Author Visits Archives - Multicultural Children's Book Day

Should non-Muslim kids celebrate Ramadan & Eid?

May 23, 2019 by Valarie Budayr 1 Comment

{guest post from Ajanta Chakraborty of CultureGroove}

Should non-Muslim kids celebrate Ramadan & Eid?

You probably guessed it; the answer is a resounding yes!

Mom/Dad, what is she wearing?

Kids and their delightful loud questions in public, am I right? If your child hasn’t already asked it, they probably will when they see a little girl in Hijab at a birthday party, at the grocery store, at the park etc. Now is the perfect time to proactively teach our kids so that they learn more about their Muslim friends and get curious to learn even more about their culture.

Fight hate with knowledge

Let me give you another reason with a much bigger impact. In current times, we are all concerned about the environment of fear around us that has its deep roots in ignorance and lack of understanding. It’s really quite simple: we fear what we don’t understand and that fear sometimes manifests in the form of hatred and even violence.

I don’t know much about Islam.

With Ramadan currently in progress, there is no better time than now to introduce the concept to our kids. Are you concerned about talking about another religion without an in-depth understanding of it? Don’t worry, there is indeed a way to introduce the beautiful concepts of Ramadan and Eid without a deep religious study (take a look at our book for more).

So, how do I celebrate it?

The month of Ramadan is not just about fasting and staying hungry. The spirit of Ramadan is to give up something for a month that you covet in order to gain an appreciation for all you have. As a non-Muslim household (and a non-religious household in general), here is how we did it: we asked our son to pick something that he absolutely loves. Like most 5-year-olds, candy and screen time topped the list. He finally decided on candy and committed to giving that up for a few days. On those days, we read our book on Ramadan and Eid and talked about kindness and gratitude. We are also planning to make kindness rocks (see our celebration kit) and distribute them throughout the neighborhood.

Ajanta’s 5-year-old son, Ruhaan, fighting his inner battle to give up on candy for a few days.

It is that simple to dig deeper into the roots of a beautiful celebration and use it as a teaching moment for our kids to help them grow up multicultural!

For a fun children’s book on the topic along with a free celebration kit, visit CultureGroove.com/Eid.

About Ajanta

Ajanta Chakraborty

Ajanta Chakraborty is the author of a bestselling book series with nine titles called Maya & Neel’s India Adventure series.

She is an ex-technologist who is now the CEO of Bollywood Groove and Culture Groove and her team runs a thriving dance & culture program for 250 students in Chicago. Her work has been featured on NBC, ABC, Elle magazine, Nielsen, Univision, Fox News, WGN, WCIU and more. Most recently, Ajanta received the Corporate Woman of Achievement award by NAWBO.

When Life Comes Full Circle: How a Mobile Library Expanded My World

May 14, 2019 by Valarie Budayr

Guest post from author Shereen Rahming

I was no more than seven or eight years old growing up in a tiny village in the relatively small country of Belize. Almost everything I loved and knew existed in that single place. The elementary school I attended was right next door in the community center grounds. My classroom was in the main building which had mobile chalkboard walls that could be moved whenever we had our weekly Catholic Church services or any other community gathering. Three different grades shared the modest open room.

My favorite subjects quickly became any subject that taught and shared the stories of other people. I wanted to hear, learn, and read more. The only drawback was that the modesty of our resources meant that we lacked books to have a library. Nowhere in the village or even neighboring town did a proper library exist. My appetite for books that sparked my imagination and taught me about the world outside my little village was satisfied with the occasional delivery of books sent by my mother who was already living in the United States. My whole young life revolved around life in the village, the school next door, and the few books and toys that my mother sent for me.

Then one day, news started circulating. We heard that a mobile library would start coming to the village. Now believe me when I tell you that this was somewhat of a big deal…at least to me, it was. In a village where school resources were scarce, hearing that we would soon have a truck making a stop in the community center grounds once a month to offer books to the children was nothing short of receiving an early birthday or Christmas present, especially to one little girl. Having never been to a library, I had no idea what to expect when my grandmother explained to me what a mobile library was. It sounded great so I waited with anticipation.

