Multicultural Children's Book Day

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Mystery Recipe Podcast Includes an Authentic Autistic Character in Season 3

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An Interview with Chad Chenail, Producer, and Staff Writer, America’s Test Kitchen Kids By Jodi Murphy

 

Just like their parents, kids are deeply engaged in listening to podcasts so it’s important that their podcasts are inclusive so every child can hear themselves in the stories they listen to.

Chad Chenail is a content creator for kids and families. He’s produced some of the most popular podcasts for kids including Chompers from Gimlet Media and Girl Tales from Cordelia Studios. In his work for America’s Test Kitchen Kids, he’s developed a YouTube series and has written a picture book, “Mitsy The Oven Mitt Goes to School: A Story About Being Brave,” that was released this fall.

Chad is also the producer and staff writer for America’s Test Kitchen Kids “Mystery Recipe Podcast.” In this interview, he talks about Mystery Recipe and the inclusion of an autistic character, “Greg the Cheese Grater” in Season 3.

Can you give us an overview of Mystery Recipe Podcast and how it came about?

Mystery Recipe is a podcast from America’s Test Kitchen Kids for kids ages 5-12. It’s about where food and fun collide, filled with culinary trivia, techniques, and food science with a healthy portion of fiction, storytelling, and emotional literacy.

America’s Test Kitchen Kids’ goal is to empower the next generation of home chefs, and this show helps to do just that. By combining engaging fictional narratives with food science and kitchen technique we hope to inspire kids to get into the kitchen, explore, discover and ask questions. We want food to be fun and educational.

And personally, as a kids’ media maker I know it is a privilege to be able to create children’s media and one that I do not take lightly. As writers and content producers, we have a responsibility to promote kindness and foster empathy, especially now when the world can seem like a divisive and often scary place. And so each season in addition to providing food science and kitchen technique we also focus on social and emotional learning.

“We make sure we are educating and empowering our young chefs about how to be a good friend and a kind neighbor while focusing on representation and creating actively anti-racist content.”

And our listeners are here for it! We have surpassed 1.2 million lifetime downloads, and have no plans of slowing down anytime soon.

What’s the theme of Season 3?

Each season of Mystery Recipe centers around a different mystery recipe! Each week is about a different ingredient, and all the ingredients are used in our grand finale cook along. As we progress through the season listeners keep track of each ingredient in order to guess what our season finale mystery recipe will be.

We won’t tell you what the ingredients or recipe are, because half the fun is listening along and trying to figure it out yourselves. All episodes of season 3 are out now, so go listen and find out for yourselves! And when you’re done, you can always go back to check out seasons one and two. We recommend listening to the episodes in order!

Each season you introduce an intern, and in Season 3, your intern is “Greg the Cheese Grater” – tell us about this character.

We are so excited for listeners to meet Greg the Cheese Grater! He’s clever, loves trivia, and hopes to one day become a food scientist. He’s also on the autism spectrum, and over the course of the season, we spend some time learning what that means. Greg is brought to life by the very talented Jonathan Cormur, and James Sullivan and Geek Club Books also contributed to the development of this character, so huge thanks to them as well!

Listen to a clip featuring “Greg” from the podcast:

Why was it important for Mystery Recipe to feature an autistic character?

It was important for us to feature a character who is on the autism spectrum because children who are on the spectrum exist. As people who choose to spend our careers creating kid’s content, we care very deeply about kids. All kinds of kids. We are deeply committed to diversity and inclusion in the content we are making because when kids consume media they are constantly looking for a reflection of themselves.

“And when children in underrepresented communities, such as children who are on the autism spectrum, never see anyone that looks like them, they may begin to assume that something is wrong with them. We’ve included Greg this season because representation matters.”

Having a character on the spectrum also introduces our listeners to the fact that autism exists, if they did not already know. They may meet someone in their world who is on the autism spectrum and will have a reference point in understanding what that means because we included Greg on our show. The character of Greg is not ABOUT autism. As the series progresses you will find that he has likes, dislikes, dreams, and flaws like any other character you’d meet. Being on the spectrum is a small part of what Greg brings to our listeners.

