Celebrating Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2020

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2020 is in its 7th year!  Because MCBD is one of our favorite events, we are officially reviewing a book for the second year in a row! We read The Story I’ll Tell which is written by Nancy Tupper Ling and beautifully illustrated by Jessica Lanan. Read on to see our review and also check out the free MCBD resources below.

The mission of MCBD is to bring awareness to diverse children’s books.  It would be wonderful to get more multicultural books into schools and libraries. All children should be able to see themselves reflected in the books that they are reading. Co-creators Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen have created a definition for “multicultural books” as it applies to this event so that children can “find themselves” within the pages of the books they read.

Multicultural Children’s Books are:

  • 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.

The Story I’ll Tell Review:

Mother and Son- “The Story I’ll Tell”

The Story I’ll Tell is a mother’s heartwarming account of the journey she makes to bring her son home and create her forever family.  “The mother weaves bits of truth into sweetly fantastic tales to piece together the child’s travels across a wide ocean and into the arms of a loving new family” As part of a beautiful Forever Family myself I was smitten from the first line.  “Someday when you ask where you came from, I’ll tell you a story.”

Children are naturally curious. They ask the same questions over and over to understand their particular place in the world.  Every family passes stories down from generation to generation.  For adoptive families these questions and lack of answers can be a challenge. A child’s pre-adoption life may be a complete mystery or even bear unpleasant facts.  The Story I’ll Tell begins the narrative with the blending of a new family and highlights the new bond filled with excitement, love and hope for the future to come.

#TheStoryIllTell

I love this book.  It touched my heart and is reminiscent of my own travels to a far away land.  I will keep it for my son and I know that he will treasure and relate to its beautiful message forever.

Family- “The Story I’ll Tell”

From the Publisher:

With warmth and imagination, The Story I’ll Tell presents a gentle story of adoption and parental love that is sure to touch the hearts of readers everywhere, no natter how they came to be a family.

About Multicultural Children’s Book Day:

Multicultural Children’s Book Day is celebrating its 7th year on 1/31/20! This non-profit children’s literacy initiative was founded by Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen. These diverse book-loving moms saw a need to shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural books and authors on the market. They also work tirelessly to get those book into the hands of young readers and educators.  

MCBD’s mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in homes and school bookshelves continues.

MCBD 2020 is honored to have the following Medallion Sponsors on board:

Super Platinum

Make A Way Media/ Deirdre “DeeDee” Cummings, 

Platinum

Language Lizard, Pack-N-Go Girls, 

Gold

Audrey Press, Lerner Publishing Group, KidLit TV, ABDO BOOKS : A Family of Educational Publishers, PragmaticMom & Sumo Jo, Candlewick Press,

Silver

 Author Charlotte Riggle, Capstone Publishing, Guba Publishing, Melissa Munro Boyd & B is for Breathe,

Bronze

Author Carole P. Roman, Snowflake Stories/Jill Barletti, Vivian Kirkfield & Making Their Voices Heard. Barnes Brothers Books,  TimTimTom, Wisdom Tales Press, Lee & Low Books,  Charlesbridge Publishing, Barefoot Books Talegari Tales

Multicultural Children’s Book Day Author Sponsors:

Jerry Craft, A.R. Bey and Adventures in Boogieland, Eugina Chu & Brandon goes to Beijing, Kenneth Braswell & Fathers Incorporated, Maritza M. Mejia & Luz del mes_Mejia, Kathleen Burkinshaw & The Last Cherry Blossom, SISSY GOES TINY by Rebecca Flansburg and B.A. Norrgard, Josh Funk and HOW TO CODE A ROLLERCOASTER, Maya/Neel Adventures with Culture Groove, Lauren Ranalli, The Little Green Monster: Cancer Magic! By Dr. Sharon Chappell, Phe Lang and Me On The Page, Afsaneh Moradian and Jamie is Jamie, Valerie Williams-Sanchez and Valorena Publishing, TUMBLE CREEK PRESS, Nancy Tupper Ling, Author Gwen Jackson, Angeliki Pedersen & The Secrets Hidden Beneath the Palm Tree, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, BEST #OWNVOICES CHILDREN’S BOOKS: My Favorite Diversity Books for Kids Ages 1-12 by Mia Wenjen.

Susan Schaefer Bernardo & Illustrator Courtenay Fletcher (Founders of Inner Flower Child Books), Ann Morris & Do It Again!/¡Otra Vez!, Janet Balletta and Mermaids on a Mission to Save the Ocean, Evelyn Sanchez-Toledo & Bruna Bailando por el Mundo\ Dancing Around the World, Shoumi Sen & From The Toddler Diaries, Sarah Jamila Stevenson, Tonya Duncan and the Sophie Washington Book Series, Teresa Robeson  & The Queen of Physics, Nadishka Aloysius and Roo The Little Red TukTuk, Girlfriends Book Club Baltimore & Stories by the Girlfriends Book Club. Finding My Way Books, Diana Huang & Intrepids, Five Enchanted Mermaids, Elizabeth Godley and Ribbon’s Traveling Castle, Anna Olswanger and Greenhorn, Danielle Wallace & My Big Brother Troy, Jocelyn Francisco and Little Yellow Jeepney, Mariana Llanos & Kutu, the Tiny Inca Princess/La Ñusta Diminuta, Sara Arnold & The Big Buna Bash, Roddie Simmons & Race 2 Rio, DuEwa Frazier & Alice’s Musical Debut, Veronica Appleton & the Journey to Appleville book series  Green Kids Club, Inc.

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.

Multicultural Children’s Book Day Co-Hosts and Global Co-Hosts:

A Crafty Arab, Afsaneh Moradian, Agatha Rodi Books, All Done Monkey, Barefoot Mommy, Bethany Edward & Biracial Bookworms, Michelle Goetzl & Books My Kids Read, Crafty Moms Share, Colours of Us, Discovering the World Through My Son’s Eyes, Educators Spin on it, Shauna Hibbitts-creator of eNannylink, Growing Book by Book, Here Wee Read, Joel Leonidas & Descendant of Poseidon Reads {Philippines}, Imagination Soup, Kid World Citizen, Kristi’s Book Nook, The Logonauts, Mama Smiles, Miss Panda Chinese, Multicultural Kid Blogs, Serge Smagarinsky {Australia}, Shoumi Sen, Jennifer Brunk & Spanish Playground, Katie Meadows and Youth Lit Reviews

FREE RESOURCES from Multicultural Children’s Book Day:

TWITTER PARTY! Register here!

Hashtag: Connect with us on social media and be sure and look for/use our official hashtag #ReadYourWorld.

***Disclosure- A copy of “The Story I’ll Tell” was provided to me for review purposes.  This in no way affected my honest opinion.***

You can buy your own copy of The Story I’ll Tell via my affiliate link below:

Read our Multicultural Children’s Book Review from 2019–>  Kayla