Our mission 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.
Did you know that tomorrow is Multicultural Children’s Book Day (MCCBD)? I am happy to co-host this celebration of multicultural children’s books! Young readers need to see themselves within the pages of a book. They also need to experience other cultures, languages, traditions and religions within the pages of a book.
Multicultural Children’s Book Day is an opportunity for readers, parents, teachers, caregivers and librarians to discover wonderful Multicultural Children’s books via the linky at the end of this post and by following the hashtag #ReadYourWorld on social media. MCCBD offers teachers and classrooms the chance to (very easily) earn a free hardcover multicultural children’s book for their classroom library through the Classroom Reading Challenge . These books are not only donated by the Junior Library Guild, but they are pre-screened and approved by them as well. I highly recommend this carefully curated list of diversity books and extension activities for kids sorted by country, holiday, ethnicity, genre, and age group.
Celebrating Multicultural Children’s Books
What You'll Find on This Page
All Done Monkey, Crafty Moms Share, Educators Spin on it, Growing Book by Book, Imagination Soup, I’m Not the Nanny, InCultural Parent, Kid World Citizen, Mama Smiles, Multicultural Kid Blogs, Spanish Playground
Wisdom Tales publishes many wonderful multicultural children’s books, and they sent me two to review as part of this celebration.
Princess Rosie’s Rainbows is a beautifully illustrated fairytale about how happiness is something that we gain from the inside out. The pictures are wonderful, and this book pairs well with a discussion of what matters most in life.
Pine and the Winter Sparrow is an equally beautifully illustrated story of an ancient legend about the kindness of strangers attributed to the Cherokee Native American tribe. This book is the perfect addition to any discussion about making sure to include everyone, as well as the importance of kindness and helping others.
Favorite Multicultural Children’s Books
Here are some more of my family’s favorite multicultural children’s books:
Multicultural Children’s Book day 2016 Medallion Level Sponsors! #ReadYourWorld
Platinum: Wisdom Tales Press * StoryQuest Books*Lil Libros
Gold: Author Tori Nighthawk*Candlewick Press,* Bharat Babies
Silver: Lee and Low Books*Chronicle Books*Capstone Young Readers Tuttle Publishing ,NY Media Works, LLC/KidLit TV* China Institute.org
Bronze: Pomelo Books* Author Jacqueline Woodson*Papa Lemon Books* Goosebottom Books*Author Gleeson Rebello*ShoutMouse Press*Author Mahvash Shahegh*Live Oak Media
Do you have a post featuring a multicultural children’s book to share?
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Picture books are a great way to look deeper into many different topics, and diversity is particularly good to discuss in this format.
Thank you so much for your support of Multicultural Children’s Book Day and for being a co-hostess! We are so grateful to have you! I hope you enjoyed the event too!
It is a wonderful event, and I was happy to be part of it.
I’ve had so much fun this year going through and looking at all of the books shared. My book wish list is impossibly long.
Such a great event and a brilliant way to discover new books. I’m going to have to order Pine and the Winter Sparrow here in the UK for my kids who are dual nationals – British and American. I love that they’ll read a nature story told by a Native American tribe.
It is a beautiful book with wonderful illustrations.
Happy Multicultural Children’s Book Day MaryAnne !! Thanks for co-hosting and celebrating with us. Enjoy !!
Thank you for organizing this wonderful event!
I could be adding to this list all day long! We love books set in different cultures and different countries.
I love all of the country studies you post on your blog.