Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2022 (1/28/22) is in its 9th year! This non-profit children’s literacy initiative was founded by Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen; two diverse book-loving moms who saw a need to shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural books and authors on the market while also working to get those book into the hands of young readers and educators. I am super proud to be a Co-Host of this amazing on-line and off-line book event again this year! Woo hoo!
Want to know more? Here ya go!
MCBD by the Numbers
We are proud to announce that 34 Medallion and 26 Author Level Sponsors support this initiative and that number continues to grow.
Thanks to over 500 dedicated book reviewers, 1000+ diverse book reviews will be shared on social media during the last few weeks of January.
During our wildly popular Twitter Party (1/28/22 at (9:00 p.m. ET) hosted by Audrey Press Books, Pragmaticmom.com, and 2022 Platinum Sponsor Make A Way Media over 150 diverse books and related items will be given away in 60 minutes (a winner is announced every 5 minutes!).
To date, MCBD has gifted over 10,000 diverse books to end users.
Mission:
To raise awareness for children’s books that celebrate diversity by getting more of these books into classrooms and libraries. This non-profit also strives to shine the spotlight on the diverse books and authors that are often overlooked by mainstream publishing and media.
Multicultural Children’s Book Day (MCBD) is an online and offline celebration that attracts thousands of supporters, educators, parents, caregivers, book reviewers, and quality authors and publishers who join forces to shine the spotlight on diversity in children’s and YA literature.
Celebrated annually on the last Friday in January, this global non-profit offers a plethora of free resources, teaching tools, booklists, downloads, and a year-around initiative to get multicultural and diverse books into the hands of young readers.
To date, we have donated over 10,000 books to underserved kids, classrooms, and organizations, and that number continues to climb.
Our Criteria for “Multicultural” or “Diverse” Children’s Books
- Books that contain characters of color as well as main characters that represent a minority point of view.
- Books written by an author of diversity or color from their perspective. Search #ownvoices to discover diverse books written by diverse authors.
- Books that share ideas, stories, and information about cultures, race, religion, language, and traditions. These books can be non-fiction but still written in a way that kids will find entertaining and informative.
- Books that embrace special needs or even “hidden disabilities” like ADHD, ADD, and anxiety.
- Books that show IBPOC readers what is POSSIBLE–like a book that shows an Asian child as an astronaut 👩🚀, a child from Sudan as an actress, or a biracial child as a world leader.
How Multicultural Children’s Book Day Works
View this in-depth blog post for more details!
How Multicultural Children’s Book Day (MCBD) Came to Be
After being frustrated by a lack of diverse and multicultural children’s books available to their own families, reading and play advocates Valarie Budayr (Audrey Press Books) and Mia Wenjen (Pragmatic Mom) decided to take matters into their own hands. The book-loving moms then teamed up to create a much-needed national event and the first-ever Multicultural Children’s Book Day was celebrated.
Using the Multicultural Children’s Book Day platform, the mission from Day One has been to not only raise awareness around kid’s books that celebrate diversity but to also get more of these types of books into classrooms and libraries.
“Kids need to ‘see themselves’ in the pages of the books they read,” noted Budayr. “We are determined to not only shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural books available but also offer visibility for the amazing authors and publishers who create them.”
In 2018, the non-profit has also shifted from an “every January 27th” model to “the last Friday in January” to avoid conflicting with International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The upcoming next MCBD celebration will occur on and offline on January 28, 2022.
With each passing year, not only has the event itself grown exponentially, but this non-profit initiative has also expanded to offline classroom programs, celebrations, and we now have a global reach. 2022 will be our ninth year.
Lots of schools, libraries and even homes host in person parties where children read, share and/or discuss multicultural books. I’ve done this a few times with my son’s school, so if you need any ideas on how to celebrate, decorations, snacks, etc, please feel free to contact me!
The whole event culminates with an on-line TWITTER PARTY on 1/28/22, 9-10 PM (EST)! Join the party for a chance to win Kidlit books & more! Just follow #ReadYourWorld to join in & win!
The proceeds from the January online event and year-round fundraising go towards supporting this initiative and funding the Our Free Diverse Books for Classrooms and Teachers project.
Team:
Multicultural Children’s Book Day was founded by Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen who volunteer their time to run this event.
Co-founders are Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen are both bloggers, influencers, and children’s book authors. Valarie is the daughter of Swedish immigrants and the first to attend college in her family. She speaks five languages including Arabic which is the language they speak at home. Mia is half Japanese and half Chinese American and married to a Korean American.
