So what IS Multicultural Children’s Book Day {+A’s to your Q’s}

As you may already know, Multicultural Children’s Book Day (MCBD) is in its 7th year as far and we are showing no signs of slowing down 🙂

But even after seven years, many people are just learning about this global non-profit and have tons of questions. The following is some details on the core of this initiative (more can be found here).

SECOND, a giant online book reviewing event —
Book appreciators, readers, parents, teachers, librarians, and caregivers have the opportunity to explore lots of children’s and YA books with diversity content via online marketing that provides robust visibility for authors and publishers, book reviews, classroom kits, classroom book bundles, contests, giveaways, book lists, activity suggestions, and links.

THIRD, a giant networking event —
An ongoing mission to connect organizers, sponsors, co-hosts, bloggers, and others interested in expanding awareness of, and promotion of multicultural children’s books via our Twitter Party and very active MCBD Facebook Group.

FOURTH, an offline classroom, library or gathering place celebration —
A chance for students, educators, and parents to celebrate diversity and multicultural books in the months leading up to, and during, the Multicultural Children’s Book Day celebration that is held on the last Friday in January.

FIFTH, a year-long literacy-based initiative-

That works tirelessly to provide books to classrooms, organizations and under-served kids all year long via book donations.

NOTE: Search and use hashtag #ReadYourWorld for social media to follow along.

A’s to your Q’s

1. What are the timelines for submitting author and company sponsorship? Sponsorships for MCD2020 just opened up September 1 and will close December 15, 2019.
2. What are the timelines for submitting books for review? If you are referring to getting your books reviewed by our pool of reviewers, we start the matching process November 1 and finish around December 31. As an author and a sponsor, we provide you with the names and addresses of your reviewers and you are responsible for getting non-returnable review copies to them before January 15. Reviewers share their reviews of all books on social media starting Jan 1 all the way up to the actual celebration day on 1/31/20. Those reviews are then linked up on our Big Giant Linky to provide a resource that lives on the MCBD site forever.
3. How does the author sponsorship work?  Can you submit as many books as you want for the $129? Our Sponsor Packet is located here so you can see what each level of sponsorship offers. With an Author Sponsorship, we ask that you focus on one book, but you can mention your other books within your Sponsor listing. This is a preview of our 2020 Author Sponsor Page (not live yet) so you can see what a *listing* looks like. You will also get social media support and visibility as part of your Sponsorship too.
4. This year, MCBD’s classroom kit theme is about physical and developmental challenges. Does that mean that the books included in the kit will feature a character disability?  If your book is about a specific disability (autism, deafness) then it would fall under the umbrella of “diverse.” If your books have animal characters and one happens to be missing a limb, then we would not consider that a book for MCBD. 
5. What is MCBD’s criteria for a “multicultural or diverse book”? Multicultural Children’s books are:
   • Books that contain characters of color as well as main characters that represent a minority point of view.
   • Books 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.