MCBD 2018

Today is the 5th annual Multicultural Children’s Book Day! This is my second year as a reviewer, and this year I had the opportunity to review multiple books!

Read to the bottom and be rewarded with a coloring page version!

But first, here’s what our awesome hosts and founders have to say about MCBD:

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (1/27/18) is in its 5thyear and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Bookand Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom. Our mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in home and school bookshelves while also working diligently to get more of these types of books into the hands of young readers, parents and educators.  Current Sponsors:  MCBD 2018 is honored to have some amazing Sponsors on board. 2018 MCBD Medallion SponsorsHONORARY: Children’s Book Council, Junior Library GuildPLATINUM:Scholastic Book ClubsGOLD:Audrey Press, Candlewick Press, Loving Lion Books, Second Story Press, Star Bright Books, Worldwide BuddiesSILVER:Capstone Publishing, Author Charlotte Riggle, Child’s Play USA, KidLit TV, Pack-n-Go Girls, Plum Street PressBRONZE: Barefoot Books, Carole P. Roman, CharlesbridgePublishing, Dr. Crystal Bowe, Gokul! World, Green Kids Club, Gwen Jackson, Jacqueline Woodson, Juan J. Guerra, Language Lizard, Lee & Low Books, RhymeTime Storybooks, SanyaWhittaker Gragg, TimTimTom Books, WaterBrook & Multnomah, Wisdom Tales Press
2018 Author SponsorsHonorary Author Sponsors: Author/Illustrator Aram Kim and Author/Illustrator Juana MedinaAuthor Janet Balletta, Author Susan Bernardo,  Author Carmen Bernier-Grand, Author Tasheba Berry-McLaren and Space2Launch, Bollywood Groove Books, Author Anne Broyles,  Author Kathleen Burkinshaw, Author Eugenia Chu, Author Lesa Cline-Ransome, Author Medeia Cohan and Shade 7 Publishing, Desi Babies, Author Dani Dixon and Tumble Creek Press, Author Judy Dodge Cummings, Author D.G. Driver, Author Nicole Fenner and Sister Girl Publishing, Debbi Michiko Florence, Author Josh Funk, Author Maria Gianferrari,Author Daphnie Glenn, Globe Smart Kids, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, Author Quentin Holmes, Author Esther Iverem, Jennifer Joseph: Alphabet Oddities, Author Kizzie Jones, Author Faith L Justice , Author P.J. LaRue and MysticPrincesses.com, Author Karen Leggett Abouraya, Author Sylvia Liu, Author Sherri Maret, Author Melissa Martin Ph.D., Author Lesli Mitchell, Pinky Mukhi and We Are One, Author Miranda Paul, Author Carlotta Penn, Real Dads Read, Greg Ransom, Author Sandra L. Richards, RealMVPKids Author Andrea Scott, Alva Sachs and Three Wishes Publishing, Shelly Bean the Sports Queen,  Author Sarah Stevenson, Author Gayle H. Swift Author Elsa Takaoka, Author Christine Taylor-Butler,Nicholette Thomas and  MFL Publishing  Author Andrea Y. Wang, Author Jane Whittingham  Author Natasha YimWe’d like to also give a shout-out to MCBD’s impressive CoHost Team who not only hosts the book review link-up on celebration day, but who also works tirelessly to spread the word of this event. View our CoHosts HERE.TWITTER PARTY Sponsored by Scholastic Book Clubs: MCBD’s super-popular (and crazy-fun) annual Twitter Party will be held 1/27/18 at 9:00pm.Join the conversation and win one of 12-5 book bundles and one Grand Prize Book Bundle (12 books) that will be given away at the party! http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/twitter-party-great-conversations-fun-prizes-chance-readyourworld-1-27-18/Free Multicultural Books for Teachers: http://bit.ly/1kGZrtaFree Empathy Classroom Kit for Homeschoolers, Organizations, Librarians and Educators: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/teacher-classroom-empathy-kit/Hashtag: Don’t forget to connect with us on social media and be sure and look for/use our official hashtag #ReadYourWorld.

My first #partner book for this years MCBD was sent to me by Loving Lion Books. Written by Norah Barrett Cooper, this cheery, customizable book tells a simple and relatable story of a big family get together. 

Customization options include skin tones and family members (mom & dad, mom & mom, dad & dad) 

A little girl eagerly awaits her family members’ arrivals, and the delicious meal they will create and share. She spends the day playing with her cousins, on what is clearly a happy occasion and joy filled day. Joelle Nelson’s bright illustrations add even more fun to the story.