We would be doing our listeners a disservice if we did not touch on topics like acceptance, kindness, and self-love in the work that we make. It’s not enough to just make a show about cooking when you can also encourage emotional intelligence and community. What we try to do is teach children to love one another in spite of their differences, accept those they meet for who they are, and make it clear to every child that there is a place for them at America’s Test Kitchen Kids.

You hired an autistic scriptwriter to consult with you—we know why that is so important to the autistic community but why was it so important to you as the scriptwriter and producer?

It was super important to me to work with someone on the spectrum in a writing and developmental capacity because as someone who is not on the spectrum, I don’t know what I don’t know.

The goal of this character is two-fold, he is here to educate our listeners about autism, but primarily Greg serves to provide meaningful representation to kids on the spectrum. And so, working with someone on the spectrum from day one on this character allows us to do just that.

James Sullivan was our contributing writer and script consultant, and he did a wonderful job from the very early stages of development. I did not want to come to James with a fully developed and fleshed-out character because as someone who is not autistic, I don’t have the necessary experiences to understand who Greg is and how his mind works. If I developed the character on my own, he would have ended up as an inauthentic amalgamation of stereotypes and misconceptions, regardless of my intentions and the research I put into it. By starting at the beginning with James, working with him to establish what Greg wants, likes, and dislikes and what the goals of the character would be, Greg could become a more well-rounded and authentic character. Greg would be able to better represent the autism community because he came from the autism community, thanks to James and all his hard work and insight.

You also chose a neurodiverse voice actor to voice Greg, what did he bring to the character?

Jonathan Cormur, the actor who brings Greg to life on the show, brought SO much to Greg! He was so generous in sharing his reactions to the subject matter in the script and suggesting topics for us to include. As we know autism is a spectrum, and so when portraying an autistic character, it is impossible to encompass that entire spectrum all at once. What Jonathan brought to the character was his specific lived experience. The nuance and realities of his neurodiversity and the specificities of his choices and reactions helped allow Greg to be an authentic and specific example of someone on the spectrum in a way that wouldn’t have been possible working with an actor who is not neurodiverse.

Plus, Jonathan is just very funny! And his ad-libs, personality, and sense of humor really show through throughout the season. People should also check out his Dorktales Storytime Podcast where his storytelling includes doing the voices of numerous characters.

How do you want kids (and adults) to feel about “Greg the Cheese Grater” after listening to Season 3?

I know everyone will love Greg the Cheese Grater after listening to Season 3! I hope kids and adults who are on the spectrum feel seen and heard, just a little bit. And I hope Greg helps to normalize and destigmatize the conversation around autism and neurodiversity for kids and adults who are not on the spectrum.

“It is easy to be uncomfortable about topics and people you don’t understand, and so I hope Greg becomes a friend so that kids and adults have a better understanding of what it means to have a friend who is on the spectrum.”

I also hope our listeners are proud of Greg after listening to season 3! Greg grows SO much over the course of the season, and in the end, makes a big choice about what he wants to do with his life. That’s the kind of choice everyone makes multiple times while growing up, and is something everyone can relate to.

How many episodes are there in Season 3?

There are 26 episodes in all, lots of time spent keeping your young chefs ingrained and entertained in a screen-free and educational way!

Is there anything else that you’d like to mention about the podcast or Season 3?

Our show is hosted by Molly Birnbaum, Editor in Chief of America’s Test Kitchen Kids, and co-hosted by Mitsy the Oven Mitt! Mitsy is a fun and funny character who brings a ton of wacky and weird joy to the show. Voiced by the very talented Ceara O’Sullivan. The whole show is very weird in ways that I hope our listeners will love.

Mystery Recipe Podcast

Where can people find and follow America’s Test Kitchen Kids and Mystery Recipe Podcast?

Listeners can find Mystery Recipe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever podcasts are available. Please subscribe, rate and review, as it is a big help for our show! America’s Test Kitchen Kids is at:

Website: americastestkitchenkids.com

@testkitchenkids on Instagram

@testkitchen on Twitter

@americastestkitchenkids on Facebook

You can also check out our new channel for some more food science fun on America’s Test Kitchen Kids on Youtube!

 

Jodi Murphy is the founder of Geek Club Books autism storytelling nonprofit and producer of the Dorktales Storytime Podcast.

