Valarie from Jump Into a Book and I welcome to you Multicultural Children’s Book Day!
We have a wonderful group of bloggers who are posting today!!
2GirlsLostInaBook · 365 Days of Motherhood · A Bilingual Baby · A Library Mama · A Simple Life, Really? · Africa to America · After School for Smarty Pants · All Done Monkey · Andi’s Kids Books · Anita Brown Bag · Austin Gilkeson · Barbara Ann Mojica · Between The Covers · Bookish Ambition · Books My Kids Read · Bottom Shelf Books · Cats Eat Dogs · Chasing The Donkey · Children’s Book-a-Day Almanac · Children’s Books Heal · Church o Books · CitizenBeta · Crafty Moms Share · Discovering The World Through My Son’s Eyes · Early Words · Flowering Minds · Franticmommy · Gathering Books · Geek Club Books · GEO Librarian · GIFT Family Services · Gladys Barbieri · Going in Circles · Growing Barefoot Bookworms · Growing Book by Book · iGame Mom · I’m Not The Nanny · InCulture Parent · Itsy Bitsy Mom · Just Children’s Books · Kid Lit Reviews · Kids Yoga Stories · Kid World Citizen · Kristi’s Book Nook · Mama Lady Books · Mama Smiles · Mission Read · Monkey Poop · Mother Daughter Book Reviews · Mrs AOk · MrsTeeLoveLifeLaughter · Ms. Yingling Reads · Multicultural Kids Blog · My White Board · One Sweet World · Open Wide The World · P is for Preschooler · Rapenzel Dreams · Randomly Reading · Reading Through Life · School4Boys · Sharon the Librarian · Spanish Playground · Sprout’s Bookshelf · Squishable Baby · Stanley and Katrina · Svetlana’s Reads and Views · Teach Mama · The Art of Home Education · The Brain Lair · The Educators’ Spin On It · The Family-Ship Experience · The Good Long Road · The Yellow Door Paperie · This Kid Reviews Books · Trishap’s Books · Unconventional Librarian · Vicki Arnold · We3Three · World for Learning · Wrapped in Foil
The United States is transforming into a multi-ethnic nation; a true melting pot where ethnic diversity will soon be the majority. Research from the Center for Media Research calls the newest generation Plurals: America’s Last Generation With Caucasian Majority.
The proportion of Caucasians in America will continue to diminish, creating a pluralistic society, one in which there isn’t a majority ethnicity or race. In 2019, live births in America will be less than 50% Caucasian, making the Pluralist Generation the last generation with a Caucasian majority. In 2042, the entire population will be less than 50% Caucasian and America will literally become a pluralistic society.
Such sweeping demographic changes in the United States will reflect the world at large, making it more important than ever for children to learn about other cultures. We think one way to teach kids is through books and we thank you all for helping us celebrate Multicultural Children’s Book Day today!
We wanted to thank our sponsors for helping us make this day happen:
Because our aim is to get more multicultural books into the hands of kids, we are doing some giveaways!
Enter to win a full set of Wisdom Tales Press books here.
Valarie and I are giving away ten books from Barefoot Books! Please enter the Rafflecopter below to win the entire set!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
I will be also be giving away a signed copy of Greenhorn by Anna Olswanger who let me know that today is also the U.N.’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. To win, please enter the Rafflecopter below. a Rafflecopter giveaway
Happy Multicultural Children’s Book Day!
We are so happy that you are here to join us!
Please link up your posts on children’s books with diversity themes and/or leave a comment with a book that you’d like to share.
If you like to join our Pinterest Board, Multicultural Books for Kids, please follow the board and email me your Pinterest email.
If you want to share photos, video or a post of how you are celebrating Multicultural Children’s Book Day, please email me your links or photos and I will include it in a future post about how this day went. My email is pragmaticmomblog (at) gmail (dot) com.
Please visit a few blogs on the linky and leave a comment and/or share on your social media. Thanks for helping to get the word out about great multicultural books for kids!
Follow PragmaticMom’s board Multicultural Books for Kids on Pinterest.
Follow PragmaticMom’s board Children’s Book Activities on Pinterest.
My books:
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Massachusetts Book Award Long List
- Selected as one of 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023 by dPICTUS and featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
- Starred review from School Library Journal
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
- Green Earth Book Award Long List
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Scholastic / Signed or Inscribed by Me
This is an awesome even Ms. Wenjen! I am happy to be part of it!
Hi Eric,
We are so thrilled to have you on board! I love your blog!!
I forgot to say my favorite Multicultural Children’s Book is Flying the Dragon by Natalie Dias Lorenzi.
