Celebrating Multicultural Children's Book Day

Poster by Aram Kim

Today, it is time to celebrate diversity. Multicultural Children's Book Day is a bookish event organised since 2013, aimed at raising awareness about the need to include books dedicated to diversity on the children's reading lists. The events were founded by Valarie Budays from Jump Into a Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom.

Here is the list of the Medallion Sponsors for this event. The list of the 2018 MCBD Author Sponsors is available here. The event is covered by more than 500 reviewers which focused on celebrating and learning about diversity in a world that is becoming hopefully not only more complex, but also more respectful towards difference. Books and the written world in general do have a tremendous power to change this, and therefore I am honored to be part of this event.

In order to get a wider access to information, in the next days, a couple of resources are free to download and read, in an effort to create a high awareness about topics and issues regularly dealt with in the classroom or in multi-cultural, diverse environments in general. For instance, you can have a look - for free - at the Teacher Classroom Empathy Kit, print and download some of the beautiful posters and bookmarks designed by the talented Aram Kim, or download from free fom Amazon Read Your World: A Guide to Multicultural Children's Books for Parents and Educators.

A big 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 the CoHosts here.

Multicultural Book Review: Clever Carmel, by Henrietta Nwagwn-Rochford

Part of this event, I was assigned to review a very well written interesting book: Clever Carmel, by Henrietta Nwagwn-Rochford. Set in a mixed - Nigerian-English - family, it features the smart and bold football lover Carmel, which found a great idea for featuring her diverse heritage. 

When part of the World Cup school discussions all the children were recommended to pick up a country that reflects their history and tradition, Carmel realized that one it is not enough. Therefore, she had a great idea that brought her a first prize and the praise of the teachers. She was not afraid to assume her double identity, as she felt happily part of two best worlds.

The message is smartly sent through the story, without necessarily outlining it ideologically. Openly embracing your heritage is a natural thing to do and the way in which Carmel is doing is an example of genuine identity assessment, provided there is enough support both at home and in the classroom.

I was not so impressed by the illustrations though, although at a great extent, they succeed to share the right message, but I am personally a big supporter of more artistic graphic images. The book addresses an audience of 7-13 yo.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the author in exchange for an honest review, part of the MCBD2018.