She is a member of the Multicultural Children’s Book Day Board of Advisors and active as a Kids Listen member, an organization that advocates for high-quality children’s podcasts..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Busting on to the Bookshelves with Nick Springer on the Move

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{Guest post from Dr. Jennifer Stratton}

Seven years ago my daughter wanted to share a poster featuring her cousin, Nick Springer, in his Team USA uniform and medals hanging from his neck. However, her kindergarten teacher wouldn’t allow it, she said it would scare the children. What was it about the poster? Well, Nick, a two-time Paralympian and wheelchair rugby champion was also a meningococcal meningitis survivor and quadruple amputee. This painful and discriminatory moment led to a lot of reflection and started our family on a new journey. 

Nick Springer: a two-time Paralympian and wheelchair rugby champion

Nick Springer: a two-time Paralympian and wheelchair rugby champion

Being a professor of education specializing in multicultural education and literacy, I knew this teacher was wrong but I wanted to know more about the topic of representation of people with disabilities in picture books. After reading many journal articles, the research was disturbing. Not only were disabled people missing from picture books across genres, when they did appear they were often misrepresented. For example, in books about pirates, you will find an overrepresentation of amputees portrayed as villains carrying weapons, stealing, or drinking. While at the same time, you could not find one picture book sports biography featuring an amputee despite the growth of the Paralympic Movement. Therefore, I decided to write Nick’s sports story and start a blog, Jen Stratton and Team Possible, to fill this chasm and to demonstrate that there was a platform for these stories. 

The blog led to many interviews with athletes who played adaptive sports or traditional sports in an inclusive manner. During every interview, the athletes spoke about wishing there were books where they could see themselves. In 2015, Lee and Low shared their Diversity in Publishing survey results uncovering that less than 10% of people involved in the publishing world identified as disabled. Determined to push hard against this trend, I selected an independent publisher and non-profit, Mouth and Foot Painting Artist USA, to bring Nick’s sports story to the bookshelves. MFPA artist, Christopher Kuster, created every image in the book with his mouth due to paralysis caused by a spinal cord injury. To capture the hard-hitting sport of wheelchair rugby, Kuster uses bold colors and splashes of comic-style word bubble across images of athletes racing after or smashing into each other in their specialized sport wheelchairs.

Nick Springer On The Move

To support this game-changing book, many resources are being developed for educators, caregivers, and clinicians to use with Nick Springer on the Move. On Jen Stratton and Team Possible blog, one can find videos, original articles about Nick, lesson plans, and much more. Readers are also encouraged to write and share their “on the move” stories. It is our hope that the words and images in Nick Springer on the Move will redefine ability and change the world. As Nick states, “It is not an ability that makes you strong, but your ability to push past your weakness that makes you strong.”

Please consider purchasing Nick Springer on the Move and donating one to your local library. All proceeds go to Mouth and Foot Painting Artists USA and Wheelchair Sports Federation. Click here to purchase.

Dr. Jennifer Stratton, a professor of education at Bay Path University, loves teaching students from kindergarten to the graduate level. At all levels, she is committed to creating inclusive learning environments in and outside of the classroom. Believing in the power of picture books, she works to expand and challenge the representation of people with disabilities in children’s literature. Jennifer has presented at numerous regional and national conferences, however, children remain her favorite audience. In 2020, Jennifer received the President’s Award for Innovative Thinking at Bay Path University.

 

Casual Diversity in a New Graphic Novel

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{Guest post from Debbie Dadey}

When I was a librarian, I was determined to find the perfect book for even the most reluctant reader who stepped into my library. I believe J.K. Rowling was right when she said, “If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.” So that was my mission, but for some kids, I found the books weren’t there.

One young black girl wanted a picture book that had a black kid on the cover. A new one every week. That was easy . . . for a few weeks. There was a need for more. In fact, in 2012 only 7% of books published were about people of color.            

This was on my mind when I started writing a chapter book series called the Adventures of the Bailey School Kids with a fellow teacher, Marcia Thornton Jones. When Vampires Don’t Wear Polka Dots, the first book in the series, came out with the fabulous dark-skinned Melody on the front I hoped my young student would be pleased.

