When I was in high school, a friend of mine hosted many foreign exchange students. I absolutely loved hanging out with my international friends throughout my high school years.
These friends came from countries all over the world (Mexico, Germany, Finland, Kosovo, Venezuela, Spain and Brazil to name a few). To this day, I still keep in touch with a few of them (thank’s facebook!) and love seeing how our lives both differ and relate as we grow older.
As a homeschool mom, I try to instill this love of cultural learning with my children. My hope is that they too will enjoy learning about other countries and their people’s way of life.
I strongly believe that when you learn differing views and traditions, especially other’s hardships, it only helps you grow into a wiser, more grounded human being.
That is why I am excited to participate in Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017.
*Disclaimer: I received a free book in exchange for my honest review. For more information about my privacy policy, visit my disclaimer page.
Prairie Dog Song Book Review
The book I was given to review is called “Prairie Dog Song” by Susan L. Roth and Cindy Trumbore. This book is about the North American grasslands and how the prairie dogs are essential to their culture.
What makes this book so enjoyable is that it can be read as a traditional story or in the form of a song “The Green Grass Grows All Around”.
Using this book in our homeschool has been a breeze because each of the pages also includes educational information about the subject of that page. There are also pages in the back of the book dedicated to sheet music for the song, facts, timelines, and even a glossary and pronunciation guide.
Being the lover of art that I am, I found myself really drawn to the colorful illustrations in this book. The style of the images is very unique, and my girls commented on how “cool” they were too. The imagery makes the book that much more enjoyable to read.
Multicultural Children’s Book Day
Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (1/27/17) is in its fourth year and was founded by Valarie Budayr fromJump 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 both 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 Sponsors 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
Don’t forget to connect with us on social media and be sure and look for/use our official hashtag#ReadYourWorld.
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Amy says
January 26, 2017 at 9:46 pmThis book looks awesome! Thanks for letting us get a sneak peek:)
Mia Wenjen says
January 27, 2017 at 4:32 pmI’m so glad you liked the book! Thanks so much for your support of Multicultural Children’s Book Day!
Melissa Taylor says
January 29, 2017 at 12:34 pmI didn’t know the prairie dogs were so important to their culture. Thanks for sharing!
Jeanetta Roberts says
February 1, 2017 at 7:01 pmI had no idea either! It reminds me of that video that used to float around on fb about how important wolves were to Yellowstone National Park too. Very interesting!