Here’s another find via the excellent online immigrant/refugee news source, Sahan Journal. In this piece — After having a daughter, Reona Htoo couldn’t find children’s books in the Karen language. So she wrote one herself— St. Paul resident Htoo translates her love of the outdoors, and her effort to pass it on to her 22-month-old daughter, into a picture book aimed at kids one to three years old.

The book, My Little Legs, is a addition to what is otherwise a scant collection of books in Karen. The story notes that there are only 32 Karen-language books available in US libraries. Three of them are published by the St. Paul Public Library.

The story beneath My Little Legs is the discomfort people of color frequently feel in parks and other outdoor spaces. While people of color make up 20 percent of the Minnesota population, they comprise about five percent of state park visitors. See an examination of this issue, and efforts to address it, in a Sahan Journal article here.

Buy a copy of My Little Legs direct from Htoo by contacting her at NawHaChu@gmail.com.