Someone could look at me and say, “Well, you are white.  What do you know about diversity?” I know that every kid should see themselves in a book. And truthfully my stories aren’t about race. My books are stories about kid characters who face some sort of problem. And many kids face the same type of problems: friends that are mean, bullies that are mean, parents who are mean, teachers who are mean, principals who are mean, monsters that are mean . . . well you get the picture.

Matt del la Pena, whose Last Stop on Market Street won the Caldecott Honor, the Newbery Medal, and the Coretta Scott King Award, said, “I used to talk overtly about race and diversity in my novels.  Over the years, I‘ve decided that the new diversity I want to explore is writing about characters that are diverse, in stories that aren’t overtly about race.” New York librarian, Betsy Bird, calls this casual diversity-where diversity is just part of the everyday lives of the characters-not the sole focus of the story. This was what I’d always strived for as a writer.

But when Scholastic Graphix wanted to release Vampires Don’t Wear Polka Dots as a graphic novel with even more diverse characters I was a bit taken back. How could we change characters that I’d known for thirty years? It was a shock to see the formerly all-white characters of Principal Davis, Carey, Howie, and Liza change to different ethnicity. But I truly believe we are all the same inside, no matter what we look like on the outside, so I embraced the change. And I hope in some library somewhere a kid will be happy to see themselves on the cover of the Vampires Don’t Wear Polka Dots graphic novel.

Perhaps they will have even found the right book to make them lifelong readers.

debbie dadey

 

Debbie Dadey is the author and co-author of 176 traditionally published books, including The Mermaid Tales and the best-selling Adventures of the Bailey School Kids. A former teacher and school librarian, Debbie enjoys sharing activities and teaching units on her website, debbiedadey.com. Connect with Debbie via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube

 

 

Multilingual StoryWalks | Bilingual Children’s Books about Nature

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{Guest Post by Language Lizard}

 

Have you ever walked through a park and thought, “Wow! This reminds me of a book I read when I was a kid!” but you can’t be sure which one? With a StoryWalk®, you don’t have to rely on nostalgia because the book joins you on your stroll. You can even expose yourself to a new language with a Multilingual StoryWalk®.

What is a StoryWalk®?

StoryWalk®

The StoryWalk® program, created by Anne Ferguson in Vermont in 2007, involves taking pages from a children’s book and posting them around a park or nature area. By creating a short route to follow, families are able to explore nature and develop their children’s early literacy skills. Anne wanted to promote, “early literacy, physical activity, and family time together in nature.” With the support of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library, she was able to put this idea into motion. 

Since 2007, over 303 libraries around the country have implemented StoryWalk® programs. Another organization, The Children & Nature Network, created a model for Nature-Smart Libraries. They operate in a similar way, helping libraries connect their communities to nature via storytelling. 

Most recently, the City of Boston featured Language Lizard’s bilingual books in their Multilingual StoryWalk®. The program ran from April 20th until May 10th and concluded with a giveaway. In fact, The Multilingual StoryWalk® was such a success that Boston hopes to have another one in the fall.

These programs are organized by community partnerships. In the case of Anne Ferguson, she was able to collaborate with the Vermont Arts Council and her local library. In Boston, the StoryWalk® resulted from the cooperation of both public and private organizations. If you are interested in putting together a StoryWalk®, consider connecting with state and local parks, schools, nature centers, child care centers, farmers markets, walking path promoters, special event promotions, and most of all, libraries.

Multilingual Children’s Books

A StoryWalk® is most successful when the book connects with the community. According to Anne, these books must be elementary yet interesting, so families of all ages can engage in the activity. Books with simple language and beautiful illustrations ensure that you can fit a StoryWalk® into any busy schedule. 

In Boston, the Boston Parks and Recreation Department collaborated with the Boston Public Library and the Highland Street Foundation, the New England Patriots Foundation, and Xfinity to create their Multilingual StoryWalk®. This is an exciting expansion upon the traditional StoryWalk® program because it affirms the diverse communities within Boston. Multicultural families can enjoy nature walks while reading in their native language and native English speakers can learn a new language at the same time. 

For this particular Multilingual StoryWalk®, Language Lizard provided bilingual stories in six different languages:

Augustus and His Smile by Catherine Rayner 

Multilingual Children’s Books

Augustus goes on a journey to find his lost smile and discovers so much about the natural world: shiny insects, birds, mountains, fish, and even a rainstorm. This beautifully illustrated story celebrates a great connection to nature.

