MULTICULTURAL CHILDREN'S BOOK DAY!

Our mission is to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these of books into classrooms and libraries.

Our Mission: The MCCBD team’s mission to spread the word and raise awareness about the importance of diversity in children’s literature. Our young readers need to see themselves within the pages of a book and experience other cultures, languages, traditions and religions within the pages of a book. We encourage readers, parents, teachers, caregivers and librarians to follow along the fun book reviews, author visits, event details, a multicultural children’s book linky and via our hashtag (#ReadYourWorld) on Twitter and other social media.

HOSTS:

For your information (include if you want to): The co-creators of this unique event are Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom and Valarie Budayr from Jump Into a Book/Audrey Press. You can find a bio for Mia and Valarie here.

SPONSORS:

Multicultural Children’s Book day 2016 Medallion Level Sponsors! #ReadYourWorld

Platinum: Wisdom Tales Press * StoryQuest Books*Lil Libros

Gold: Author Tori Nighthawk*Candlewick Press,* Bharat Babies

Silver: Lee and Low Books*Chronicle Books*Capstone Young Readers T

Tuttle Publishing ,NY Media Works, LLC/KidLit TV

Bronze: Pomelo Books* Author Jacqueline Woodson*Papa Lemon Books* Goosebottom Books*Author Gleeson Rebello*ShoutMouse Press*Author Mahvash Shahegh* China Institute.org*Live Oak Media

AMAZING CO-HOSTS:

All Done Monkey, Crafty Moms Share,Educators Spin on it,Growing Book by Book,Imagination Soup,I’m Not the Nanny,InCultural Parent, Kid World Citizen,Mama Smiles,Multicultural Kid Blogs,Spanish Playground

CLASSROOM READING CHALLENGE

Help spread the word on our Classroom Reading Challenge . This very special offering from MCCBD offers teachers and classrooms the chance to (very easily) earn a free hardcover multicultural children's book for their classroom library. These books are not only donated by the Junior Library Guild, but they are pre-screened and approved by them as well.

What we could really use some help with is spreading the word to your teacher/librarian/classroom connections so we can get them involved in this program. There is no cost to teachers and classrooms and we've made the whole process as simple as possible. You can help by tweeting the below info:

​ Teachers! Earn a FREE #Multicultural Kids Book for Your Classroom! #teachers, #books #teacherlife  http://ow.ly/UUy96

The Classroom Reading Challenge has begun! Teachers can earn a free diversity book! #teachers, #books  http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/?p=1796​

REVIEW

IRA'S SHAKESPEARE DREAM

by Glenda Armand, illustrations by Floyd Cooper

Lee & Low, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-62014-155-7

Picture Book

Source: purchased

All opinions expressed are solely my own.

ABOUT THE BOOK

This is a nonfiction biography chronicling the life of Ira Aldridge, an African American actor who overcame racism to become one of the greatest Shakespearean actors of the nineteenth century.

Ira Aldridge dreamed of being on stage one day performing the great works of William Shakespeare. He spent every chance he got at the local theaters, memorizing each actor's lines for all of Shakespeare's plays. Ira just knew he could be a great Shakespearean actor if only given the chance. But in the early 1800s, only white actors were allowed to perform Shakespeare. Ira's only option was to perform musical numbers at the all-black theater in New York city. Despite being discouraged by his teacher and father, Ira determinedly pursued his dream and set off to England, the land of Shakespeare. There, Ira honed his acting skills and eventually performed at the acclaimed Theatre Royal Haymarket. Through perseverance and determination, Ira became one of the most celebrated Shakespearean actors throughout Europe. Illustrated by award-winning artist Floyd Cooper, this nonfiction picture book biography is a captivating tribute to the inspiring life of Ira Aldridge, and to the renowned works of William Shakespeare.

REVIEW

Armand and Cooper have created a great book focused on the life of a little known actor who helped paved the way in Shakespearean acting for others of his race.  Remarkably Ira Aldridge knew he wanted to be involved in theater from the time he was quite young, despite the racism of his day and his father's desire for him to be a minister.  Spending as much time as he could around the theater he dreamed of the day he would be able to act too.  But since slavery was still alive and well in the United States at that time and racism ran rampant, the most he could hope for was to act in the black theater, or so he was told.  But when the opportunity came to travel to England to have a try there, Ira took it.  He worked hard and became a well-known Shakespearean actor.  Not only was this a fascinating story because I'd never heard of the man, but Cooper's illustrations helped bring the world to life.  I thoroughly appreciate Armand and Cooper's efforts to share a story of a diverse character achieving that which he was told was impossible.