Multicultural Children's Book Day

#ReadYourWorld

Women in STEM: One Step Further by Katherine Johnson {Giveaway!}

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Welcome to the One Step Further Blog Tour!

To celebrate the release of One Step Further by Katherine Johnson and her daughters Joylette Hylick and Katherine Moore, and illustrated by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow on January 5th, blogs across the web are featuring exclusive photos and stories from the life of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, plus 5 chances to win a hardcover copy!

With ONE STEP FURTHER, author Katherine Johnson shares what it was like for her daughters to be a part of her history-making path. Filled with personal reflections, exclusive family archival photos, and striking illustrations, readers will be immersed in this deeply personal portrayal of female empowerment, women in STEM, and the breaking down of race barriers across generations. Historical notes, photo/illustration notes, and a timeline put the story into a historical and modern-day context. [Read more…]

Surrounded by Superheroes: Diverse Book Celebrations from MCBD2021

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We did it! Another wildly successful Multicultural Children’s Book Day is complete. Once again, the MCBD team was touched and elevated by the overwhelming support and enthusiasm surrounding our diverse children’s literature online celebration. In the days following the crescendo of the event, and our crazy-fun annual Twitter Party,  we all have spent hours sifting through the amazing camaraderie, comments, reviews, classroom celebrations, and touching kudos that were offered up during our on and offline global event. [Read more…]

Music Carries Language and Culture for Kids

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{Guest Post by Jesse Lewis, Music Producer, and Sound Director, at TA-DA! Language Productions}

Sound and music is a point of entry for the next generation. Just like food and diverse books, music carries language and culture for kids.

So, I noticed that when music comes on, she stops everything and stares far away.

That thousand-yard stare is usually one I see in our 4-month-old right before the diaper… uh, right before he looks at me and grins… [Read more…]

How to Tap Into the Buzz of a Multicultural Children’s Book Day Celebration

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As you know, our online event/holiday takes place the last Friday of every January so this year it will fall on 1/29/21and this will be our EIGHTH Multicultural Children’s Book Day celebration!

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.

SO if you are an author or publisher of a diverse children’s or YA book, we want to work with you!

SUMMARY OF THE Multicultural Children’s Book Day EVENT

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.

 

How to Tap Into the Buzz of the MCBD 2021 Celebration

We would love to have you participate in our upcoming event and here are a few ways you can do so:

Donate Books: 

As a non-profit, book donations help us fulfill our mission! Here’s why:

We typically have hundreds signed up to receive a free diverse book for our Free Diverse Books for Classrooms Project so any and all donations are appreciated.

We also have 500+book reviewers signed up to review diverse children’s books on their blogs or on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube channels in honor of our online (and off) literacy celebration. Authors and publishers have the option of offering copies of their multicultural children’s books to our reviewers to review and write a social media review about. There are no guarantees that we will be able to match your book to a reviewer(s), but if this interests you, let me know. We will provide you with names and addresses and you mail your book directly to the reviewer.

Twitter Party Prizes: Our wildly successful MCBD Twitter Party is attended by tons of educators, parents, and librarians. Donated books that are chosen for Twitter Party prizes will gain exposure and visibility not only during the party but also during the marketing of the Twitter Party as well.

INTERESTED? Awesome! Go here to sign up as a book donator and send a copy diverse book to the below address. The book you send will then be donated to a classroom.

**NOTE: We do not limit book reviewers to just bloggers. There are many book-lovers and educators who have vibrant social media channels we have opened up review options to include social media to give those who are not bloggers a chance to share books with their followers.

Multiple options for Sponsorship: 

Sponsorship is not only a great way to support this event; it is an excellent way to get your name (and your books) in front of thousands of readers. As we enter our 8th year, this global celebration has reaped the benefits of thousands of supporters and readers along with name recognition. Our #ReadYourWorld hashtag trends on Twitter every year and on and offline celebration in honor of the 1/29/21 event has gone global as well.