The day came when the mobile library finally arrived. I was so excited to get to the little truck that instead of running through the gates of our property, I crawled through an opening in the fence that separated our yard from the community center grounds. I ran to get in line and waited patiently to get my very first library card. When the nice lady handed it to me and I saw my name on it, I flashed a smile and ascended the steps of the truck. I stood there peering inside at all the books that filled the walls. I walked in and perused the books on each shelf. I ended up selecting a book about a bunny who had lots of adventures. I took it home and read it right away. Every book I ever borrowed was my new adventure, lesson, and doorway to a world far bigger than my own.

Fast forward more than thirty years later and that little girl’s love of books had only grown. I am now a mom of two living in the United States and I have published my very own storybook. As an author and publisher, I am blessed enough to encounter some truly amazing people who work in the world of literature. One of those people is a man named, Stan Tucker, who has started his own mobile library in Georgia called the Leap for Literacy Bookmobile.

Stan Tucker and the Leap for Literacy Bookmobile

Photo credit

As I followed Stan’s story, I could not help but beam with delight. How could I not when it evokes my precious childhood memories. I smile every time I see the looks of joy and excitement on the little faces of the children who get to select a book from his library.

Photo credit

Eventually, I contacted Stan to tell him how wonderful I think his work is and to offer my book to him. He accepted and now the little girl whose world opened up thanks to a mobile library, has her very own book in a mobile library where other children can hopefully be inspired in the same way.

I am in no way a great philosopher but I can’t help but look at the pictures that Stan posts including the one of a child holding my own book and I marvel at how life does indeed tend to come full circle.

I am reminded of a quote I once read that said, “Life is an echo. What you send out, comes back. What you sow, you reap. What you give, you get. What you see in others, exists in you.”

The little girl in that village over thirty years ago sent out love for stories, an imagination full of curiosity, and a wavering belief in herself. And in the little faces of those children enjoying her story and other stories, she sees the same love, curiosity, and belief in all things possible. Life has come full circle and it’s a beautiful view from where she now stands.

About Shereen

Shereen Rahming is the author of Ahni & Her Dancing Secret, a graduate of UC Berkeley, a former teacher, and a current contributing writer for the Parent Voice Magazine. She was born in the small Central American country of Belize and immigrated to Los Angeles, California at the age of ten years old. Due to her Black and Latin heritage, she has a great appreciation for diversity and has become a passionate advocate for multicultural and diverse books.

Inspired by the lack of seeing book characters that looked like her as a child, she wrote Ahni & Her Dancing Secret for her daughter so that she would be able to see a character like herself in literature. She is currently working on a second book for her son. Her ultimate goal is to write and promote motivating stories that depict the true diversity of the world we live in and teach readers to appreciate and respect the beauty in themselves and others.

In Ahni & Her Dancing Secret, Ahni dreams of being a prima ballerina so she joins Madam Sabina’s dance school. But her spirit is soon broken when she discovers that the other students are far more advanced than she is and not as friendly as she expected. This charming story depicts the journey of little Ahni from an unsure hopeful to a confident dancer, by discovering the secret to success with the help of wise Madam Sabina. For ages 3-8.

Connect with Shereen via her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

Yao Bai and the Egg Pirates by Tim J. Myers

May 2, 2019 by Valarie Budayr

May is Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United States. The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid the tracks on the project were Chinese immigrants.

But another fact of Chinese immigration is that many of these brave souls ended up in California where they struggled to make a living as fishermen. That nearly forgotten era is preserved at historical sites in the San Fransisco Bay Area like China Camp: a state park that is committed to preserving the Chinese shrimp-fishing village that was created around the time of California’s Gold Rush.

It was a visit to this state park that inspired veteran author, Tim J. Myers, to pen his newest children’s book, Yao Bai and the Egg Pirates published by West Margin Press.

Inspired by the 1863 Egg War and the mad rush for murre eggs on the Farallon Islands near San Francisco, Yao Bai, and the Egg Pirates is a high-seas adventure story celebrating the courage and history of Chinese immigrants in America through a fascinating yet little-known event during the California Gold Rush era.

