Multicultural Children's Book Day

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Oh, How Far we Have Come! (And the Places We Have Yet to Go!)

December 12, 2020 by Valarie Budayr

Flash Back Time!

On January 27th, 2012 over 100 parenting, education, and children’s book bloggers showed up for the very first time to review diverse books for kids and teens on their respective blogs. These posts and shares ultimately reached over 2 million eyeballs across Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

As I was sifting through old files, I came across this statement and it made me pretty darn proud as to how far this non-profit has come.

It was almost a decade ago when two moms were concern by some statistics that revealed that 37% of the US population consists of people of color, but only 10% of children’s books published have diversity content. Those two forward-thinking, book-loving moms were Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen.

Valarie and Mia not only discussed these findings at great lengths, they decided to work on being a solution to the problem. Together, this dynamic duo used their desire for change to create the first Multicultural Children’s Book Day; a children’s literacy initiative with a mission is to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity but to get more of these types of books into classrooms and libraries.

Fast forward eight years and the Multicultural Children’s Book Day Team wants to take a moment to marvel/applaud/give thanks for how far we have come and to celebrate the places we have yet to go!

“Together the MCCBD team hopes to spread the word and raise awareness about the importance of diversity in children’s literature. Our young readers need to see themselves within the pages of a book and experience other cultures, languages, traditions, and religions within the pages of a book. We encourage readers, parents, teachers, caregivers, and librarians to follow along with the fun book reviews, author visits, event details, a multicultural children’s book linky, and via our hashtag (#ReadYourWorld) on Twitter and other social media.”

As We Enter Our 8th Year, Here are Some “Then and Now” Victories

As this global day of celebrating diversity in children’s literature keeps getting bigger and bigger, here are some specific differences that show how far we have come:

MCBD Event: Year One
  • 100 Book reviewers
  • 14 sponsors
  • 9 CoHosts
  • Instagram was barely a year old and MCBD didn’t have a presence there…YET 😉
  • Books donated to classrooms and deserving readers: roughly 100
  • Free Classroom Kits (Downloadable “kits” that focus on a relevant topic, a diverse booklist that supports that topic, and classroom-friendly activities that allow for deeper discussion and learning): ZERO

MCBD Event: Year EIGHT

  • 625+ Book reviewers
  • 20+Medallion Level Sponsors
  • 30+ Author Sponsors
  • 26 CoHosts and Global CoHosts Representing the USA, London, South Africa, Australia, Greece, Iran, India, Germany, and Mexico!
  • MCBD just surpassed 15,000 on Instagram!
  • Books donated to classrooms and deserving readers: roughly 8,000
  • Free Classroom Kits (Downloadable “kits” that focus on a relevant topic, a diverse booklist that supports that topic, and classroom-friendly activities that allow for deeper discussion and learning): SIX!

What’s Next for Multicultural Children’s Book Day

Through each multicultural book a child reads, it creates a new level of understanding and empathy. When we can see through the eyes of another, when we can share a loved book with a friend regardless of religion, culture, race, etc., we create a sense of belonging not only in our classrooms and homes but more importantly in our communities. The world outside our window becomes ours to shape and create.

This year, as with every year, we are striving more persistently than ever to place as many books into children’s hands as possible. Our unwavering mission is to share our love of reading from a multicultural perspective while also sharing the storytelling talents of authors and publishers alike.

THANK YOU for sharing this wonderful journey with us!

Filed Under: 2021 MCBD, Events, Featured Tagged With: #ReadYourWorld, Multicultural Children's Book Day, multicultural children's book day sponsors

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2019 Recap and Highlights

February 21, 2019 by Valarie Budayr

Hard to believe it’s approaching nearly 30 days since the mind-blowing awesome MCBD 2019 (1/25/19) celebration and we can promise all of you that we are still recovering!

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.

“I can hardly believe this is the sixth year for MCCBD. Look what you started! It is amazing and has and will continue to have an impact on many children, families, and teachers.” Claire Noland- A Field Trip Life

Here is the Summary of Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2019.

REMINDER: MCBD will be moving from an “every January 27th” celebration date to a “last Friday in January” focus so we don’t interfere with International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The Reason We Do What We Do

During the 2019 Multicultural Children’s Book Day celebration, we donated roughly 2,160+ books to young readers, parents, caregivers, educators, and librarians!

Over the course of the last 6 years of this initiative, we’ve given away almost 6, 800 diverse kids’ and YA books to deserving readers!

Nearly 6,800!

The Educators and Librarians that Made the Event Possible

Readers and Teachers Celebrating ReadYourWorld 2019!

