After many months of having the honor of representing Multicultural Children's Book Day (MCBD) here on KidLitTV, I had a moment of, “Wait! what if people don't know what MCBD is!”
So here's the scoop :)
We are a non-profit initiative with a mission of raising awareness on the importance of diversity in children's literature while shining the spotlight on diverse children's (and YA) books and their authors.
We are committed to getting these donated multicultural and diverse books into the hands of young readers via classrooms, organizations, and libraries all year long. But we also pour our heart and soul into our annual online event, Multicultural Children's Book Day, which happens during the last Friday of every January. During our annual celebration, authors and publishers from all over the globe come forward to show their support by sponsoring our celebration or donating brand-new diverse books. You can read more about our mission and founders on the MCBD website.
These funds and books fuel our year-round initiative like our FREE Diverse Books for Classrooms Project and our downloadable Classroom Kits. Our focus is diverse books, kids, and reaching underserved areas with the books they need.
To date, MCBD has donated over 9,600+ diverse children and YA books to deserving readers, organizations, and schools via our free resources and fundraising.
A Summary of the Multicultural Children's Book Day Annual Celebration
FIRST, a unique opportunity to shine the spotlight on diverse/multicultural books, authors, and publishers.
SECOND, a giant online book reviewing event —
Book appreciators, readers, parents, teachers, librarians, and caregivers have the opportunity to explore lots of children’s and YA books with diverse content via online marketing that provides robust visibility for authors and publishers, book reviews, classroom kits, classroom book bundles, contests, giveaways, book lists, activity suggestions, and links.
THIRD, a giant networking event —
An ongoing mission to connect organizers, sponsors, co-hosts, bloggers, and others interested in expanding awareness of, and promotion of multicultural children’s books via our Twitter Party and very active MCBD Facebook Group.
FOURTH, an offline classroom, library, or gathering place celebration —
A chance for students, educators, and parents to celebrate diversity and multicultural books in the months leading up to, and during, the Multicultural Children’s Book Day celebration that is held on the last Friday in January.
FIFTH, a year-long literacy-based initiative-
Free Resources from Multicultural Children's Book Day
1. {Teachers} Multicultural Children’s Book Day FREE Book for Your Classroom Campaign-If you know of a classroom or library that would like a free hardcover, library-approved, diverse/multicultural children’s (or YA) book, have them sign up HERE.
2. {Everyone} Multicultural Children’s Book Day Free Resources, Booklists, and Extension Activities for Teachers and Parents. Enjoy this vast resource list of diverse children’s books categorized by culture, religion, sexual orientation, special needs, or ethnicity.
3. {Everyone} Free Downloadable Classroom Kits: These “kits” are filled with book recommendations, activities, discussion questions, and more inspired by a topic the MCBD team knows is relevant and important.
- Classroom Empathy Kit for Homeschoolers, Organizations, Librarians, and Educators
- Kindness Classroom Kit for Homeschoolers, Organizations, Librarians, and Educators
- Poverty Doesn’t Discriminate | Understanding Poverty in America:
- Free Classroom Physical and Developmental Challenges Kit:
- Activism and Activists: We Can All Be Champions of Change
4. {Everyone} The MCBD Blog: Our blog is a treasure-trove of amazing book reviews/recommendations, author visits, resources, guides, and even giveaways!
Why We Do What We Do
Multicultural Children’s Book Day‘s mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in 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 diverse content. Using the Multicultural Children’s Book Day holiday, the MCBD Team is on a mission to change all of that.
Here's some information from the CCBC about diversity in kidlit. In their analysis of picture books published in 2017:
- 340 had significant African or African American content/characters.
- 100 of these were by Black authors and/or illustrators. (29.41% #OwnVoices)
- 72 had significant American Indian/First Nations content/characters.
- 38 of these were by American Indian/First Nations authors and/or illustrators. (52.78% #OwnVoices)
- 310 had significant Asian/Pacific or Asian/Pacific American content/characters.
- 122 of these were by authors and/or illustrators of Asian/Pacific heritage. (39.35% #OwnVoices)
- 216 had significant Latinx content/characters.
- 73 of these were by Latinx authors and/or illustrators. (33.8% #OwnVoices)
And together, all facets work tirelessly to provide books to classrooms, organizations, and under-served kids all year long. Connect with MCBD on social media and share, share, share! Their official hashtag is #ReadYourWorld
Keep Calm and Read On!
Rebecca “Becky” Flansburg is an author, freelance writer, and project manager for the non-profit online children’s literacy initiative, Multicultural Children’s Book Day/ #ReadYourWorld. Join the celebration! Our 9th annual celebration will take place on January 28, 2022. For more information, visit Multicultural Children’s Book Day on the web.
I love everything MCBD is all about. One of my goals is to ensure my Scholars see themselves in literature (characters, authors, and illustrators). Thank you