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The solace of looking a character you relate to. The pride of seeing your beliefs, culture, and traditions embraced on the pages. The joy of seeing a person going through the problems so many face daily and yet no one talks about.
That is what representation is all about.
Multicultural books share something unique—whether opening our eyes to a life vastly different than ours, enforcing a lesson previously beyond our perception, or unearthing our roots as individuals, society, and humanity as a whole. Too often misrepresentation and a lack of diversity in media negatively impacts marginalized communities, including racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals, disabled people, and women. This issue is prevalent and important, and the Multicultural Childrens’ Book Day Event seeks to solve this problem as diverse books in the past decade have rapidly evolved into a widespread medium for raising representation, specially with the rise of indie published books.
Reading books with accurate representations of students’ own cultures can contribute to self-worth within students, while allowing them to connect with themselves and their culture on a deeper level. Diverse representations of characters in multi-cultural books are beneficial to all readers. In the classroom, students have a strong urge to feel seen, heard, and represented. … It’s often said that books should serve as mirrors and window for students. Mirrors so they can see themselves and feel validated, represented, heard, seen; windows so they can learn about others and their experiences and build empathy. This helps prevent bullying as children learn to accept that which is different from them and others learn to accep their own culture as not “different” but unique.
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, 10,000 books have been donated to underserved kids, classrooms, and organizations, and that number continues to climb. Multicultural Children’s Book Day was founded by bloggers/authors Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen who volunteer their time to run this event. 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.
Criteria for Promoting “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.
Every year, MCBD also creates a free classroom kit for parents/teachers to use for their homeschool/classroom libraries and more to empower the children in their care.
So, how can YOU as a parent or teacher celebrate REPRESENTATION within books ?
Go out of your comfort zone or interest
Often we look for books that talk about problems we face or that looks like our families. This year, we encourage you to consciously pick up books that are not something you would usually bend towards.
The mission of MCBD is to raise awareness about diverse children’s books and get more of these books into classrooms and libraries. When you’re selecting your next set of books, seek out ones that challenge stereotypes by featuring positive and realistic multicultural characters who empower role models to young readers. Look for books with storylines that have universal appeal, so every child will be enthusiastic about reading.
Want to get free diverse children’s books for your classroom or library? MCBD wants to help build libraries with diverse, inclusive, and multicultural books. Sign up on their Diverse Books for Classrooms Program page.
Share about unique books you have enjoyed
Take that growing collection of multicultural children’s books, and get them out into the world! Parents can start a book-sharing group and pass on their favorite multicultural children’s books, so more families are able to benefit from them. Teachers choose diverse books to read aloud to students. If they are learning virtually this year due to COVID-19, include diverse books in take-home packets.
Review diverse books on platforms of your choosing
Often parents find a unique book that they absolutely adore. Head over online and review the book on Amazon, GoodReads, Barnes and Noble, Target etc to let the world know this book is valuable.
Have the hard conversations with the children in your care
Reading diverse books is not enough. You need to make sure you talk about the book after. Here is a list of questions and conversations you can have with your children after each book read.
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.
Show Your Support of MCBD
Spread the world about MCBD and its mission by posting on social media. Use #ReadYourWorld and tell everyone why multicultural children’s books are important to you. Join the MCBD Twitter party on January 28, 2022, 9-10pm EST, to discuss issues surrounding multicultural books and diversity in publishing with educators, authors, and parents.
You can also participate in MCBD’s eBook fundraiser, where 100% of the proceeds are used for gifting multicultural books to classroom libraries.
In addition, MCBD offers a gallery of free posters to print and display in your classroom or home.
Comment below and tell us about your favorite multicultural children’s books and how you’re celebrating Multicultural Children’s Book Day this year. Or, post on social media using #ReadYourWorld to spread the word!
Indo-American POV Multicultural Books That Empower with
Mindfulness, Science, Social Skills and Culture
Click on image to check out the books.