The Case for Loving – a special multicultural nonfiction picture book

Multicultural Children’s Book Day. That time every year when we get to celebrate the diversity of this great country and to promote books that allow children of all backgrounds to see themselves on the pages. This year I received a few books that also remind us that the freedoms we have now haven’t always been there and how, as a nation, we haven’t always been kind to those who were seen as “different.”

Today, as a combination of MCBD and the nonfiction challenge from Kid Lit Frenzy, I am focusing on the beautiful book The Case for Loving, by Selina Alko. When I received this book from Scholastic, I was very excited. I had seen the book before, but wasn’t sure how my kids would react to it. Both of my girls, age 9 and 6, found the story to be quite powerful and there were a lot of questions brought up afterwards.

The Case for Loving tells the story Mildred and Richard Loving that was recently made into a movie. The words on the front flap of the book put it perfectly – “Imagine not being able to marry the person you love, just because they were of a race different from your own. Here is the story of the love between Mildred and Richard Loving. Here is the story of the courage they needed to have that love recognized: A story about how the law changed for the better, about how the law made room for the Lovings, and by doing so, made way for love.”

What is shocking about this book is how well it puts really complex issues in a language that is clear for children. From describing their skin colors to explaining that while slavery ended, there were still many places where whites were not comfortable with the idea of mixing with blacks, let alone the idea of “mixed marriage.” The Lovings were able to wed in Washington, DC, but when they came home to Virginia, their marriage license was null and void and they were actually arrested for unlawful cohabitation. In order to stay married, they had to leave their home state.

The Lovings finally decided to fight in order to return to Virginia, but as the book points out, “by now it was 1966, and the time they were a-changin’.” Their case went to the Supreme Court, and while the state of Virginia argued against their marriage to “preserve the purity of the white race,” the court ruled in favor of the Lovings.

This is such a powerful book that shows how love can help us overcome most things. It takes time for “unconventional” ideas become commonplace. We don’t think about interracial marriage much anymore as the newer, historically unconventional marriage is same sex marriage. But it is important for our children to understand that it wasn’t so very long ago that it was considered illegal for a white man and black woman to get married.

I received this book from Scholastic Books as a part of the 2017 Multicultural Children’s Book Day.

I have been involved with Multicultural Children’s Book Day since it started. Having grown up in Los Angeles, surrounded by a diverse community, I never thought about the notion of being different. Now that I live in a small town in the south, I am much more aware just how hard it can be to be a minority and to be misunderstood. I have always tried to teach my daughters to love everyone and to believe that we are all one human race and that all of our histories and differences should be celebrated.  I also know how important it is to be able to see yourself in the books you read, even more so when you are in the minority, so I look forward to this blogging event every year.

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (1/27/17) is in 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 of the ongoing need to include kids’ 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 is 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, Delores Connors, 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 works 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

Hashtag: Don’t forget to connect with us on social media and be sure and look for/use their official hashtag #ReadYourWorld.