Hi Erik,
I love her book too! Did you hear that she is coming out with a sequel?! I just read that on Facebook recently!!! Yay!
Thank you so much for hosting this wonderful and important day!
Thank you so much Jodie. We couldn’t have done it without wonderful KidLit bloggers like you joining us! Thank you for all your support for today’s Multicultural Children’s Book Day!
Thank you so much for hosting, Mia. Our Gang is honored to be included. Off to create an extra post for today. Hmmm… probably my favorite book (and my daughter\’s) is the DK Book \”Children Just Like Me: A Unique Celebration of Children Around the World.\” I\’m horrible at picking but that was the first one that came to mind that we have looked at multiple times and is OBVIOUSLY multicultural. 🙂
~Christine M. (Cool Mom) – Tech Support for Stanley
Hi Christine,
I’m so glad that you and your gang are here! I can’t wait to read your extra post and read your gang’s favorite multicultural children’s books! I’ve learned about so many great new-to-me diversity books today through the posts and linky! Thank you again for all your support for Multicultural Children’s Book Day!!
One of my favorites from some years ago is Thanhha Lai’s Inside Out and Back Again, the story of a Vietnamese girl and her family who flee Vietnam near the end of the war and settle in Alabama. It’s told in verse, which you might think could be offputting, but in fact is a tremendous strength. It’s beautiful, vivid, sensitive, funny in places, sad in places–just lovely.
Hi Asakiyume,
I was hesitant to read Inside Out and Back Again when it first came out because I don’t naturally gravitate towards poetry, but boy was I glad I did! It was truly an extradinary book and the free verse made that story so alive. The story was so real too, not the stereotypical “I’m so grateful to be in the U.S. after all I’ve been through” but such a realistic portrayal of actually how a young girl might feel with mixed feelings of regret at being here as well. I agree. What an amazing book! Thank you for that reminder!
It is very hard for me to pick just one book!!! I recently read Finder’s, Keepers: A True Story in India and I loved it:).
Hi Becky,
Thank you so much for your support for Multicultural Children’s Book Day. Valarie and I keep talking about your great Multicultural Children’s Book List on your blog. We’d love to reference this since there have been a lot of questions about where to find more great books with diversity themes. And thanks for your rec. I will hunt it down for myself and my kids! It’s new to me!
http://kidworldcitizen.org/category/literature/
This has been the most wonderful experience! Thank you for putting Multicultural Children’s Literature Day together. Discovering all of these amazing books is priceless!
Hi Michelle,
We are so grateful to you for your support for Multicultural Children’s Book Day! Thank you so much for joining us! We are also discovering new gems and can’t wait to read more books for kids with such interesting diversity themes!!!
Favorite multi-cultural book?!? I have a soft spot for Something from Nothing.
Hi Michelle,
I love learning about your favorite multicultural children’s book since many are new to me like yours! On my list!! Thank you!!
So happy to be part of this event. I shared one of my favorite multicultural books, Four Feet Two Sandals!
Hi Barbara,
Thank you so much for sharing your favorite multicultural children’s book and for your support! We are so grateful to you for helping us create this day and helping everyone discover new-to-them books for kids with diversity themes!!
What a great event! Thanks to you and Valerie for putting it together, and to all the amazing bloggers that participated!
Thank you so much Marie-Claude! We are so excited to have so many wonderful bloggers participating and so grateful that there seems to be an interest in discovering both new and old multicultural books for kids!
Thanks for such great event. Will share info on my multicultural book, Brer Anancy and the Magic Pot
Thanks so much for sharing Steve!!
Thanks so much for all of the work you have put into this! What a great list of books and posts. I am sure to be borrowing lots from the library.
What a wonderful experience to be involved. Clare x
Hi Clare,
Thank YOU so much for joining us with your wonderful post for Multicultural Children’s Book Day. We are so grateful to you for helping us celebrate diversity in children’s books and hopefully stirring up an increased demand for them!
Woot! Great event Mia and thrilled to be part of it. We are so pleased with the book that we received and we are happy to spread the word about it and about MCCBD! Thanks! 🙂
Thank you so much Renee for joining us for Multicultural Children’s Book Day. We could not have done it without you and all the wonderful bloggers that joined in with such great book reviews! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Thank you for hosting such a great event! My favorite multicultural book One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Tale.
Hi Darshana,
Thank you so much for joining us for Multicultural Children’s Book Day and for sharing your wonderful diversity book choice. I loved One Grain of Rice too. I love it when there are multicultural books for kids that also have math snuck in! There are so few of them too, that yours is especially a gem!! Thank you again for all your support!!