Yao Bai is finally old enough to sail with his father and uncle to the Farallon Islands, to gather the precious eggs that seabirds had laid there. But on their way home, they encounter trouble on the sea―pirates! Just when Yao’s father and uncle believe their hard day’s work would all be gone, Yao comes up with a clever plan. But will it be enough to save all the eggs?

The Inspiration for Yao Bai and the Egg Pirates

“While on a sightseeing trip to see humpback whales, our tour guide told us about the ‘Egg War’ at an island off the California coast during the Gold Rush,” Myers recalled. “So many miners came to California to find gold that it became difficult to feed them all. People began gathering seabird eggs on the Farallon Islands near San Francisco, especially murre eggs, which were three times the size of chicken eggs. In my story, I imagine that members of a Chinese fishing family have sailed out to the islands for eggs but then encounter egg pirates, which history tells us really existed. The pirates knew how much the eggs were worth, and weren’t afraid to use violence to get them.”

Intrigued by this real-life occurrence, Myers began to dig deeper into this event and the idea for a historical fiction children’s book began to unfold in his mind.

“Shortly after our whale-watching trip, we visited China Camp and learned more about the Chinese in Gold Rush California,” Myers added. “The sun was still rising in the east as I stood looking out across China Camp—and suddenly I could almost imagine a young Chinese boy scampering across the sand. At that moment, the character of Yao Bai was born. I also recently saw a period photo which included a real Chinese boy at a rough-looking Monterey fishing camp and thought, There he is! I knew his life was important, both in itself and to America as a whole—so I knew I had to try to drag that forgotten story out into the light. Chinese Americans have made incredible contributions to American life, and too often that’s forgotten or dismissed.”

With illustrations by Chinese artist Bonnie Pang, this delightful diverse historical fiction picture book will help young readers understand more about the great courage and adaptability of the Chinese in America. Connie Yu, the official historian of the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project of Santa Clara, praised Yao Bai and the Egg Pirates. for its research and accuracy.

About The Author

Tim Myers is a writer, songwriter, storyteller, and university senior lecturer in English. When not writing adult non-fiction and children’s fiction, he can be found working in the English Department at Santa Clara University. To date, Myers has published a whopping 22 books–15 of which are children’s books. Some of his diverse children’s book titles include Let’s Call Him Lau-Wiliwili-Humuhumu-Nukunuku-Nukunuku-Apua’A-Oi’Oi, The Thunder Egg, The Outfoxed Fox: Based on a Japanese Kyogen, and Basho and the River Stones.

Tim won the 2012 SCBWI Magazine Merit Award for Fiction and, as a fantasy/science fiction writer, he won a prize in the Writers of the Future Contest, and his work has appeared in Realms of Fantasy, Worlds of Fantasy and Horror, Space & Time, Weird Tales, Abyss & Apex, Futures Mysterious, on the Astropoetica website, and elsewhere.

When asked what advice he would give to young writers, Myers had this to say:

Read, Read, Read

Write, Write, Write

Live, Live, Live

“Those three words are the best way I know for authors to ‘get there.’ And the repetition is just as important as the categories,” Myers shared. “It’s a privilege to be an artist and to be part of the publishing world. I get a waterfall of joy in my brain every time I think about how lucky I am to be able to create art. And being able to merge that passion with my love for kids and teaching amplifies that joy even more. Writing Yao Bai and the Egg Pirates was, to me, a perfect opportunity to retell a moment in our past that’s in danger of being lost—a way to turn forgotten history into something fun and educational, in order to keep that human reality alive. ”

Connect with Tim J. Myers via his website, Amazon Author Page, and Facebook. For more information on Yao Bai: http://www.timmyersstorysong.com/TM_Website/Yao_Bai_by_Tim_J._Myers.htm

Myers also has excellent teacher’s resources for Yao Bai here.

La Frontera: El Viaje Con Papa / My Journey With Papa by Deborah Mills and Alfredo Alva

April 18, 2019 by Rebecca Flansburg

Everyone has a story.

That’s something children’s book author and retired architect, Debbie Mills, has known all her life. She, her husband, Peter, and the couple’s eight grown children also believe in the strong bond of family is everything and that belief is evident in this tight-knit family. After moving to Kerrville, Texas in 2007, Debbie was fortunate to get to know a Mexican stonemason and was introduced to a moving story of courage, perseverance, and familial love that was begging to be shared with the world.

