The mission of Multicultural Children's Book Day is"to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these of books into classrooms and libraries."
What are multicultural children's books?
Multicultural children’s books are:
- Books that contain characters of color as well as main characters that represent a minority point of view.
- Books written by an author of diversity or color from their perspective. Search #ownvoices to discover diverse books written by diverse authors.
- Books that share ideas, stories, and information about cultures, race, religion, language, and traditions. These books can be non-fiction, but still written in a way that kids will find entertaining and informative.
- Books that embrace special needs or even “hidden disabilities” like ADHD, ADD, and anxiety.
Celebrating diversity is a huge part of my job as a book blogger, librarian, and reader.
I'll never forget the first day I walked into my first library in Houston ISD, a school that was listed as over 80% Hispanic, with one third of the students enrolled in bilingual education. When I asked about books that were in Spanish, I was shown to a tiny section of three small bookshelves. How sad, I thought, and finding diverse books became my mission.
My second school library is located in the Texas Medical Center and is exceptionally diverse, with over fifty different languages spoken in the home. Again, I sought out books that were in all fifty languages, a very challenging job.
My third school library is in my hometown, and again I faced the job of finding books in Spanish for our large bilingual population. This school is a PreK-2 only school, and the importance of having many beautiful books in Spanish for young readers is critical.
How happy I am this year to be asked to review two books for young children in Spanish and English!
Travel around the Spanish-speaking world in ¡Números, Baby! by Lisa Hall and Golzar Kheiltash. Every young child loves a counting book, and you couldn't find a more perfect counting book for young Spanish-speaking children than this. For very young children, the pictures and text work as an ideal book for counting in Spanish and English. For slightly older children, the pictures and text work as an introduction to Spanish culture around the world. In the book, children can experience intriguing sites and events in the native cultures of Peru (the Nazca Lines), Panama (Desfile de las Mil Polleras), Costa Rica (Parque Nacional Volcan Arenal), Bolivia (Salar de Uyuni), Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala (Festival de Barriletes Gigantes), Spain, and Argentina. All this in a little board book with only a few words of text on each page. Delightful!
For more information on the book, take a look at the Baby Ventures Books website or Amazon.
Tariq's mom had a baby, and Tariq is eager to share with his teacher and his class how the family celebrated the arrival of Tariq's new baby brother. The teacher decides to use this experience as a jumping-off point for the class to share the ways their diverse families celebrated the arrival of new babies in their cultures. One girl brings a little red egg, and explains that the red color is an offering of good luck to a new baby. A boy shares an aloe leaf with the other students who taste the bitterness of the leaf, and then offers a pot of honey to the children who then taste the sweetness, a lesson to the new baby that life can be both bitter and sweet. Many other traditions are shared in the story, and readers can enjoy learning about the many ways new babies are celebrated around the world. As an added bonus, this book is available in twenty-eight different languages. Finding a story about the beautiful diverse traditions of welcoming a new baby into the world that is available in so many different languages is a delight.
For more information about the book, take a look at Language Lizard or Amazon.
MCBD 2019 is honored to have the following Medallion Sponsors on board!
*View our 2019 Medallion Sponsors here: https://wp.me/P5tVud-*View our 2019 MCBD Author Sponsors here: https://wp.me/P5tVud-2eN
Medallion Level Sponsors
Honorary: Children’s Book Council, The Junior Library Guild, TheConsciousKid.org.
Super Platinum: Make A Way Media
GOLD: Bharat Babies, Candlewick Press, Chickasaw Press, Juan Guerra and The Little Doctor / El doctorcito, KidLitTV, Lerner Publishing Group, Plum Street Press,
SILVER: Capstone Publishing, Carole P. Roman, Author Charlotte Riggle, Huda Essa, The Pack-n-Go Girls,
BRONZE: Charlesbridge Publishing, Judy Dodge Cummings, Author Gwen Jackson, Kitaab World, Language Lizard – Bilingual & Multicultural Resources in 50+ Languages, Lee & Low Books, Miranda Paul and Baptiste Paul, Redfin, Author Gayle H. Swift, T.A. Debonis-Monkey King’s Daughter, TimTimTom Books, Lin Thomas, Sleeping Bear Press/Dow Phumiruk, Vivian Kirkfield,
MCBD 2019 is honored to have the following Author Sponsors on boardHonorary: Julie Flett, Mehrdokht Amini,
Author Janet Balletta, Author Kathleen Burkinshaw, Author Josh Funk, Chitra Soundar, One Globe Kids – Friendship Stories, Sociosights Press and Almost a Minyan, Karen Leggett, Author Eugenia Chu, CultureGroove Books, Phelicia Lang and Me On The Page, L.L. Walters, Author Sarah Stevenson, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, Hayley Barrett, Sonia Panigrah, Author Carolyn Wilhelm, Alva Sachs and Dancing Dreidels, Author Susan Bernardo, Milind Makwana and A Day in the Life of a Hindu Kid, Tara Williams, Veronica Appleton, Author Crystal Bowe, Dr. Claudia May, Author/Illustrator Aram Kim, Author Sandra L. Richards, Erin Dealey, Author Sanya Whittaker Gragg, Author Elsa Takaoka, Evelyn Sanchez-Toledo, Anita Badhwar, Author Sylvia Liu, Feyi Fay Adventures, Author Ann Morris, Author Jacqueline Jules, CeCe & Roxy Books, Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace, LEUYEN PHAM, Padma Venkatraman, Patricia Newman and Lightswitch Learning, Shoumi Sen, Valerie Williams-Sanchez and Valorena Publishing, Traci Sorell, Shereen Rahming, Blythe Stanfel, Christina Matula, Julie Rubini, Paula Chase, Erin Twamley, Afsaneh Moradian, Lori DeMonia, Claudia Schwam, Terri Birnbaum/ RealGirls Revolution, Soulful Sydney, Queen Girls Publications, LLC
We’d like to also give a shout-out to MCBD’s impressive CoHost Team who not only hosts the book review link-up on celebration day, but who also works tirelessly to spread the word of this event.View our CoHosts HERE.
Co-Hosts and Global Co-Hosts
A Crafty Arab, Agatha Rodi Books, All Done Monkey, Barefoot Mommy, Biracial Bookworms, Books My Kids Read, Crafty Moms Share, Colours of Us, Discovering the World Through My Son’s Eyes, Descendant of Poseidon Reads, Educators Spin on it, Growing Book by Book, Here Wee Read, Joy Sun Bear/ Shearin Lee, Jump Into a Book, Imagination Soup,Jenny Ward’s Class, Kid World Citizen, Kristi’s Book Nook, The Logonauts, Mama Smiles, Miss Panda Chinese, Multicultural Kid Blogs, Raising Race Conscious Children, Shoumi Sen, Spanish Playground
FREE RESOURCES From MCBD
Free Multicultural Books for Teachers: http://bit.ly/1kGZrta
Free Empathy Classroom Kit for Homeschoolers, Organizations, Librarians and Educators: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/teacher-classroom-empathy-kit/
Hashtag: Don’t forget to connect with us on social media and be sure and look for/use our official hashtag #ReadYourWorld.
Music Video: MCBD has its first ever music video! How cool is that? Thank you to Annie Lynn and Walt Wilcezewski for donating their time and expertise to create our first official Read Your World Music Video. View it here and you may see some familiar faces and books!