MCBD also has several part-time/seasonal team members.
How the MCBD Raises Awareness on the Importance of Diversity in Children’s and YA Books:
During our online celebration, we match hundreds of book reviewers (parents, caregivers, teachers, librarians) with a free diversity book donated by an author or a publisher. These reviewers share this book, their thoughts, and information about the MCBD celebration on their social media (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram) using the #ReadYourWorld official hashtag. This creates tremendous buzz and visibility online.
MCBD has a strong and vibrant social media presence, and that visibility grows exponentially during November, December, and January. We leverage this connection to encourage productive discussions about diversity, inclusion, racism, and to shine the spotlight on unique books that allow kids to not only *see* themselves in the pages of the books they read, but to also discover new ways of life, traditions, religions, ethnicities, and cultures.
On the official day of the celebration, all reviewers are encouraged to add a link to their book review on our Big Giant Linky to create an evergreen catalog of book reviews and recommendation. (Found on our Home Page-scroll down).
Also, on Celebration Day, MCBD hosts (along with our current Super Platinum Sponsor, Make A Way Media) a hugely popular Twitter party. This event is an hour of fun, excellent discussions on literacy, diversity, and ideas on how we can better serve our educators and homeschool parents. During our Twitter Party, MCBD gives away a kidlit book bundle every five minutes.
**One of the striking things that comes out of this Twitter Party (and event as a whole) are the conversations happening between authors and their readers as well as publishers and the people who buy the books they publish. They are insightful and thoughtful conversations which give voice to those who are searching for multicultural titles and those that produce them be that as an author or a publisher.
We joke that this Twitter Party is the “fastest and funnest hour of the year.” And it is! It is common for the conversations and connection to continue for hours after the party officially ends.
A Plethora of Free Diversity Book Resources and Tools
Since 2017, MCBD has created free downloadable Classroom Kits that contain booklist, a special poster, on and offline resources, and activities that can be used as teaching tools in the classroom. Each year, we focus on a specific theme that we feel is relevant or a topic that needs attention and discussion:
2017 Teacher/Classroom Kit: Kindness
2018 Teacher/Classroom Kit: Everyone Is Welcome Here Empathy Kit:
2019 Teacher/Classroom Kit: Poverty Does not Discriminate | Understanding Poverty in America
2020 Teacher/Classroom Kit: Physical and Developmental Challenges: Understand and Celebrate our Differences
2021 Teacher/Classroom Kit: Classroom Activism and Activists: We Can All Be Champions of Change
2021 Homeschooling Families Kit: World Travel from your Homeschool Table
2022 Raising Awareness on Systemic Racism in America Classroom Kit
Other Free Resources
Diversity Book List Resource: A List of Lists http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/multicultural-reading-resources/diversity-book-lists-for-kids/
FREE Diverse Books for Classrooms Project: A year-round initiative, MCBD relies on authors and publishers to donate diverse books with the goal of getting these multicultural books into classrooms. Monies raised during the January celebration and other fundraising initiatives are used to cover postage to get these books to their destination.
Past and Current Supporters:
- Children’s Book Council (CBC)
- Make A Way Media
- Barefoot Books
- Language Lizard
- Pack-n-Go Girls
- Candlewick Press
- Chronicle Books
- Lee & Low Books
- KidLit TV
- Capstone Young Readers
- Wisdom Tales Press
- RIF Southern California
- Real Dads Read
- Zoom Autism Magazine
- Star Bright Books
Children’s Book Council:
MCBD continues to team up with the Children’s Book Council to do a series on the CBC and MCBD websites called Read Your World Book Jam. Up to two dozen popular diverse kidlit authors and illustrators participate by sharing their personal book recommendations and giveaways of their own books as well. This partnership continues and is one that our supporters look forward to.
Final Thoughts
Through each multicultural book a child reads, it creates a new level of understanding and empathy. When we can see through the eyes of another, when we can share a loved book with a friend regardless of religion, culture, race etc., we create a sense of belonging not only in our classrooms and homes but more importantly in our communities. The world outside our window becomes ours to shape and create.
This year, as with every year, we are striving more persistently than ever to place books into children’s hands as possible. Our unwavering mission is to share our love of reading from a multicultural perspective while also sharing the storytelling talents of authors and publishers alike.
Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions!For more information about Multicultural Children’s Book Day, please contact Becky at Becky@MulticulturalChildrensBookDay.com .