Let’s Go to the Park by Kate Clynes

This multicultural board book lets young children explore the area in which they live. The bold illustrations show the people and animals they will meet, and objects that they will see and hear. The simple text is just right for young readers who are starting to recognize words. 

Errol’s Garden by Gillian Hibbs

Errol loves gardening and has filled his home with beautiful plants, but he does not have a real garden. He dreams about an outdoor space where he can grow things.

Listen, Listen by Phillis Gershator

This beautifully illustrated story explores the different seasons, and the amazing sights and sounds of nature. The effective use of rhyming, alliteration and onomatopoeic words makes this book especially enjoyable to read aloud.

All these stories connect with nature while also exploring multicultural themes. Not only can families enjoy nature, but they can learn a new language at the same time!

Language Lizard provides educators, librarians, and parents with resources that develop literacy skills among language learners, build inclusive classrooms, and celebrate cultural diversity.

Language Lizard offers bilingual books and audio resources in 50+ languages, multicultural book sets, posters, and other culturally responsive teaching resources for diverse classrooms. Educators may download free multicultural lesson plans at LanguageLizard.com/LessonPlans.htm.  In addition, the company’s blog and free newsletter provide valuable information and special offers to educators and parents working with diverse children (sign up at LanguageLizard.com/Newsletter).

The company is running a giveaway of bilingual and multicultural books to newsletter subscribers and has already given away over $3,000 worth of bilingual books. Anyone interested in supporting multiculturalism can enter their current giveaway at LanguageLizard.com/Win-Bilingual-Books.

Bilingual Books are available in English with Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Burmese, Cherokee, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Dari, Dutch, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Karen (Sgaw), Korean, Kurdish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Malayalam, Nepali, Norwegian, Oromo, Panjabi, Pashto/Pashtu, Patois, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Shona, Slovakian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tigrinya, Turkish, Twi, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yiddish, and Yoruba.

How MCBD Can Promote Your Diverse Kidlit

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Every day the MCBD Team checks our emails, and we are always blown away by the quality and beauty of the upcoming diverse books for kids from new, or veteran, authors. Most of these emails are requests for a book review, and though we are honored, we have to sadly decline.

Here’s why:

The Multicultural Children’s Book Team currently (this could change in the future) does not review books on our blog and social media. Our team is small and there are already just not enough hours in the day for us!

BUT we do have different opportunities available for authors to shine the spotlight on their diverse books and even unique ways to collaborate with us. Some are paid options, some are not.

Paid Options:

Right now (for a limited time) we are offering 2 new spins on our extremely popular  Social Shout Outs. Shout Outs are a vibrant marketing tool that gets your book in front of our robust social media channels. We are rapidly approaching 20K followers on Instagram and 15K on Twitter.  Until August 1, we are offering a Double-Up Shout Out ($49) and a MEGA Shout Out ($99.95) option.

Our regular Social Shout Outs ($39) are available all year long and all versions act as a fundraiser for our Free Diverse Books for Classrooms Project. Go HERE to learn more about these Social Shout Outs or feel free to let me know if you have any questions 🙂

ALSO: Every year we run a special Flash Sale on Platinum and Author level Sponsorships and that sale is in full swing right now! Our other levels (Gold, Silver, and Bronze) will be available on October 1, 2021. Get the details and lock in your spot HERE.

Free Options

1.We encourage authors and publishers to join the private MCBD Facebook Group. This group is a nice mix of parents, book reviewers, teachers, and authors, so you will be able to connect with like-minded people!

2.We are always looking for quality, diverse book-related guest posts on the MCBD blog. We’d love to know more about your author journey, why you wrote your new book, and more about the book itself. Reach out to admin@multiculturalchildrensbookday.com to request a copy of our guest blogger guidelines.

3.We are tentatively planning some Facebook Lives during December and January in honor of MCBD2022 so that could be an opportunity for you as well.

We believe that ALL authors have something unique and wonderful with their work. We believe that ALL authors deserve to be able to shout the news of their book from the rooftops!

So let us know if we can work together in some fashion and, as always, don’t hesitate to ask if there are any details that we can clarify for you.

#ReadYourWorld!