The CoHosts that Made the Event Possible

Co-Hosts and Global Co-Hosts

A Crafty Arab, Agatha Rodi Books, All Done Monkey, Barefoot Mommy, Biracial Bookworms, Books My Kids Read, Crafty Moms Share, Colours of Us, Discovering the World Through My Son’s Eyes, Descendant of Poseidon Reads, Educators Spin on it,  Growing Book by Book, Here Wee Read, Joy Sun Bear/ Shearin Lee, Jump Into a Book, Imagination Soup, Jenny Ward’s Class, Kid World Citizen, Kristi’s Book Nook, The Logonauts, Mama Smiles, Miss Panda Chinese, Multicultural Kid Blogs, Raising Race Conscious Children, Shoumi Sen, Spanish Playground

 

The Medallion Level Sponsors that Made the Event Possible

Children’s Book Council, The Junior Library Guild, TheConsciousKid.org.,

Super Platinum: Make A Way Media/ Deirdre “DeeDee” Cummings

GOLD: Bharat Babies, Candlewick Press, Chickasaw Press, Juan Guerra and The Little Doctor / El doctorcito, KidLitTV,  Lerner Publishing Group, Plum Street Press,

SILVER: Capstone Publishing, Carole P. Roman, Author Charlotte Riggle, Huda Essa, The Pack-n-Go Girls,

BRONZE: Charlesbridge Publishing, Judy Dodge Cummings, Author Gwen Jackson, Kitaab World, Language Lizard – Bilingual & Multicultural Resources in 50+ Languages, Lee & Low Books, Miranda Paul and Baptiste Paul, Redfin, Author Gayle H. Swift,  T.A. Debonis-Monkey King’s Daughter, TimTimTom Books, Lin Thomas, Sleeping Bear Press/Dow Phumiruk, Vivian Kirkfield,

 

The Author Sponsors that Made the Event Possible

2019 Author Sponsors

Julie Flett, Mehrdokht Amini, Author Janet Balletta, Author Kathleen Burkinshaw, Author Josh Funk, Chitra Soundar, One Globe Kids – Friendship Stories, Sociosights Press and Almost a Minyan, Karen Leggett, Author Eugenia Chu, CultureGroove Books, Phelicia Lang and Me On The Page, L.L. Walters, Author Sarah Stevenson, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, Hayley Barrett, Sonia Panigrah, Author Carolyn Wilhelm, Alva Sachs and Dancing Dreidels, Author Susan Bernardo, Milind Makwana and A Day in the Life of a Hindu Kid, Tara Williams, Veronica Appleton, Author Crystal Bowe, Dr. Claudia May, Author/Illustrator Aram Kim, Author Sandra L. Richards, Erin Dealey, Author Sanya Whittaker Gragg, Author Elsa Takaoka, Evelyn Sanchez-Toledo, Anita Badhwar, Author Sylvia Liu, Feyi Fay Adventures, Author Ann Morris, Author Jacqueline Jules, CeCe & Roxy Books, Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace, LEUYEN PHAM, Padma Venkatraman, Patricia Newman and Lightswitch Learning, Shoumi Sen, Valerie Williams-Sanchez and Valorena Publishing, Traci Sorell, Shereen Rahming, Blythe Stanfel, Christina Matula, Julie Rubini, Paula Chase, Erin Twamley, Afsaneh Moradian, Lori DeMonia, Terri Birnbaum/ RealGirls Revolution, Soulful Sydney, Queen Girls Publications, LLC

The Book Donators that Made the Event Possible

Alice Faye Duncan, Arte Público Press / Piñata Books, Authorhouse, Avant Learning, Baby Ventures Books, Beyond Words Publishing, Boystown Press, Brown Boy Brown Girl, Create Space, Crumpled Paper Publishing, David Michael Slater, Dreambuilt Books, Eifrig Publishing, Eva Harley Chiphe, Fig Factor Media, Flying Books House, Gaku Press, GIANT Graphics,  Islandport Press, Joy Sun Bear, Inc., Julia Inserro, JWS, Kar-Ben Publishing, Kidsjoy, Kind Eye Publishing, LLC, Kwill Books, Lantana Publishing, Maritza M Mejia, Mascot Books, MindView Press, MVP Kids Media, Nomad Press, Page Turner Publishing, PenMagicBooks LLC, Planting People Growing Justice, Sawaga River Press,  sHjstories, Tara Luebbe- author, Tuttle Publishing, Vision Your Dreams, Whimsical World, WOMAGIS, Write My Memoirs LLC,  Yorkshire Publishing,

 

The Book Reviewers  that Made the Event Possible

Over 500 and counting: The number of parents, caregivers, teachers, librarians, and young readers read diverse kidlit and YA books in honor of the event. These reviews can be seen on our every growing Big Giant Linky for 2019 here and here.

