Books in general are my passion, but I am also obsessed with Children’s literature (hence this blog).  So when I saw the opportunity to be a reviewer for Multicultural Children’s Book Day, share my love of reading, and get a free book out of it, I had to jump on that opportunity.

The book I received is titled The Barefoot Book of Children, written by Tessa Strickland and Kate DePalma, illustrated by David Dean, and published through Barefoot Books.  Now when it comes to multicultural, this informational book literally covers multiple cultures. It has the best of both worlds, with its colorful illustrations and questions that will make your child (and you) think. The Barefoot Book of Children takes the reader through how although we are all very similar, the way we live our lives may be different, depending on our culture or something as simple as where we were raised.

Although I had read it once alone as soon as I received it, as I was reading the book with my daughter I realized that we were going to spend a LOT of time reading this book. The illustrations alone were enough to spend a few minutes on each page.  Each page has a variety of cultures depicted, many of which were new to her, so she wanted some time to stare, which I happily gave her. Additionally, there’s a page in the book that talks about different languages, and my daughter, who happens to take Chinese, was super excited to point out which symbols were part of the Chinese language.

One of the most amazing features about this book is that they realize how important the illustrations are and how they may lead to questions themselves, so there is a section at the end titled, “A Closer Look at the Illustrations”. This section is great because when your child asks a question about something in one of the pictures, instead of stuttering or guessing (which is what I often do) you can go right to the back and find the answer. (It also allowed me to double check my daughter and make sure what she pointed to was actually Chinese. It was.)

If you are interested in exposing your children to cultures different than your own, this would be a great introductory book to do so. If you want to facilitate questions in a classroom or in your house about our differences and how to learn to accept them, again, The Barefoot Book of Children is a great book for that. Also, if you want help or additional resources after you read this book, the publisher even has activities and resources to help you out.  You can find that information here.  I was honored to have the opportunity to participate, and I feel I really lucked out with a wonderful book.

 

 

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (1/27/17) is its fourth year and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom. Our mission is to raise awareness on the ongoing need to include kid’s 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.  

Despite census data that shows 37% of the US population consists of people of color, only 10% of children’s books published have diversity content. Using the Multicultural Children’s Book Day holiday, the MCBD Team are on a mission to change all of that.

Current Sponsors:  MCBD 2017 is honored to have some amazing Sponsors on board. Platinum Sponsors include Scholastic, Barefoot Books and Broccoli. Other Medallion Level Sponsors include heavy-hitters like Author Carole P. Roman, Audrey Press, Candlewick Press,  Fathers Incorporated, KidLitTV, Capstone Young Readers, ChildsPlayUsa, Author Gayle Swift, Wisdom Tales Press, Lee& Low Books, The Pack-n-Go Girls, Live Oak Media, Author Charlotte Riggle, Chronicle Books and Pomelo Books

Author Sponsor include: Karen Leggett Abouraya, Veronica Appleton, Susan Bernardo, Kathleen Burkinshaw, Maria Dismondy, D.G. Driver, Geoff Griffin,  Savannah Hendricks, Stephen Hodges, Carmen Bernier-Grand,Vahid Imani, Gwen Jackson,  Hena, Kahn, David Kelly, Mariana Llanos, Natasha Moulton-Levy, Teddy O’Malley, Stacy McAnulty,  Cerece Murphy, Miranda Paul, Annette Pimentel, Greg Ransom, Sandra Richards, Elsa Takaoka, Graciela Tiscareño-Sato,  Sarah Stevenson, Monica Mathis-Stowe SmartChoiceNation, Andrea Y. Wang

We’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 work tirelessly to spread the word of this event. View our CoHosts HERE.

MCBD Links to remember:

MCBD site: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/

Free Multicultural Books for Teachers: http://bit.ly/1kGZrta

Free Kindness Classroom Kit for Homeschoolers, Organizations, Librarians

and Educators: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/teachers-

classroom-kindness- kit/

Free Diversity Book Lists and Activities for Teachers and Parents:

http://bit.ly/1sZ5s8i