Tag: #ReadYourWorld #AllChildren #RaisingReaders

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Book Review Parenting Raising kids

MCBD 2021–Kayla: A Modern-Day Princess

Kayla: A Modern-Day Princess by Deedee Cummings is a very cute story that is perfect for an uplifting mother-daughter #bedtimeread.

Kayla is a little girl who is anxiously waiting for her mama to come home after work. Kayla behaves much like I did myself when I was young, pretending to be in bed when in all actuality I was just up listening for a parent to come home. When her mom comes into her room, she’s got good news for their family, and even some gifts for Kayla–great advice and a tiara!

You know when you wish you had that perfect thing to say at the perfect time to your own children, but it just doesn’t come out right or you think of the words after the conversation is over? Well, I have found that books often have the words that can help us out, and this story by Deedee Cummings is one of those books. Kayla’s mom gives her some great advice that I think will stick with Kayla for quite some time. If you have a girl that you would like to give some inspiration to–this book is one to grab.

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2021 (1/29/21) is in its 8th year! This non-profit children’s literacy initiative was founded by Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen; two diverse book-loving moms who saw a need to shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural books and authors on the market while also working to get those book into the hands of young readers and educators.

Eight years in, MCBD’s mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in homes and school bookshelves continues. Read about our Mission & History HERE.

MCBD 2021 is honored to be Supported by these Medallion Sponsors!

FOUNDER’S CIRCLE: Mia Wenjen (Prgamaticmom) and Valarie Budayr’s (Audreypress.com)

Platinum Sponsors: Language Lizard Bilingual Books in 50+ Languages, Author Deedee Cummings and Make A Way Media

Gold Sponsors: Barefoot Books, Candlewick Press, Capstone,  Hoopoe Books,  KidLitTV, Peachtree Publishing Company Inc.

Silver Sponsors: Charlotte Riggle, Connecticut Association of School Librarians, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, Pack-N-Go Girls

Bronze Sponsors: Agatha Rodi and AMELIE is IMPRESSED!, Barnes Brothers Books, Create and Educate Solutions, LLC, Dreambuilt Books, Dyesha and Triesha McCants/McCants Squared, Redfin Real Estate, Snowflake Stories, Star Bright Books, TimTimTom Bilingual Personalized Books, Author Vivian Kirkfield, Wisdom Tales Press, My Well Read Child 

MCBD 2021 is honored to be Supported by these Author Sponsors!

Poster Artist: Nat Iwata

Authors: Author Afsaneh Moradian, Author Alva Sachs & Three Wishes Publishing Company, Author Angeliki Stamatopoulou-Pedersen, Author Anna Olswanger, Author Casey Bell , Author Claudine Norden, Author Debbie Dadey, Author Diana Huang & Intrepids,  Author Eugenia Chu & Brandon goes to Beijing, Green Kids Club,  Author Gwen Jackson, Author Janet Balletta, Author Josh Funk, Author Julia Inserro, Karter Johnson & Popcorn and Books, Author Kathleen Burkinshaw & The Last Cherry Blossom, Author Keila Dawson, Maya/Neel Adventures with Culture Groove, Author Mia Wenjen, Michael Genhart, Nancy Tupper Ling, Author Natalie Murray, Natalie McDonald-Perkins, Author Natasha Yim, Author Phe Lang and Me On The Page Publishing, Sandra Elaine Scott, Author Shoumi Sen & From The Toddler Diaries, SISSY GOES TINY by Rebecca Flansburg and B.A. Norrgard, Susan Schaefer Bernardo & Illustrator Courtenay Fletcher,  Tales of the Five Enchanted Mermaids, Author Theresa Mackiewicz, Tonya Duncan and the Sophie Washington Book Series, Author Toshia Stelivan, Valerie Williams-Sanchez & The Cocoa Kids Collection Books©, Author Vanessa Womack, MBA, Author Veronica Appleton & the Journey to Appleville book series

MCBD 2021 is Honored to be Supported by our CoHosts and Global CoHosts!

MCBD 2021 is Honored to be Supported by these Media Partners!

Check out MCBD’s Multicultural Books for Kids Pinterest Board!

Categories
Book Review Parenting

MCBD 2021 Book Review–Jamie and Bubbie: A Book About People’s Pronouns

This story goes along on a neighborhood walk with Jamie and his Great Grandmother, whom he affectionately calls Bubbie. While walking, the two of them interact with different people, and often times Bubbie mistakenly refers to people by the wrong gender. A couple of times Bubbie does it in a way that many of us probably have–seeing someone only from the back and assuming their gender based on their hairstyle. Once she uses the wrong pronoun for someone who has told her what their pronoun they prefer. However, I love the way that Jamie gently corrects Bubbie each time, and by the time their walk ends back at Jamie’s, Jamie’s mother is there to help explain how Bubbie can avoid making that mistake in the future.

I found this book to be a quick read (its intended audience is children aged 4-8), and very clear in what the author is trying to get the reader to understand. I fell in love with Jamie right away, and reading this book made me want to read Afsaneh Moradian’s first book about Jamie, titled Jamie is Jamie.

Something that Moradian did for the adults reading this story was put an awesome “Tips for Teachers, Parents, and Caregivers” at the end of the book, which I found to be very helpful, and even includes other resources you can go to if you have more questions or want to discuss pronoun usage further with young readers.

You can learn more about author Afsaneh Moradian and her work at her website: http://www.afsanehmoradian.com/.

Categories
Book Review Parenting Raising kids Raising Readers Uncategorized

The Barefoot Book of Children–A book review

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.

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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.)

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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