Hello my amazing readers,
November was a blur and, because of that, I went on an unexpected hiatus. But I’m back! I’ve been writing a ton of things by hand and am finally getting my act together to type them up and bring them to you.
One other big thing that has happened in the past month or so is that I was asked to be a co-host for the Multicultural Children’s Book Day. Multicultural Children’s Book Day began in 2014 by Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom and Valerie Valarie Budayr from Jump Into a Book. I have been involved as a participant every year since that inaugural year. The purpose of this yearly event is: to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these of books into classrooms and libraries.
Now more than ever, children need to see themselves reflected in the pages of the books they read. Readers of all ages need to be able to “read their world” to both see themselves, and those are who different, whether by culture, religion, sexual orientation, special needs or ethnicity.
Now more than ever, we need to come together as a nation of beautifully diverse people.
Multicultural Children’s Book Day is proud to offer an initiative and holiday that encourages discovery, hope, acceptance and exploration through the pages of diverse children’s literature.
The Multicultural Children’s Book Day CoHosts are a group of powerhouse bloggers and parents who all share the same passion for reading and understand the importance of diversity in children’s literature. They also act as ambassadors for MCBD’s yearly event by assisting in spreading the word, extending the event’s reach through social media and acting as hosts sites for the wildly popular book review/blog post link-up that occurs on the actual day of the holiday (1/27/17).
The following are the sixteen CoHosts for the 2017 event. These writers, moms, reviewers, book lovers and thought leaders were selected by the MCBD team because of their true dedication to supporting diversity in children’s literature and we would appreciate if you could take a few minutes and visit each of these excellent blogs and say “hello.”
A Crafty Arab: Kay Tarapolsi is a Libyan American artist who creates art to promote a positive image of Arab culture. Kay creates handmade Arab, Fa
rsi and Urdu crafts and cards. Check out her wares on Zibbet (www.ACraftyArab.zibbet.com), Amazon, Etsy or select stores in Seattle, WA, Dearborn, MI, and Washington, DC. The Arabic Alphabet Animal Poster became an idea back in 2002 when Kay received an alphabet poster (in English) by Jill M. Schmidt, a published illustrator of children’s books. Kay realized there was a need for an Arabic poster that was bright, fun and colorful and began working with Jill in 2010 to create this product line. Kay teaches Arab art education to various schools in the Pacific Northwest and has been an artist in resident in several summer camps.
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, G+
All Done Monkey
Leanna is a stay at home mother to two sweet, funny, rambunctious boys and a sweet baby girl! Sh
e draws inspiration from the Writings of the Bahá’í Faith and tries to raise her Monkeys in a fun, spiritual, loving environment. She and her husband, who is from Costa Rica, are raising their boys to be bilingual and bicultural but more importantly to be “world citizens.” All Done Monkey is dedicated to sharing this journey with you! All Done Monkey focuses on multiculturalism, children’s education, natural parenting, and spiritual education.
Leanna is the co-founder of Bahá’í Mom Blogs and founder of Multicultural Kid Blogs.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, G+
Colours of Us: Svenja is an adoptive mom and social worker, originally from Germany, living in South Africa. As a mom of a little African girl she always searches for multicultural children’s books that have a positive message, and that do not support stereotypes. She shares her findings on her website, Colours of Us. Svenja is passionate about promoting diversity in children’s literature and toys. She believes that all children deserve to see themselves reflected in the books they read and the toys they play with. Because representation matters!
Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, G+
Kim Vij: Kim Vij is a Certified Teacher with over 20 years of experience using her Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from the University of Central Florida. She moved from the traditional classroom to raise her 3 children and to be an advocate for early childhood education using a much larger platform online. When she is not creating or pinning ideas for kids, you will often find Kim speaking at events, hosting twitter chats or discussing with a friend at a play date about how to help their child learn with developmentally appropriate strategies. A community builder at heart, she serves as an organizer of a local mom’s group and as a school volunteer coordinator. Kim is the Co-author of the popular website The Educators’ Spin On It.
Kim on Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram
Amanda Boyarshinov: Amanda is a National Board Certified teacher with oodles of experience in early childhood education. She holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s degree in Reading for grades K-12. You will often find her in her backyard exploring nature with her kids or doing a hands-on science project at the kitchen table. She loves to walk her dog and snuggling up with a good book when she isn’t elbow deep in baking blueberry muffins in the kitchen. She shares educational activities for children ages 0-7 at The Educators’ Spin On It. Here are some of her tips on building a diverse bookshelf.
