apply to LGBTQ+ social justice?

Goal 1: IDENTITY

Teachers will nurture each child’s construction of knowledgeable and confident personal and social identities so that children will demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social identities.

Early childhood educators can work toward this goal by:

Encouraging children to express positive feelings about their gender identity and become comfortable with their own way of expressing gender

Creating opportunities for children of any gender to explore a wide range of opportunities, interests and activities

Encouraging children to share openly about their families

Goal 2: DIVERSITY

Teachers will promote each child’s comfortable, empathetic interaction with people from diverse backgrounds so that children will express comfort and joy with human diversity, use accurate language for human differences, and form deep, caring connections across all dimensions of human diversity.

Early childhood educators can work toward this goal by:

Teaching children about the diversity of people both within and across genders

Celebrating the uniqueness and assets of diverse families

Goal 3: JUSTICE

Teachers will foster each child’s capacity to critically identify bias and nurture each child’s empathy for the hurt that bias causes so that children will increasingly recognize unfairness (injustice), have the vocabulary they need to describe unfairness, and understand that unfairness hurts.

Early childhood educators can work toward this goal by:

Engaging in activities that help children recognize and challenge stereotypes

Helping children understand the unfairness of identity-focused harm

Questioning unfair depictions or erasure of LGBTQ+ families

Goal 4: ACTIVISM

Teachers will cultivate each child’s ability and confidence to stand up for oneself and for others in the face of bias so that children will demonstrate a sense of empowerment and the skills to act, with others or alone, against prejudice and/or discriminatory actions.

Early childhood educators can work toward this goal by:

Empowering children to claim their identity and gender

Modeling how to support others, regardless of their identities

Teaching children how to resist rejection, teasing or bullying

Interested in learning more about anti-bias education? Check out the book, Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves, by Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards (Second edition, 2020)