“We chose to settle down in Kerrville because it reminded us of Australia,” Debbie recalled. “My husband was in international banking so we lived all over the world. When we retired and chose to do so in Texas, I had the privilege of getting to know Alfredo Alva and his family. Alfredo was a stonemason by trade and over the course of a year, we became friends. One night, as we joined his family for a BBQ, I asked Alfredo to share his story of how he migrated from Mexico and settled in America. The story he told me became the inspiration for the book La Frontera: El viaje con papá/ My Journey With Papa.”

Originally, Debbie told Alfredo’s story through black and white photographs. She even made a trip to Alfredo’s home town to understand what he had left behind and to meet the greater extended family. Ultimately, publisher Barefoot Books opted to tap the talents of illustrator, Claudia Navarro; a move that brought the already moving story to life in a colorful way.

Click the image below to read Virginia TESOL Featured Review of La Frontera!

What Makes La Frontera Special

La Frontera: El viaje con papá/ My Journey With Papa is a bilingual book based on the true story inspired by the immigration experience of Alfredo and his father’s as they made the arduous journey from Mexico to the United States’ border– la frontera— to make a home for themselves in a new land in the 1980s. It’s a vibrant and moving story about immigration, resilience, empathy, and belonging. It’s also a story that is still happening today, even 30 years later.

In Praise of La Frontera: El Viaje Con Papa

La Frontera was recently named to the Bank Street College of Educations 2019 Edition of The Best Children’s Books of the 2018 Year.

Starred and favorable reviews have been received from these periodicals: Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Junior Library Guild.

View the full list of reviews and praise here.

“Very kid-friendly, but also informative, and could help children (and adults) who are unfamiliar with the struggles immigrants experience to better understand what these families endure just to get here. Thank you for taking the time to speak to the issue of immigration with our young people” — Emily Golightly, ESL Teacher, President of the Crystal Coast Reading Council

“The riveting yet calmly told story, movingly illustrated, of a father and son who leave Mexico to find a better life.”
— Booklist

“Memories of migration matter. Telling these stories seems more important than ever — even, and some might say especially, to children. . . [Alfredo Alva] tells of a difficult and frightening trip with his father, one that includes hunger, thirst, exhaustion, and fear of discovery. Told in side-by-side Spanish and English text, Alva’s story is brought to life by Claudia Navarro’s vivid acrylic, graphite, and digital collages and given broader context with several pages of information on borders and immigration after the main story.”
— The New York Times

“Alfredo’s story is an inspiration, told in alternating English and Spanish with photographs of the Alvas, colorful artwork, maps, and thoughtful information on borders, immigration laws, and the importance of tradition and culture”
— Foreword Reviews

“Presented in both Spanish and English, the retrospective narrative overflows with grueling, poignant details about the journey Alfredo and his father undertook. Yet Navarro’s mixed-media artwork succeeds in emphasizing the more-hopeful aspects of Alva’s story, namely love and strength in a familial context. . . . A timely, necessary read”
— Kirkus Reviews

“Precise details create a deeply moving sense of a young immigrant’s journey, from the drinking water dropped along the tracks by train crews to a new school, where Alfredo always brings a $100 bill in case he’s picked up and returned to the border. With bright, saturated colors and expressive figures, the illustrations echo both the story’s drama and tenderness”
— Publishers Weekly

“This moving story of perseverance is told in both Spanish and English to empower language-learning,” Debbie added. “I wanted this book to be a valuable tool for all teachers, especially ESL and TESOL teachers, so we included four pages of endnotes that unpack facts about Alfredo’s story and other stories like his. This story of migration is part of our American history whether people like it or not. This part of our history needs to be told in a language that helps kids to understand this phenomenon.”

To learn more about La Frontera, visit Barefoot Books or purchase your copy on Amazon.