The MCBD Board of Advisors that Made the Event Possible

The Partnerships that Made the Event Possible:

THANK YOU Children’s Book Council (CBC) for yet another amazing CBC Book Jam filled with author visits and TONS of giveaways!

#ReadYourWorld Book Jam 2019 Cynthia Leitich Smith

Music Video! 

Thank you to Annie Lynn and Walt Wilcezewski for donating their time and expertise to create our first official Read Your World Multicultural Children’s Book Day Music Video!

Please support Annie Lynn on her website and YouTube channel!

Special thanks to the kids for their vocals on this song:  Havana Chapman-Edwards, Will, Hailey, and Amanda!

Website Support! Corey at Midstate Design is the guru who keeps the MCBD site running like a dream. We highly recommend his WordPress Care Package Extras Package.

Swag! The official supplier of our MCBD magnets is SwagChimp and they always came through for us!

SwagChimp

The Dream Team that Makes This Event (and Future MCBD Celebrations) Possible

And a final thank you to the team that makes the magic happen during the months before, during, and after each Multicultural Children’s Book Day: Co-founders Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen, Project Manager, Becky Flansburg, and Social Media Manager, Susan Mayfield. Thanks to lots of coffee, naps, meetings, giggles, and trust, this team continues to move mountains year after year.

Shout out to @pragmaticmom @valariebudayr_ @BeckyFlansburg and all the behind the scenes amazing work the @MCChildsBookDay team does!
Another wonderful celebration of Multicultural Children’s Book Day!
Ya’ll are superheroes!! #shero #ReadYourWorld pic.twitter.com/Ner47l8BZi

— Bethany M. Edwards (@biracialbookwrm) January 26, 2019


Multicultural Children’s Book Day Free Resources

Throughout the months of November-January, leading up to the celebratory day, educators, librarians and parents can start planning and preparing with FREE activities available today at www.multiculturalchildrensbookday.com

FREE Classroom “Empathy” Kit:  

The free Classroom Empathy Kit focuses on empathy and compassion through shared booklists and special home or classroom activities. The kit includes 18 book recommends on the topic of Understanding Immigration and Refugees, Classroom Empathy Activities, and a very special custom printable Empathy Poster courtesy of author/illustrator Juana Medina. Educators, parents and librarians can sign-up to receive the free classroom kit here: http://bit.ly/2BGu4uQ

FREE Poverty Doesn’t Discriminate: Understanding Poverty in America Classroom Kit:

Created in 2018, this free classroom kit includes over 2 dozen poverty in the U.S.-themed book recommends for ages 4-12, two classroom or home activities, and a copy of the official “Poverty Doesn’t Discriminate” Classroom Poster thanks to the talents of award-winning illustrator, Mehrdokht Amini. http://bit.ly/2P6cXWE

Free Diversity Book Lists and Activities for Teachers and Parents: Curated lists of books about diverse topics including: countries, religions, holidays, ethnicities, in addition to special needs and LGBTQ. http://bit.ly/1kGZrta

Share a Classroom Celebration: Teachers who host a celebration in the classroom can send in a picture of their party to receive 3 free diverse books and a swag pack as a thank you.  Teachers and librarians can enter their event info HERE (https://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/category/offline-classroomlibrary-event-project/)

Don’t forget to connect with Multicultural Children’s Book Day on social media and be sure and look for/use our official hashtag #ReadYourWorld.

 

Filed Under: Multicultural Booklist Tagged With: #ReadYourWorld, 2019 Classroom Poverty Kit, Author Sponsors, CBC Book Jam, Children's Book Council, diverse books, diverse picture books, Multicultural Books for kids, Multicultural Children's Book Day 2019, multicultural children's book day sponsors

SUPERHERO SECRETS Guest Post by Author Jacqueline Jules

February 7, 2019 by Valarie Budayr

What happens when you get your wish?

That’s the question the students in my library inspired me to answer. I was working as an elementary school librarian in a Title I school in Northern Virginia. Every day, students came in asking for books on superheroes. There were not enough on their reading level to go around. Or even available on the market to purchase. It frustrated me. Like any school librarian, I wanted to meet my students’ needs.

Zoom! Zoom! Zapato Power!

In the Zapato Power series, a boy named Freddie Ramos lives out a fantasy many elementary school students secretly imagine. What if you had superpowers? What would you do? Would you keep them a secret? Would you use them for your own benefit or help others?

