Guest Post and Review by Jodi Murphy
Many of the people who encountered Maudie told her she had glitches. She believed them. But the real flaw is that those people look at her from a lens that says she is broken and “less than.” Even her mom wants her to act in a way she’s determined is normal, but Maudie is so much more than ordinary.
“Where’s my diverse book?”
“My book review is ready, what now?”
We are getting a lot of these types of questions lately and we TOTALLY get it. So here is some info that will help everyone navigate both: [Read more…]
It’s not too late to sign up to review a diverse children’s or YA book on social media in honor of the 8th annual Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2021 event!
The option to sign up as a reviewer will close in early December so please pass the word to anyone you know who would like to receive a free diverse book to review in honor of our 2021 (1/29/21) event.
Also, due to shipping costs and time delays, physical copies of books cannot be guaranteed to our overseas reviewers…but we will make digital copies are available to you!
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-around initiative to get multicultural and diverse books into the hands of young readers. To date, they have donated over 8,000 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 to review multicultural children’s books for our MCBD 2021 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:
**Please note, not everyone is guaranteed to receive a book! We will do our best, but sometimes demand exceeds our supply of available diverse books**
FIRST, a giant blog tour —
Readers, parents, teachers, librarians, and caregivers are coming together to explore lots of books with diverse content and sharing their thoughts and feedback via book reviews, book lists, and links.
SECOND, a giant networking event —
This global event connects readers, caregivers, educators, librarians, non-profits, organizations, sponsors, co-hosts, bloggers, and thought leaders so we can all achieve a common goal of raising awareness on the importance of diversity in children’s and YA literature.
THIRD, a virtual book drive —
Through MCBD initiatives like the FREE Diverse Books for Classrooms Project, The Offline Classroom Swag Pack, and continued outreach to underserved readers, proceeds raised during the course of this online event (and all year-long) go towards getting free multicultural books in locations where they are needed and into the hands of young readers.
Go HERE to read one of our recent blog posts, How to Tap Into the Buzz of a Multicultural Children’s Book Day Celebration.
Those who are new to this vibrant online event may not understand how the Book Matching Process works so here is a quickie tutorial.
Book reviewing is a big part of this annual on and offline event. What better ways to share awesome diverse picture, chapter, and YA books than to fill the social media channels with book/author recommendations and beautiful book covers and illustrations.
All reviews shared on blogs, Facebook Pages, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and even TikToc ultimately become part of our Big Giant Linky: an online book review resource for hundreds of multicultural and diverse books for kids and teens.
The first step in this process begins with our Team asking all Sponsors and Book Donators how many reviewers they would like to be matched with. Using that number, reviewer’s details including special requests, we match people to books with as much accuracy as possible.
Then, a member of the MCBD Team will then send an intro email to the chosen reviewers and the author/publisher of the book they are matched with. For privacy purposes, only names and email addresses will be supplied to the author or publisher that a book reviewer is matched with.
It is the book reviewer’s responsibility to send their author/publisher their mailing address in a timely manner to ensure they get their book in time for the 1/29/21 event.
All reviewers are required to post their reviews towards the end of January (preferably on the actual celebration day of 1.29.21) on at least one (as many as possible is appreciated) of these social media channels: a blog, Facebook (Page, not a Profile), Instagram (no private accounts), Twitter (no private accounts) and YouTube. Additional reviews on Goodreads and Amazon are also very appreciated.
WE PREFER that all reviewers wait until closer to the actual Celebration Day (1/29/21) to start sharing their reviews on social media, but anytime between 1/15/21 and 1/29/21 is acceptable.
Don’t forget to use the #ReadYourWorld hashtag! This helps us (and others) find your review and Like, Tweet, Share, Comment, and Pin!
On 1/29/21, everyone is asked to link up their reviews on our Big Giant Linky to create a huge resource that lives on our website forever (go here and scroll down to see the 2020 Linky). **more details on how to use a Linky to come!**
**Please note, not everyone is guaranteed to receive a book! We will do our best, but sometimes demand exceeds our supply of available diverse books**
If you are a returning Sponsor, you know “how we roll” when it comes to the Book Matching process.
BUT, if you are new to the MCBD Celebration, here is the 411 on how this monumental task works. Book Matching is the process where our team combs through our pool of 600+ Book Reviewers to find people who would be the best fit for the books your sponsorship is focusing on this year.
**Providing a free book to a reviewer(s) is a completely optional perk to all levels of Sponsorship, but it is undeniably an excellent way to raise awareness for your company, authors, or book titles.
How it works with both physical and PDFs review copies:
Our Project Manager, Becky, will send a “book matching” email introducing our Sponsors to their reviewers. The ones receiving a physical book will share their mailing address with whom they are assigned to. We do this for privacy reasons and as a “checks-n-balances” and so the reviewer knows a book is coming.
Sponsors can supply their reviewers with a book description, images, backstory, buy links, etc. at that time as well. The same applies to using PDFs as review copies–only this time a PDF (or a link to where they can find it) will be emailed directly to the assigned reviewer along with availability info and Pre-order links, etc.
More details to come! We appreciate you all!
**If you have questions about Multicultural Children’s Book Day, how to get involved, or how to get free books for your school or classroom, email Kristi at Admin (at) MulticulturalChildrensBookDay (dot) com **