This is such a great idea. I wish I’d had it together to participate this year, but I had a book list to add to your linky. I’m going to enjoy all the new books I’ll get from the library!
I think it’s brilliant that you’ve organised this event. It’s so important for children to be exposed and learn about different cultures. I shared a book in your linky – The Colour of Home – which I think has a powerful message as it tells the story of an immigrant child adapting to his new home and school after fleeing the violence of Somalia.
Hi Kriss,
We are so grateful to you for joining us for Multicultural Children’s Book Day! Thank you so much for your great book suggestion!! I’m reading a graphic novel — War Brothers — that is also set in Africa amid the worst kind of violence. It’s a YA but might be an add on to kids who read The Colour of Home (and are older). Thank you again!
my favourite multicultural book has to be “my grandfathers masbaha”, thank you for a fabulous competition.
Hi We3Three,
I was so glad to learn about My Grandfather’s Masbaha. The theme of gratitude is so important for kids to learn and this book teaches it so beautifully in a multicultural way! I think every child could relate to it! Thanks for joining us for Multicultural Children’s Book Day!
My favorite multicultural book? That’s a tough one. I like the book Children of the Tipi that I reviewed for MCKidLitDay, but I’d have to say “Princess Grace” because my girls and I read and re-read that book for years.
Hi Deborah,
Thank you so much for joining us and for your great review! We really appreciate your support. Is Princess Grace part of the Boundless Grace series? I will have to read this last one! I think I somehow missed it! Thanks for sharing two great book suggestions!!
Fantastic Line up Mia! There are some awrsome Multi Cultural Books out there and it would be wonderful to see many of these get on some serious awards list.
-Reshama @ Stackingbooks
Hi Reshama,
That is my hope too! There were a few that won some awards at ALA this year but hopefully more will win as other book awards get announced all year. I am judging the Cybils for graphic novels and was pleased to see that some of the short list entries have diversity themes! http://www.cybils.com/2012-finalists-graphic-novels.html
One of our favorite multicultural books is “Anansi and the Moss-covered Rock.” I recently read “A New Year’s Reunion” with my children and we enjoyed it very much. This is a wonderful event and I would like to see the schools and libraries to participate in the near future.
Hi Amanda,
Thanks so much for your support! I will have to check out your two great book recommendations. I love how we are all learning about new (to us) and great multicultural books for kids!
Right now, because it changes frequently, of course!, our favorite multicultural book is The Great Race by Dawn Casey. With Chinese New Year later this week, it’s fun to talk about the different animal signs and to look up what each family member is, although a certain four-year-old was sad to discover that she was born in the year of the snake.
Hi Katie,
The Great Race is fun for Chinese New Year!! My kids like figuring out which animal they are and then trying to figure out of they win the race (or are just the best animal!).
My husband is also born in the year of the snake. Please tell a certain 4-year-old that snakes have many wonderful gifts and personality traits! Some would even claim that they are the best animal sign!!! (A certain husband!)
Thank you for hosting such a wonderful event. I have seen more books I haven’t read than I’ve read. And, I’ve read and reviewed many. Have started adding them to my TBR list. It was so hard to pick one special book. So I shared a PB, King For A Day on my blog to promote this event last Friday and shared a YA book today. Again thank you so much for all of your hard work. Will enjoy visiting blogs.
Thank you so much for joining us Patricia! We couldn’t have done it without the support of wonderful bloggers like you!! I will be hunting down King for a Day for my kids! It sounds wonderful! Thank you again for your support!
Thank you so much for hosting this party, Mia and Valarie. My contribution this week is a little different: I don’t have a book review but a brief overview of the more controversial issues inherent in a discussion of “multiculturalism” in children’s literature amidst the questions of authenticity, voice, and power. I took screenshots from my planned discussion tomorrow evening in my own class for higher degree students as well as the text-set that I would be using. Includes Cora Cooks Pancit, Mirror by Jeannie Baker, Grandfather’s Journey, and Uncle Peter’s Amazing Chinese Wedding and links to my reviews of all four books. 🙂
Hi Myra,
I found your post to be so fascinating! What an interesting and important topic. I hope you blog on how your class goes!! Thanks for joining us and for sharing the books you will be using in your class!!!
I think my favorite one right now is The Colors of Us with a close second being Mufaro\’s Beautiful Daughters.
Hi Carrie,
I loved your multicultural Cinderella series. Thanks so much for sharing all your wonderful book reviews on the linky and for these two great book suggestions! Thank you so much for joining us for Multicultural Book Day. We couldn’t have done it without you!!
