One of the many missions of MCBD is to always be shining the spotlight on authors of diverse kidlit. Thanks to the talents of MCBD Team Member and long-time CoHost, Leanna Guillen-Mora, we are excited to announce the addition of a reoccurring Instagram Live feature! Every Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. ET., followers can tune in and learn more about these amazing authors and their books.

Here’s a look at who Leanna interviewed this week!

Dr. Valerie Williams-Sanchez!

Valerie Williams-Sanchez, Ph.D. is the author/illustrator of the Cocoa Kids Collection™ and principal consultant for Valorena Online, L.L.C., Freelance Multicultural Marketing & Communications.  Valerie’s Ph.D. in Literacy was completed through St. John’s University, New York. She also holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, and a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley. Valerie also studied Spanish art, history, language, and culture at the Universidad de Salamanca, in Spain, as an undergraduate. A former journalist in the U.S. and Spain, Valerie has written and contributed to articles and essays in publications like the Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, Miami Herald, Orange County Business Journal, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Injuve Magazine (Spain), and More Magazine, online.  A Black American, Valerie is Mom to her biracial daughter Lorena, 22, Auntie to her biracial nephew Isaiah, 10, and teacher to countless at-risk and special needs kids.

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Diverse Children and YA Book Reviewers -We need you for MCBD2022! (1/28/22)

January 28, 2022, will mark the 9^th year of Multicultural Children’s Book Day’s (MCBD) quest to get culturally diverse books into the hands of children, parents, teachers, and librarians. As you may know, Multicultural Children’s Book Day (MCBD) is a non-profit that works with authors to get their books reviewed during our online event and also works to get free diversity children’s books into the hands of young readers.

Multicultural Children’s Book Day (MCBD) is an online and offline celebration that attracts thousands of supporters, educators, parents, caregivers, book reviewers, and quality authors and publishers who join forces to shine the spotlight on diversity in children and YA literature. Celebrated annually on the last Friday in January, this global non-profit offers a plethora of free resources, teaching tools, booklists, downloads, and a year-round initiative to get multicultural and diverse books into the hands of young readers. To date, they have donated over 10,000 books to underserved kids, classrooms, and organizations, and that number continues to climb. To learn more about MCBD, visit them on the web and be follow their official hashtag #ReadYourWorld on social media.

SO…if you love diverse books for kids and have a social media platform to share a review on, we want to give you a FREE diverse kidlit or YA book to review!

AND, you don’t have to be a blogger (though we love our bloggers!) to review multicultural children’s books for our MCBD2022 online event. You just need to have a love of diversity in children’s literature and be willing to share on your social media platforms such as:

Facebook (Pages only-no Facebook profiles)

Twitter (Private Accounts are not Eligible)

Pinterest

Instagram (Private Accounts are not Eligible)

YouTube

TikTok

**We encourage honest Amazon reviews of assigned books whenever possible as well.**

Reviewer sign-up deadline is 12/15/21

(NOTE: We will not be shipping out any books for the 2022 online event until Nov/Dec of 2021!

 

GO HERE TO SIGN UP FOR A DIVERSE BOOK TO REVIEW