Multicultural Children's Book Day: A Different Pond by Bao Phi and Thi Bui

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2018 (1/27/18) is in its 5^th year and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom. Our mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in home and school bookshelves while also working diligently to get more of these types of books into the hands of young readers, parents, and educators.  

I'm proud to participate in this important event for the third year. 

In 2017 I read 357 children's books as the chair of the panels for the Cybils Fiction Picture Books and Board Books Awards. The Cybils Awards, the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards, honor children's books with both deep literary quality and huge kid appeal, with a strong focus on books from diverse cultures. 

One of my favorite books nominated for the 2017 Cybils Awards is A Different Pond.

A Different Pond is a powerful story.

A boy is awakened very early in the morning by his father. His father must go fishing for food for his family before he goes to his second job on a Saturday.

The boy's father tells stories of his life in Vietnam, before he came to America. 

It's a simple story of a boy and his father rising early to go fishing, but it's also the rich intersection between the American and Vietnamese cultures, between old and new lives. The illustrations are lush and filled with lots of space for the quiet, and for the spaces between the boy and his father, and for the lack of things in their lives. There are small moments of sadness in the story, as the boy recalls how a child at his school describes his father's English as sounding "like a thick, dirty river," and when the boy's father tells his son about how he and his brother fought together in the war, about how one day "his brother didn't come home." But there are also small moments of joy in the story, as the father shares stories with the boy of fishing in a pond in Vietnam when he was little, as the boy proudly builds the fire himself with a single match, as the father and son catch fish and know they "will eat tonight." 

A Different Pond is a beautiful story of building connections between father and son, connections between old and new cultures. 

A Different Pond Reading Guide

A Different Pond Activity Sheet

A Different Pond, written by Bao Phi, illustrated by Thi Bui, published in 2017 by Capstone Books.

For more of my blog posts on diversity, please take a look here:

Children's Books That Celebrate Diversity I Hope You Won't Miss

Ten Children's Books That Celebrate African-American Diversity

Multicultural Children's Book Day: We Visit Other Cultures

Current Sponsors:  MCBD 2018 is honored to have some amazing sponsors on board. 

2018 MCBD Medallion Sponsors

HONORARY: Children’s Book Council, Junior Library Guild 

PLATINUM:Scholastic Book Clubs

GOLD:Audrey Press, Candlewick Press, Loving Lion Books, Second Story Press, Star Bright Books, Worldwide Buddies

SILVER:Capstone Publishing, Author Charlotte Riggle, Child’s Play USA, KidLit TV, Pack-n-Go Girls, Plum Street Press

BRONZE: Barefoot Books, Carole P. Roman, Charlesbridge Publishing, Dr. Crystal Bowe, Gokul! World, Green Kids Club, Gwen Jackson, Jacqueline Woodson, Juan J. Guerra, Language Lizard, Lee & Low Books, RhymeTime Storybooks, Sanya Whittaker Gragg, TimTimTom Books, WaterBrook & Multnomah, Wisdom Tales Press

2018 Author Sponsors

Honorary Author Sponsors: Author/Illustrator Aram Kim and Author/Illustrator Juana Medina

Author Janet Balletta, Author Susan Bernardo,  Author Carmen Bernier-Grand, Author Tasheba Berry-McLaren and Space2Launch, Bollywood Groove Books, Author Anne Broyles,  Author Kathleen Burkinshaw, Author Eugenia Chu, Author Lesa Cline-Ransome, Author Medeia Cohan and Shade 7 Publishing, Desi Babies, Author Dani Dixon and Tumble Creek Press, Author Judy Dodge Cummings, Author D.G. Driver, Author Nicole Fenner and Sister Girl Publishing, Debbi Michiko Florence, Author Josh Funk, Author Maria Gianferrari, Author Daphnie Glenn, Globe Smart Kids, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, Author Quentin Holmes, Author Esther Iverem, Jennifer Joseph: Alphabet Oddities, Author Kizzie Jones, Author Faith L Justice , Author P.J. LaRue and MysticPrincesses.com, Author Karen Leggett Abouraya, Author Sylvia Liu, Author Sherri Maret, Author Melissa Martin Ph.D., Author Lesli Mitchell, Pinky Mukhi and We Are One, Author Miranda Paul, Author Carlotta Penn, Real Dads Read, Greg Ransom, Author Sandra L. Richards, RealMVPKids Author Andrea Scott, Alva Sachs and Three Wishes Publishing, Shelly Bean the Sports Queen,  Author Sarah Stevenson, Author Gayle H. Swift Author Elsa Takaoka, Author Christine Taylor-Butler, Nicholette Thomas and  MFL Publishing  Author Andrea Y. Wang, Author Jane Whittingham  Author Natasha Yim

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.

TWITTER PARTY Sponsored by Scholastic Book Clubs: MCBD’s super-popular (and crazy-fun) annual Twitter Party will be held 1/27/18 at 9:00pm.

Join the conversation and win one of 12 5-book bundles and one Grand Prize Book Bundle (12 books) that will be given away at the party! http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/twitter-party-great-conversations-fun-prizes-chance-readyourworld-1-27-18/

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.