Globe Smart Kids Archives - Multicultural Children's Book Day

Stories about relatable others lay a foundation for exploration

The idea for One Globe Kids was born one afternoon while I read the children’s book Joyce’s Day to my then 3-year-old son in our apartment in New York City. The book was printed in South Africa in 1974 and given to me as a newborn present by my Aunt Joan in 1975. Its photos and simple text made Joyce’s day in South Africa relatable to me, a young, white girl living in small-town Illinois.

From beginning foreign language study in middle school to studying and working abroad, I strongly feel that my preparation for life in a diverse globalized world can be traced back to the simple curiosity I had for Joyce and her family.

I went looking for more “Joyce-like” books for my son Sebastian and found several beautiful, but basic, mostly illustrated, books about children in other countries. I did not find the personal, intimate, rounded stories that would make these children more familiar than foreign for him. And thus began my journey to make the international story series that I want to share with my kids, Sebastian and his two brothers, Willem and Josef. [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