The Shade Tree is a wonderful book that your children will discover the essence of who they are. During your child's early years they will be bombarded with outside influences that seek to set them an image of who they are that is contrary to the values most of us would like to instill as parents. Before turning introspective, children will form a self-image that early on looks at the outward appearances. The world says that bad guys wears black, that evil and magic are the dark arts, that the brown cake is Devil's food cake. Systematically, and relentlessly, our children are indoctrinated that the color of the face staring back at them in the mirror is associated with all things bad. Not only must we remove the negative imagery, but we must then replace the negative with the positive. This book, The Shade Tree, is a tool that will help children not only feel good about themselves, but also to embrace all the various different skin shades in the diaspora. Your child will also have fun reading the colorful book that can also be performed as a skit which celebrates a parade of beautiful skin colors and thereby teach large numbers at once a love for self and a love for others regardless of skin color and what stigmas society attempts to attach.