IN A NUTSHELL: We have the eyes and ears that authors, literacy organizations, and publishers wish to reach. Our Instagram account has over 15K followers and our Pinterest Board offers a six-figure reach on a regular basis as well

All of our Sponsors get a name mention within the hundreds of reviews that get posted from December through to the end of January and also on the sites of our 20+ CoHosts sites. Go here to learn more: https://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/sponsorship/sponsorship-info/

The Private MCBD Facebook Group

Our vibrant and active Facebook Group is a wonderful mix of parents, teachers, social influencers, bloggers, authors, caregivers, and publishers. Go here to join.

Connect with us on social media: Our official hashtag is #ReadYourWorld

– Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/MulticulturalChildrensBookDay

– Twitter https://twitter.com/MCChildsBookDay

-Instagram https://www.instagram.com/readyourworldmcbd/

-Reminder: The hashtag for this event is #ReadYourWorld

 

Open and Fly with your Imagination: Kidlit with a Sri Lankan twist

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{Guest post By Monica Hernandez and Bilen Haile}

As a couple, we have always had the idea of doing a project together to promote the exploration of the unknown amongst the next generation of children. Being from two completely different backgrounds ourselves, we had lots to learn about each other’s cultures in addition to learning about the place where we met, a tiny island in southeast Asia, which eventually became our home.

The idea for the project did not manifest itself until early this year when an essential lockdown was declared on the island. The more time we had on our hands, the more we found ourselves dreaming, thinking, and researching about how to develop it, until we finally found our path leading towards the world of self-publishing. Once we knew what we wanted, the ideas for the series of books followed shortly.

The first, we named Open your imagination, covering a galactic science fiction adventure series, revolving around two characters which are solely based on our diverse Afro-Latin background. Our first of this series published Origin introduces the reader to its two main characters, an electrical and a sound being and the worlds from which they came. Although we always had the idea to merge and share our two cultures written by our four hands, how to present it to readers was not clear to us until Bilen had a very vivid dream showing him the story we were about to start telling.

We woke up one Sunday morning, had our usual big weekend breakfast, and in the midst of it started discussing the dream and how it would become our book. By the end of our breakfast and while having our traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony, we already had the names for our characters, the basic idea of the story, and how we wanted to tell it. After some weeks, we not only had Origin ready but the ideas behind the follow-up books Air & Water as well as Earth & Fire. But even at this point, we really did not have any idea of publishing it until we went into our next book series.

Origin: A Fable by Four Hands

The second series, Fly with your imagination, a fully illustrated and animated discovery of a new land through its people, wildlife, traditions, culture, food, history, legends, and sports, without having to leave your home. It was no accident that we decided to begin this series with Where is Auntie – Sri Lanka, our current home.

The inspiration for this was actually our 6-year-old nephew in Bogota that had never been to Sri Lanka to visit us, so we wanted to show him the place where auntie lived in a fun and interactive way. An only child locked down in an apartment without his daily childhood activities due to the pandemic gave us the motivation to make this book for him even more than ever. We sat down on weeknights and weekends re-discovering the places and culture we had both experienced here over the years. Once we came out with the first custom edition for Simon, we thought of our other nephews in Australia and the UK and decided to make the same for them as well, but the urge to share did not end there. We wanted to make this available for all children.

With haste, we started researching ways to make both book series available for all. We came across different platforms which offered us print-on-demand as well as digital interactive versions. Once we had the print versions ready which provided areas for kids to write, draw and color their responses into, we decided to go further and experiment with sounds, animations then interactivity to keep children, as well as their parents, engaged as they traversed through the different versions of our books.

We hope that our books bring to kids a way to learn and appreciate differences and cultures other than their own. In both a fun and interactive way, we promote flying with the mind as well as opening the mind to explore and understand our ever-expanding world.

Origin is available in both English and Spanish as well as the following formats:

Where is Auntie – Sri Lanka is available in both English and Spanish as well as in the following formats:

***Support the diverse children’s literacy initiative Multicultural Children’s Book Day! Our 8th celebration will take place on January 29, 2021. Creators can donate books that will be reviewed and shared on social media. We also have sponsorships at a variety of price points.***

For more information about Multicultural Children’s Book Day, please contact Admin@MulticulturalChildrensBookDay.com .