This is shaping up to be one of my favorite blog posts to write for our MCBD blog!
Last week I shared that, because of my role as Project Manager, I get to enjoy the motherlode of amazing multicultural books for kids that are donated to our project. And as a result, I wanted to find a fun way to share those books with the loyal folks who show up here to read every week and support this non-profit. You all are amaze-balls 🙂 [Read more…]
Multicultural Children’s Book Day is a wonderful and effective way to get diverse children’s and YA books into the hands of parents, teachers, caregivers, and librarians!
How can you get involved in this successful yearly online event? Donate your books! Your donated diversity books will ultimately end up in the hands of your readers and educators or in the hands of children’s book reviewers. Here’s how:
Are you a publisher or an author of multicultural books for children? Would you like to donate a book for Multicultural Children’s Book Day? These books will ultimately end up in the hands of deserving teachers, librarians, parents, and young readers! [Read more…]
Diverse Children’s Book Reviewers -We need you for MCCBD 2018!
In years past, we asked for reviewers to sign up to receive a free book in return for a review on their blog which they linked up on January 27th. For the second year, we are thrilled to expand our invitation for a FREE diversity book to review, along with the optional book extension activity to blog posts, to social media platforms: Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
In a nutshell; you don’t have to be a blogger to review multicultural children’s books for the MCBD 2018 holiday! 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, Instagram, or YouTube. Just pick one of these three social media platforms that you are most comfortable on and post your review for everyone to read and enjoy there. When signing up to be one of our book reviewers simply indicate which platform(s) you plan to post your review on in the “blog URL” space on the below Google sign up form that can be found HERE.
How it All Works: Information for our valued Reviewers During a Multicultural Children’s Book Day Event
Reviewers can sign up via a Google Sign-up and review a multicultural children’s book for this event.
Reviewers are then “matched” with an author or publisher that will supply them with a free children’s book to review. Reviewers are encouraged to read the books and share their thoughts on the book (a basic book review) in the form of a complete review post that can (optional) contain fun book-related activities that will bring the story to life.
Once their book review post is live (any time between January 1 and January 27th is good), reviewers are invited to “link up” their blog post on the Linky that will be found on any of our CoHosts’ sites and also the MCCBD website. This linky will go live on January 27th..
Links to Know for Our Bloggers
The Multicultural Children’s Book Day website and view our booklists, reading resources and other useful multicultural information.
Multicultural Books for Kids Pinterest Board has even more reading ideas.
Watch for the #ReadYourWorld hashtag on social media and share
List of our CoHosts- https://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/about/co-hosts/
Our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/MulticulturalChildrensBookDay
-Our Twitter https://twitter.com/MCChildsBookDay
Our Paper.li https://paper.li/MCChildsBookDay/1419776073#
Our Instagram Account: https://www.instagram.com/readyourworldmcbd/
Our Facebook Group {please join!}: https://www.facebook.com/groups/259709034187671/
SUMMARY OF THE EVENT
FIRST, a giant blog tour —
so that readers, parents, teachers, librarians, and caregivers can explore lots of books with diversity content via book reviews, book lists, and links.
SECOND, a giant networking event —
to connect organizers, sponsors, co-hosts, bloggers, and others interested in expanding awareness of, and promotion of multicultural children’s books.
THIRD, a virtual book drive —
to place multicultural books in locations where they are needed.
Following the book review, you will find information and links for the generous SPONSORS, CO-HOSTS, and PARTNERS of the MCCBD global event.
Have Questions? Email the MCCBD Project Manager at Becky (at) MulticulturalChildrensBookDay (dot)com.
As Project Manager for Multicultural Children’s Book Day (MCBD), I get the honor of viewing hundreds of multicultural Children’s Books that are donated or submitted for review approval every year. Basically, from September to January it’s like Christmas time for me and my office turns into a colorful and vibrant warehouse for diverse kids books. #luckyducky
As the prep for MCBD2018 gets into full swing, I’d like to do something fun and different simply because so many of these books deserve as much visibility as we can offer. With that in mind, I’d like to start something new called On My Desk as a way to share some of the notable multicultural books for kids that cross my desk every week. Here’s what the Mailman Book Fairy brought me this week in the way of New Diverse Kids’ Books to Consider: [Read more…]
Guest post from Globe Smart Kids
We are drawn to books that feel familiar
Research says that we feel most safe and comfortable around the things and people we know well, that feel familiar to us. We find them in our personal ‘bubble’, they are like us in terms of gender, nationality, language, race, religion, culture, education, socio-economic situation, location etc.
On the other hand, our natural basic instincts often tell us to be wary of something new and different; unfamiliar things make us uncomfortable and sometimes even anxious. While this might have been a useful instinct in the past, in our diverse globalized world this instinct is not doing us any favors.
What you consider familiar and foreign is defined at a young age
Children begin learning about themselves and the world around them in a formative way between two to five years old. Attitudes are shaped, and they start to notice identity and differences between themselves and others. This is also the age where imagination and imagery are key components of how kids learn.
Over 70 years of research in ‘intergroup-contact theory’ has shown that if you have a positive experience with someone from outside your daily bubble, you are more likely to choose a similar experience again in the future. Contact with the unfamiliar can happen face-to-face (direct contact) or indirectly, such as through a book, a TV show or even your own imagination. By intentionally reading multicultural books to children during the formative years of early childhood, we can begin to fundamentally transform what feels foreign and what feels familiar.
Beyond multicultural books
But there is more. Technology now offers something new in the field of intergroup contact: simulated intergroup contact. And it is great for younger kids. Where books spark imagination and bridge worlds, interactive books can enhance those effects. Even before kids can go out and explore the world themselves, technology like peer-to-peer narration, simulation, language learning and games can make friendship outside a bubble an experience kids are excited about (making it one more like to happen). At Globe Smart Kids, we are studying and learning (http://globesmartkids.org/impact/) more every day about this exciting field in partnership with researchers at the University of Kent in the UK.
Enrich your bubble with diverse friends
Let’s work together to make sure there are books that reflect the familiar and unfamiliar bubbles of all readers. And let’s step it up and celebrate diversity beyond printed pages by helping our children to feel excited and confident to make friends outside their daily bubble. This will set them up for happiness and success in our diverse globalized world.
Happy #MCCBD!
PS: Find a personal story of making the foreign feel familiar in this TEDx talk: “How a child’s imagination can fight prejudice” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDUcSNSSFS8&feature=youtu.be)
Sanny Zuiderveld is co-founder of non-profit Globe Smart Kids, the maker of One Globe Kids: an immersive digital library of global stories designed to encourage cross-group friendship for children 4 – 10 years, accessible via iOS apps and website.
She is a Dutch marketer and engineer living in NYC, enjoying raising a 10-yr-old global citizen.
Connect with Globe Smart Kids
Organization: www.globesmartkids.org
Global friends library: www.oneglobekids.com
