Embedded Files
I am going to use this page somewhat as a blog to share reviews, lesson ideas, and successes. I hope you enjoy!
10-1-22
Daisy Woodworm Changes the World by Melissa Hart
Hissing cockroaches may not be your thing, but Daisy is a budding entomologist; these are her pets. Daisy is a quirky middle school girl dealing with regular middle school issues, yet her social studies teacher has challenged her class to step up and change the world like other young adults. She, “enemy” Miguel and her best friend, Poppy, work together to help her brother Sorrel and other special needs students through their projects. Daisy’s family has fallen on hard times due to her mom’s health issues, but they are making the best of things. This book will speak to so many of our youth and would be an excellent book study for 5th graders! Thank you, Melissa Hart, for this inspiring story of compassion! This book will be released in December of 2022!!
2-21-2021
Arthur and the Forgetful Elephant by Maria Giron
Arthur’s friendship helps change a “rainy day” to one full of sunshine and rainbows for an elderly elephant! He teaches his new enormous elephant friend that sometimes doing other things can lead to remembering what you forgot! Arthur, the elephant, and even some of Arthur’s friends participate in simple childhood activities like hide-and-go-seek and coloring with chalk bringing joy to all involved. The brief text on each page pairs nicely with the incredible gentle hues of the illustrations. Arthur appears as a curious red-headed white child wearing glasses who has no fear when he encounters the old large gray elephant. Arthur’s friends are multicultural. Most of the illustrations span two pages. The elephant’s change in mood is reflected well in his tears and smiles. This would be an excellent book shared one-on-one or with a group about friendship.
January 28, 2021
Thank you, Phelicia Lang, author of the Tay and the Mari book series, and Me on the Page Publishing, for not just gifting one book to review and add to our library, but five! Our students will be excited to read these!
The Tay series is wonderful for early readers! All of the books have an easy-to-read font and plentiful sight words. The duo book includes Tay Goes to Chess Club and Tay Goes to the Game (Book 1 and 2) featuring a youngBlack boy with his friends and family. In this book, each two-page spread has a sentence and an illustration to support that sentence. Samanta Veliz’s illustrations provide excellent clues to more difficult words. The illustrations also depict multicultural families and friends. Each of the stories portrays an event that students can relate to...chess club and going to see a basketball game. Tay Goes to the Zoo is part fiction and part nonfiction. The informational text provides captions, information, and photographs.
In the Mari series, children again will be able to relate to the characters in the book, especially Spanish speaking children. I received Mari Learns to Read in English as Spanish and Mari Dances at the Community Fair in Spanish. These books have more text on the pages than the Tay books, yet again the illustrations help with those words that might provide difficulty for early readers. These bilingual books include Spanish/ English flashcards at the back of the book.
All of the books have an information letter at the beginning cueing families on areas to be mindful of. Each book also gives the same steps on how to figure out an unknown word. The only area of concern is the punctuation. There are a few missing quotation marks and comma errors, but overall they do not take away from the value of the books. Students will be so excited that they can read and relate to the characters in these books!
Additional thanks goes to those that put together the Multicultural Children’s Book Day each year to help librarians and others connect with authors to receive books to review. This has helped our library become more diverse and provide texts that students can relate to.
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 books 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!
Follow the hashtag #ReadYourWorld to join the conversation, connect with like-minded parts, authors, publishers, educators, organizations, and librarians. See you all very soon on Twitter!
Hashtag: Don’t forget to connect with us on social media and be sure and look for/use our official hashtag #ReadYourWorld.
February 23, 2020
If...
(the 25th Anniversary Edition)
By Sarah Perry
Imagine having butterflies for clothes or whales in space. In this updated 25th anniversary book by Sarah Perry, beautifully painted watercolor illustrations show these imaginative images. Simple text let's the reader imagine before turning the page to the illustration. The endmatter shares hidden surprises within the illustrations throughout the book. The endpapers are included in the mysterious surprises letting the reader guess what the ants are showing. This would be an amazing book to springboard into an art class or creative writing class! Bravo to the J. Paul Getty Museum for publishing this magnificent book of art and imagination!
January 31, 2020
Happy Multicultural Children's Book Day! #READYOURWORLD @MCChildsBookDay
https://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/blog/
Thank you, Lee and Low Books, Inc. for the wonderful book Zombies Don't East Veggies by Megan Lacera and Jorge Lacera! Our students at Franklin Elementary School will enjoy this great book for years to come!
Zombies Don’t Eat Veggies
By Megan Lacera and Jorge Lacera
The dynamic duo, Megan and Jorge Lacera have “measured up” a delightful story about being true to oneself and the acceptance by others, even parents! Megan Lacera creates an engaging tale of Mauricio Romero, nicknamed Mo, being different from his parents, yet still being the son they’ve always loved. Sprinkled with a dash of Spanish vocabulary and subtle witty humor, Zombies Don’t Eat Veggies is a relatable story about a child not wanting to partake in the usual zombie cuisine. The illustrations adeptly created by Jorge Lacera depict a not-so-scary family and their home. Humor abounds on each page. The “feast fit for a zombie” includes such delicacies as pickled tongue and "Dori-Toes (for dipping)" which are actual toes. In the graveyard, the headstone reads, “Sarah Bellum.” And, on the table next to the couch, there are wilted flower. The endpapers show the solidarity of Mo’s family, yet the transition to acceptance. Included are three of Mo’s vegetable-loaded recipes. Each recipe warns the reader to “Make sure an adult is available to help!” This book will be a delicious addition to any menu (or library)!
January 12, 2019
I am currently reading The Enchanted Hour by Meghan Cox Gurdon. I have read about 10% of the book, but am fascinated with Gurdon's ability to share statistical data in a way that's easy to read and enjoyable. The data is astounding about the importance of reading to children aloud. If you want to read it, the Wichita Falls Public Library has it as an ebook. I will be turning it in soon and buying a copy to add to our library! Wow! Read to children! It's that simple!
January 29, 2018
Saturday, January 27th, was Multicultural Children's Book Day. I missed writing my review that day due to sickness. I would like to thank the Medallion Sponsors for the amazing book I received to review and helping to inform the world about all the amazing literature that is available for students and adults to read!
Here is the amazing book I had the pleasure of reviewing. Since I am not a fluent Spanish speaker, I took the opportunity to have my bilingual students that I work with to help me with its translation! What an awesome experience for us all!
Recently translated into Spanish by Teresa MLawer, Escalera a la Luna is a poignant tale of the bond between a granddaughter and the grandmother she never met. Inspired by her mother’s storytelling and Georgia O’Keefe’s Stairway to the Moon (1958) painting, Maya Soetroro-Ng, the half-sister of former President Obama, shares her mother’s wisdom, compassion and inner strength through a heart-warming story about a young girl, Suhaila, climbing a ladder to the moon with her grandmother. As the story proceeds, Suhaila, Soetoro-Ng’s own daughter’s name, continues to learn “more than she had known before” as she helps others, drinks tea, and realizes life’s purpose of making our world a better place. Yuyi Morales’ acrylic art digitally manipulated combine subtle textures and Morales’ signature rounded characters illuminating this tale of love and tradition. Written for young children, I believe this tale speaks volumes to all ages.
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