Multicultural Children’s Book Day: What is a Multicultural Book?
During Multicultural Children’s Book Day, we would like to focus on bringing attention to all of the amazing children’s books available that celebrate diversity. In order to stay true to the mission of this event, co-creators Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen have created a definition for “multicultural books” as it applies to this event so that children can “find themselves” within the pages of the books they read.
Multicultural Children’s books are:
- Books that contain characters of color as well as main characters that represent a minority point of view.
- Books that are 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.
- Books that show IBPOC readers what is POSSIBLE–like a book that shows an Asian child as an astronaut 👩🚀, a child from Sudan as an actress, or a biracial child as a world leader.
***Support the diverse children’s literacy initiative Multicultural Children’s Book Day! Our 8th celebration will take place on January 29, 2021. Creators can donate books that will be reviewed and shared on social media. We also have sponsorships at a variety of price points.***
**If you have questions about Multicultural Children’s Book Day, how to get involved, or how to get free books for your school or classroom, email Kristi at Admin (at) MulticulturalChildrensBookDay (dot) com **