Debbie Mills is a retired architect turned children’s book author who has lived all over the world including England, Greece, France, Canada, and Australia. Upon retirement, Mills moved to Kerrville, Texas where she was immediately confronted with the realities of the immigration crisis while learned of the many stories of those escaping the violence of Mexico to start a new life in America. After befriending a Mexican stonemason named Alfredo Alva, she learned the story of he and his father’s tumultuous journey from Mexico to a better life in America. Alfredo’s story became the inspiration for the award-winning bilingual picture book La Frontera: El viaje con papá/ My Journey With Papa.”

When not enjoying life in her current home of Kerrville Texas with husband, Peter, Mills keeps busy with design projects, the couple’s 5 adult children, and working on the production of her invention with a marine supply company.

To contact Debbie with questions or to schedule a classroom visit, email her at peedubs@msn.com.

Writing Revelations | Guest Post from 22X Author, Tim J. Myers

April 9, 2019 by Valarie Budayr

Guest Post by Author, Tim J. Myers

One of the greatest things about being a writer is discovering your own life in your work.

You can’t help writing about what’s important to you, and your experiences often show up in different forms, whether you intended that or not. Art often is, among other things, a window into our deepest human selves. I write for adults and young people, in multiple genres, and in my 22 published books and many individual pieces, I continually find glimpses of my life that worked their way in naturally. I love how art is so inevitably self-revealing, and that’s one of the reasons I love writing.

Writing Revelations

Many of my books, for example, are multicultural in one form or another. My family and I lived in Japan for three years, and, although I didn’t plan it, five of my children’s books are on Japanese themes. One, I’m proud to say, was a New York Times bestseller for children’s books and was read aloud on NPR; Basho and the Fox are also about how important poetry is to me.

As it happens, I’ve recently been thinking about two childhood memories that, I realized, pushed themselves uninvited into my newest book, Yao Bai and the Egg Pirates—memories that reflect something basic about who I am.

I didn’t come from a reading family, and I was, at best, an indifferent student in elementary school. But I can remember like it was yesterday the day the teacher passed out our first “reader”—it must have been in third or fourth grade. For some reason, I went through the book on my own at home, and found in the back of it a palace of treasures. Our teacher never had us read any of those stories, but I read every one more than once–which was not like me. Why such uncharacteristic behavior?

They were fairy tales.

The second memory is of a longer period. I grew up in Colorado Springs, “in the shadow of Pikes Peak” as the phrase goes. I can hardly describe the natural beauty of the Pikes Peak Region. The mountain looms over the entire city, and it was always there in my life, a manifestation of the physical grace and power of the natural world that I imbibed with mother’s milk. The Utes call Pikes Peak “Sun Mountain,” and it’s sacred to them. I think of it as a grandmother, and it’s sacred to me too.

Pikes Peak

So here were two towering impulses in my life: the love of Story and an unwavering sense of wonder, which I first experienced through the wonder of the natural world and fairy tales. I could give many other examples of how those impulses shaped my life and work. Suffice it to say that my new children’s book includes both.

Yao Bai is historical fiction, the story of a Chinese boy during the California Gold Rush. When I first visited China Camp here in the Bay Area, a state park that’s preserved a Chinese shrimp-fishing village from that time, I could almost see a boy running across that beach back in the 1850s.

I recently saw a period photo including a Chinese boy in Monterey and thought, There he is! I knew his life was important, both in itself and to America as a whole—so I knew I had to try to drag that forgotten story out into the light. Chinese Americans have made incredible contributions to American life, and too often that’s forgotten or dismissed.

Chinese in Monterey

But I couldn’t write the story without some wonder in it too. So I’ll leave it at that. I love stories, after all; I’d never give away the ending!

So here’s to reading and writing—may we all keep on discovering ourselves in the magic of the printed word!

Tim Myers is a writer, songwriter, storyteller, and university senior lecturer in English. His Glad to Be Dad: A Call to Fatherhood (Familius) is in both e-book and print form; it was featured on Parents Magazine’s website, Disney’s BabyZone, and won the Ben Franklin Digital Award. His full-length Dear Beast Loveliness: Poems of the Body (BlazeVox) earned an excellent review from poet Grace Cavalieri, and Nectar of Story won praise from Cavalieri, Chase Twichell, Ron Hansen, and Joseph Bruchac.

Connect with Tim via his website, Amazon Author Page, and Facebook.