A SHOUT OUT FOR MULTICULTURAL CHILDREN’S BOOK DAY BY BAREFOOT LIBRARIAN
T his article will sound like a Public Service Announcement for diverse children’s books. However, if you follow me, this will be no surprise since I am an avid advocate for diverse children’s books. I look for every opportunity to get diverse books into the hands of educators, librarians, teachers, booksellers, parents, and children. It seems appropriate to consider what defines a book as multicultural or diverse. When I set up my school library over twenty years ago, multicultural was the established term, and had a narrower definition. Now the term diverse has become more commonly used, expanding the concept to be more inclusive. To understand what is considered a multicultural/diverse book today, I will borrow from the definition given on the Multicultural Children’s Book Day website. Multicultural/ diverse books: • Contain characters of color as well as main characters that represent a minority point of view. • Are written by an author of diversity or color from their perspective. • Share ideas, stories, and information about cultures, race, religion, language, and traditions. • Embrace special needs or even “hidden disabilities” like ADHD, ADD, and anxiety.
• Show IBPOC readers what is possible – an Asian child as an astronaut, a biracial child as a world leader, etc. Today I am touting the Multicultural Children’s Book Day event. On that day, hundreds of reviews of diverse books, including some written by me, are published on the MCBD website. Started ten years ago by Valarie Budayr from Audrey Press Books and Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom, the event is held at the end of January (this year on January 26). However, the MCBD website is available year- round with plenty of “…! resources, teaching tools, booklists, and downloads…”. The organization also supports “…a year-round initiative to get multi- cultural and diverse books into the hands of young readers.” The MCBD website defines itself as “…a non- profit whose mission is to raise awareness about children’s books that celebrate diversity and to get more of these books into classrooms and libraries. To date, Multicultural Children’s Book Day, along with literacy partners, authors, and publishers, has donated over 10,800 books to parents, teachers, and librarians. Multicultural Children’s Book Day strives to shine the spotlight on the diverse books and authors that often get overlooked by main- stream publishing and media.” Join the official MCBD zoom party on January 26, 2023! Below are two books I reviewed for a6cc39 in the past.
Eve Panzer reviews books for Reader Views Kids as well as her own business, Barefoot Librarian. Monthly she publishes the Barefoot Librarian Newsletter. She sells children’s books published by Barefoot Books and Usborne Books & More at book fairs, educational conferences, community events, and online. She earned her Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of Texas in Austin and worked as a school librarian before retiring to start her own business. barefootlibrarian.com
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