"Love Family"...because families are love

 Many little readers are sure to connect to the story of a big family party and dinner, recalling their experiences with Thanksgiving meals, family reunions, special holidays, birthday celebrations, or even more regular family gatherings. The book emphasizes the importance of family togetherness in a general, almost subtle way. The simplicity of the message fits perfectly with the idea of a book with customization, because it allows for the more specific details to be filled in by the readers own experiences and memories. The types of foods eaten, games played, and stories told can easily mirror what any child has seen in their own life. I would love if even more customization options were added!

Smiling faces, yummy food, hugs-what more could you want?

This book would be appropriate in preschool and early elementary classrooms. It would serve well as a jumping off point for discussing different celebrations and traditions in students’ families, maybe with a focus on compare and contrast-noticing our special differences, but also how some themes are universal within so many families. At home, as a book to play connection, we enjoyed making homemade play dough to create different skin colors and making families of all colors and sizes. Our play dough recipe was inspired by craftulate.com and uses spices for coloring, so it is also a full sensory experience. 

To make spiced play dough:

Mix together, in a medium saucepan:

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup water

1 tsp cream of tartar

2 tbs salt

1 tbs of desired spice (cocoa powder for dark brown, cinnamon for lighter brown, paprika for copper red, turmeric for bright yellow, mustard powder for faint yellow). 

After mixing the ingredients thoroughly, heat the pan over medium heat and stir constantly. After about two minutes of stirring, your dough should begin to form a ball. 

Remove your dough ball from heat and place on wax paper. Allow a few minutes for cooling, and you can begin to kneed your dough-it’s ready to play!

Cocoa, Tumeric, Mustard, Paprika, Cinnamon (clockwise)

This dough is truly an awesome sensory tool. The different spices give off wonderfully different scents and have beautiful colors. Barring any allergies or sensitivities, they are taste safe (although they definitely don’t taste good)! You can feel the warm dough soon after it’s been prepared, or cold dough that has been in the refrigerator for a little while. 

Happy Dough Friends and Family

C discovered that the cinnamon dough smells much better than it tastes

Dough is Fun!

My second #partner book for MCBD 2018 is Star Bright Books “A Fish to Feed”. Star Bright Books features multilingual books in 23 languages, and is a fantastic resource for educators for English Language Learners, as well as parents and families. I was lucky enough to receive both the English only and the Spanish/English versions of this book. 

"A Fish to Feed"

The story is fun for toddlers, and shows a father and son as they explore their neighborhood on the search for a new pet fish. The book features cutouts that allow you to peek through to the illustration on the next page. C (1.5) loved the little circle cutouts and being able to touch the next page through them, or look through the little circle onto the next page.  I loved how this feature added a little something extra to the story, and thought it was a pretty creative illustration feature.

The story models conversation between the father and son, and includes a message to parents about their child’s language development and how to enhance that through conversation. The text of the story furthers the message to parents, showing how father elaborates on the conversation with the child to further their ideas and introduce new vocabulary. These elements make the book as much a tool to teach parents as it is an enjoyable story for little ones. As a parent of a child with a speech delay, I greatly appreciate the professional information presented at the beginning of the book regarding language development and how to help your child grow in that area.

English Only

Spanish and English

Star Bright offers books in Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Burmese Karen, Burmese, Chinese, English, Farsi, French, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Navajo, Ojibwe, Portuguese, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Urdu, and Vietnamese. Some languages are available on their own and all are available in multi language books paired with English. 

As our book to play project connection with “A Fish to Feed”, we created our own hand print fish pets. A paper plate would work great for this activity, but we just used a regular piece of paper (someone forgot to get paper plates at the grocery store). E (2.5) picked out his favorite colors to make his hand prints pets, and we added some eyes and features together. Crepe paper made our “water”, and we experimented with a few different tools to stamp on bubbles and rocks. Finally I labeled our fish colors with the English and Spanish words. E loves naming the colors, so he had a great time with this project!

Our fish friends don't need food ;)

I hope you've enjoyed learning about a few new books and publishers in the world of Multicultural Children's Books. Check out the hashtag #ReadYourWorld on social media for even more reviews and recommendations. Follow the link in the caption below to print out your free coloring page, designed by Aram Kim!

Read Your World, Color Your World