My plans for today went a little awry due to illness, but I\’ve managed to pop up a couple of reviews for favourites on Goodreads.
Mirror, by Jeannie Baker (Morocco/Australia, mainly pictures, with words in English and Arabic) and Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns (Muslim culture, in English). I tried to link to them, but it won’t let me! so you’ll just have to google. 🙂
Both fantastic reads and lovely to look at.
Thanks for all the recommendations from participants!
Thank you so much Brownyn for joining us with your great book suggestions. I hope you feel better soon! I will add your books to my list! They sound terrific!
Thanks to you and Valerie for coming up with the idea to do a Multicultural Children’s Book Day event. It looks like a big success, lots of participants and lots of interesting new books to explore. I enjoyed this very much.
Hi Alex,
Thank you so much for your support and kind words. We are getting excited for next year and thinking up ways to make it better! Thank you again! Your support means so much to us and we are really glad that it succeeded it getting more multicultural book titles in the spotlight!!
Thank you for putting together this great list. I love Handa’s Surprise but we have just started reading our first Anna Hibiscus books and are really enjoying them.
Hi Catherine,
I was so glad to learn about both Handa’s Surprise and Anna Hisbiscus books! I can’t wait to find them at my library!!!
Thank you so much for making this day a reality. I know it must have been a ton of work and you got so many fabulous bloggers to participate. Thank you!
Thanks so much to you Jennifer for your support! We could not have pulled it off without everyone’s support and we are so grateful to have you all join us! It was a fun day and we think it helped spotlight more multicultural books for kids!
I love the Multicultural Children’s Book Day and this giveaway! One of my son’s favorite books is “Can You Say Peace?” In fact, I’m hoping to incorporate that book and other books that deal with diversity of all kinds in our Baby/Toddler book club next year! I’ll be working on next year’s book list soon!
Hi Baby Toddler Book Club,
Thank you so much for sharing your great book recommendation and for entering the giveaway! Please join us next year for Multicultural Children’s Book Day! I’m make sure we send you the info if you are interested!
I am so glad I found you and this site! I am currently drafting a children’s book and your lists are making me feel so inspired!
When I was in about the 3rd grade my favorite book was Iggie’s House by Judy Blume. It had a profound affect on me. Growing up in San Francisco, most of my friends were mixed like me. We knew about racism as a part of history and other people’s lives, but it fortunately was not a part of our world. Reading Iggie’s House made me realize that kids experienced discrimination – not just adults. It also reassured me that my friends and I were on the right track. Color didn’t matter, and never should. t remember crying reading the story. I still have my original copy and look forward to sharing it with my kids.
Hi Celina,
Thank you so much for sharing your great book recommendation. I thought I read all of Judy Blume’s books but someone Iggie’s House escaped me! I will track it down. It sounds wonderful. My mom grew up in San Francisco too but before WWII in Japantown.
I hope you can join us next year for Multicultural Children’s Book Day either with your own book or with Iggie’s House. These are exactly the kinds of books we would love to shine the spotlight on!
Hello, I just discovered PragmaticMom today via Facebook: Mama-Lady Books post introducing me to the ‘First ever Multicultural Children’s Book Day’, that I was disheartened to have missed the opportunity to blog about on January 27. My all time favorite book has always been: What’s On The Other Side Of The Rainbow? (The Secret Of The Golden Mirror) by Carla Jo Masterson. A Children’s book that encourages every child to find beauty in themselves and the secret to doing that. I’m looking forward to finding many favorite multicultural children’s book here at PragmaticMom!
Hi Michelle,
It’s so nice to meet you! Thanks so much for stopping by. Not to worry! We will be making Multicultural Children’s Book Day an annual event and would love to have you join us. And please link up a new or old post on What’s On the Other Side of the Rainbow? We will keep the linky open so there is still time!
I love this post! Thanks for sharing at After School!
Thank you so much Stephanie!!! We really appreciate it! We are hoping to go bigger next year.
I decided to add one more. I was impressed with the simplicity of Me on the Map and love the section at the end when she realizes that we all have our place on the map and we aren’t so different from one another.
Hi Michelle,
Thanks so much for all your great book recommendations for Multicultural Children’s Book Day! Me on the Map looks terrific for kids to learn about geography in a very personal and interesting way!
What a great resource this is! I want to read more multicultural books!
Thanks so much Ann! We are so delighted to have such a wonderful round up of links and bloggers! It’s a dream come true for Valarie and me!