Freddie faces many dilemmas. His super speed is a thrill to use when he is alone. But when he is playing basketball with his friends, he feels like he is cheating. The most recent title, Zapato Power #7: Freddie Ramos Hears It All, shows Freddie managing the new power of super hearing. What should he do when he overhears information? Should he act on it? Can he use his super hearing without being a super snoop?

The Zapato Power series invites students to consider what it would be like to have a superhero dream come true. While I was writing it, I imagined my own students and how they would handle having a superhero secret at our elementary school. How would you get away with running in the hallways? How could you help others without revealing your superpowers? I quickly realized that my character would need to be enveloped in Zapato Power smoke, making him invisible every time he ran. Invisibility was a practical solution for Freddie Ramos. He still had social-emotional issues to consider. How would Freddie feel about being an anonymous hero? Would his superpowers make him feel isolated? And could they complicate the problems he faced in everyday life?

Zapatow Power

All of the characters in the Zapato Power series are named after children I taught as a school librarian. Freddie lives in an apartment complex behind his school, just as many of my students did. When I began the Zapato Power series, I wanted to do more than simply write a story for my students, I wanted to write about them. These kids were special to me for many reasons.

First off, as a school librarian, I had the pleasure of seeing them grow up and visit me each week in the library from their days as Head Start students all the way through sixth grade. Secondly, my students connected me to my own memories of childhood. I was a child of an immigrant myself. I understood when my students said they didn’t eat turkey on Thanksgiving because I had not either, as a child. And I understood when they looked at the floor, listening to a parent speak to a teacher in a heavy accent, because I did, too, as a child. Some things about being a child of an immigrant are universal.

Freddie Ramos is Latino, just like the majority of my students were.

How could I have created a character inspired by my students (and literally named after them) and ignore their cultural heritage? However, Freddie’s family and economic circumstances are the backgrounds of his story. As a school librarian, I was tired of the books on my library shelves which only presented the lives of minority children in the context of the problems they faced. Who wants their existence to be solely portrayed as a problem to be overcome?

When we write about minorities, we can’t limit their stories to the hardships they face. We need to write about who they really are. Loving, happy kids who have the same desire to be a superhero as anyone else.

Looking for some Zapato Power Activities? I have a bunch on my website HERE~!

author Jacqueline JulesBIO: Jacqueline Jules is the award-winning author of 40 children’s books, including the Zapato Power series, the Sofia Martinez series, Unite or Die: How Thirteen States Became a Nation, Duck for Turkey Day, Never Say a Mean Word Again, Feathers for Peacock, The Hardest Word, and Pluto is Peeved. Also a poet, Jacqueline is the author of three poetry chapbooks. Her poems have appeared in over 100 publications, including Cricket, Cicada, Germ Magazine, YARN, The Poetry Friday Anthologies, and One Minute Till Bedtime. She lives in Northern Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. Visit her website www.jacquelinejules.com. Connect on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BooksbyJacquelineJ/ Twitter @jacquelinejules

Filed Under: Multicultural Booklist Tagged With: #ReadYourWorld, Author Sponsors, author visit, book review, Children's Book Author, diverse picture books, multicultural children's book day sponsors, Zapato Power

MCBD2019 Sponsors and Book Reviewers: Deadlines Looming!

November 28, 2018 by Valarie Budayr

It’s hard to believe our 6th Multicultural Children’s Book Day online and offline celebration is less than two months away.

Things are going at full speed here at MCBD headquarters and we want to make sure two critical deadlines don’t sneak up on our supporters, reviewers, and potential sponsors.

MCBD Sponsorship Deadline is 12/15/18

Sponsorship for Multicultural Children’s Book Day 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. All of our Sponsors get a name mention within the hundreds of reviews that get posted from December to January 25th and also on the sites of our 24+ CoHosts sites. The deadline for ALL Sponsor sign-ups is 12/15/18. [Read more…]

Filed Under: 2019 MCBD, Guest Posts, Marketing for Authors, MCBD2019 Tagged With: #ReadYourWorld, Author Sponsors, Children's Book Author, MCCBD Sponsor, Multicultural Children's Book Authors, multicultural children's book day sponsors

Reading Your World via an Online Children’s Book Celebration

November 21, 2018 by Valarie Budayr

Six years!

Can you believe MCBD is in its SIXTH YEAR?! The Multicultural Children’s Book Day team couldn’t be proud of the success we’ve achieved and the people we’ve touched along the way.

Multicultural Children's Book Day 2019 Poster

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2019 Poster

Our mission is to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity but to get more of these of books into classrooms and libraries. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Multicultural Booklist Tagged With: #ReadYourWorld, book review, Children's Book Author, Children's Book Council, diverse books, multicultural authors, Multicultural Books for kids, multicultural children's book day sponsors

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