More about Amanda, Twitter, Instagram
Watch from Amanda and Kim’s upcoming book, 100 Fun & Easy Learning Games for Kids: Teach Reading, Writing, Math and More With Fun Kid Activities Paperback – May 24, 2016
Becky Flansburg is a blogger and Virtual Assistant from Minnesota who writes about parenthood topics and moms in business. As Project Manager for Multicultural Children’s Book Day, blogger, WAHM, and freelance writer, Becky knows being a mom is The.Best.Thing.Ever and Team Family is #1. Her goal with Franticmommy is to provide tips, ideas, products and services to help other women realize their dreams of business ownership while also sharing the “holy crap!” moments of parenthood and life.
Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
Jodie Rodriguez has a passion for helping caregivers nurture our youngest readers. As a 
former National Board Certified early-childhood, elementary teacher and administrator, she has worked with thousands of families and educators providing best literacy practices. She lives near St. Louis, Missouri and now stays home with home with her two young sons. She is the creator/founder of Growing Book by Book. A blog dedicated to helping caregivers nurture our youngest readers. You will find book lists, book related activities and literacy tips and tricks for kids ages 0-8.
Pinterest | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Growing Book by Book
Melissa Taylor, MA, is an education expert and Pinterest influencer as well as a mother, teacher, and freelance writer. She writes an award-winning learning blog, Imagination Soup and freelances for publications online and in print, including Sylvan Learning, Random House, USA Today Health, The Writer, and Scholastic Parent and Child. Connect with Melissa on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
Becky Morales started Kid World Citizen as a way to share ideas from her classroom 
and activities that she did with her kids. Becky an adoptive mom and the cultures in her family’s household include Mexico, China, Ethiopia, and African-American, but has expanded the blog to include cultures from around the world. Becky loves meeting other globally-minded parents and teachers and sharing ideas to expose kids to world cultures. She has also written a book to help teachers and homeschoolers increase global learning with their kids (and in it there is a booklist of over 300+ excellent multicultural titles for elementary learners!).
Facebook, Pinterest, G+, Twitter, Instagram
MaryAnne was raised in five countries on three continents. She currently lives in California with her husband and their four children. MaryAnne blogs at Mama Smiles about building a rewarding family life through mindful parenting and educational and creative family activities. MaryAnne has a Masters in education and Ph.D. in medicine. She enjoyed freelance writing and photography.
Connect with Mama Smiles on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, G+
Multicultural Kid Blogs is a supportive community which brings together parents, educators, bloggers, writers and artists from across the world. Our mission is to inspire and support parents, caregivers and educators raising the next generation of global citizens through arts, activities, crafts, food, language, and love. We do this by creating educational and parenting content which celebrates global cultures, languages and belief systems and by promoting diversity in all its forms while recognizing our common concerns and dreams for our children.
Facebook, G+, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram
Randomly Reading: Alex Baugh is a former 4th grade classroom teacher and homeschooler with one Kiddo. She is also on an children’s book award granting committee, where they read over 6,000 books a year. Alex’s experience has made her very aware of the responsibility we all have when it comes to the multicultural content of children’s literature and she shares that he keeps that in mind with every blog post she writes for Randomly Reading.
Twitter @randomlyreading, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+
The Jenny Evolution – The Jenny Evolution is a parenting lifestyle blog focused on topics moms care about. From important parenting tips to family meals to simple kid activities, moms want information they can immediately use and have fun with. The Jenny Evolution is focused on articles that enrich family life without making it complicated… because who has time for that?
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, G+
The Logonauts: Katie is a life-long reader and enjoys ensnaring others in the web of life-long reading. As a traveler, photographer, and former archaeologist, 
she has visited four five continents (honeymoon in Morocco!), numerous countries, and 41 of the 50 US States. She loves introducing her students to the wider world and fostering their excitement about other countries and cultures. Logonaut was a word invented by Katie and three of her pre-service teacher colleagues while creating a unit on vocabulary-building and word roots. It has as its roots logo (Greek for word) and naut (Greek for ship or nautae, Latin for sailor): word sailor. In their estimation then, a logonaut is someone who sails on the sea of words and shares an appreciation and love of the power of words and language.
Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, G+
Youth Literature Reviews –Katie Meadows is a mother, wife, and book lover from the Pacific Northwest. As a bookseller, Katie spe
nt years helping children, parents, and educators find the perfect book. In 2012 she launched Youth Literature Reviews, a blog that features book reviews and carefully curated book lists for children of all ages, from babies to teens.Connect with Katie on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Would you like to be a Reviewer for MCBD 2017 and Receive a Free Diversity Book?
Direct all questions and inquires to becky (at) multiculturalchildrensbookday (dot) com
Thank you so much for supporting Multicultural Children’s Book Day as a co-host!!!
Thank you so much for sharing!