Welcome to Read Your World!
Together, we can change the world one book at a time.
Read Your World was formerly known as Multicultural Children’s Book Day, and we still celebrate Multicultural Children’s Book Day at the end of January, but we are now more than just a one-day holiday to celebrate diverse KidLit.
Read Your World is a 501(c)3 non-profit whose mission is to raise awareness about children’s books that celebrate diversity and inclusion, and to get more of these books into the hands of readers.
We are so glad you are here.
Our History: How Read Your World Came To Be (formerly known as Multicultural Children’s Book Day)
After being frustrated by a lack of diverse and multicultural children’s books available to their own families, reading and play advocates Valarie Budayr from Audrey Press Books and Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom decided to take matters into their own hands. The book-loving moms then teamed up to create a much-needed national event and on January 27th, 2012 the first-ever Multicultural Children’s Book Day was celebrated.
Using the Multicultural Children’s Book Day platform, the mission from Day One has been to not only raise awareness around kid’s books that celebrate diversity and inclusion but also get more of these types of books into classrooms and libraries.
“Kids need to see themselves in the pages of the books they read,” noted Budayr. “We are determined to not only shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural books available but also offer visibility for the amazing authors and publishers who create them.”
The MCBD online celebration attracts thousands of supporters, over 800 book reviewers, and dozens of quality authors and publishers. The celebration is the last Thursday in January, unless it conflicts with International Holocaust Remembrance Day, in which case it will move to the last Wednesday. The upcoming next celebration will occur on and offline on January 25, 2024.
The results and support were overwhelming as authors, publishers, parents, teachers, bloggers, and librarians joined forces to offer up an online event designed to shine the spotlight on diversity in children’s literature.
As we enter our second decade, we feel that Multicultural Children’s Book Day has achieved its goal of shining the spotlight on all of the amazing multicultural children’s books available to our young readers, teachers, librarians, and parents worldwide.
With each passing year, not only has the event itself grown exponentially, this non-profit initiative has expanded to offline classroom programs and celebrations, and we now have a global reach.
To date, this non-profit has donated over 10,800 books to kids and that number continues to climb.
Our Strategy
