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Multicultural Books for Different Ages of Readers -- Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me copies of these books free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

For my last review before the big link up and party tomorrow, I am sharing three multicultural books with you. Each one is for a different age group and each has so much to share. The first is a picture book called Green Pants by Kenneth Kraegel. It is being released in March.



http://candlewick.com/cat.asp?browse=Title&mode=book&isbn=0763688401&pix=y

This book is for preschoolers to second graders. It is about a boy named Jameson. Jameson only wears his green pants. Every day he wears his green pants and he believes he can do anything in his green pants. Then he is asked to be in his cousin's wedding which he is excited to do until he finds out about the tuxedo. How can he wear a tuxedo without his green pants? This book shares about how a child can hold on to something for strength. In Hazel's life it is Ducky. In this book it is a pair of pants (or hopefully several pairs of identical pants). Each child is his or her own person and this book celebrates it and shares a child's story of overcoming the fear of not having it. This is a fun book.
 Our next book is chapter book for grade 2 - grade 5. It is a mystery. It is Smashie McPerter and the Mystery of the Missing Goop by N. Griffin and illustrated by Kate Hindley. This is the second book in the series. 
http://candlewick.com/cat.asp?browse=Title&mode=book&isbn=0763688401&pix=y
 This story stars Smashie McPerter and her best friend, Dontel. They are third graders in Room 11. The third grade teachers decide to have the entire third grade put on a musicale. One of the girls brings in special hair goop that her mother invented and is able to make amazing hair-dos, but the jar and a few more go missing so Smashie and Dontel get to work as investigators once again and with several mistakes and hurt feelings they try to solve the case before the musicale so it will not be cancelled. 

The book has pictures interspersed and is definitely in line with the crazy imagination of a child. I love how math and science are added to the story. To go with this book it would be easy to do some simple codes or look at breaking numbers by their place value since both are used in the story. Here is a place value worksheet to try, and here is a code activity as well. 

Now I will admit Hazel got a bit bored with this book. However when I stopped reading it to her she wanted to know what happened. The book is a bit long for a second grader and the kids moved a bit slowly in the solving of the mystery, so it did not hold her attention well enough. However I enjoyed the book and I think she would have if she was a bit older. It is a bit longer than the chapter books she has been reading thus far.

http://candlewick.com/cat.asp?browse=Title&mode=book&isbn=0763688169&pix=y

 Our final book for tonight is Bronze and Sunflower written by Cao Wenxuan, illustrated by Meilo So and translated from the Chinese by Helen Wang. This book is about a young Chinese girl, Sunflower, who becomes an orphan. The only family who will adopt her is the poorest in the village across the river from the school where Sunflower and her father lived. The poorest family has a mute boy named Bronze. Bronze befriended Sunflower before her father dies and his family decides to adopt her even though the other villagers question whether they can afford to have another child. This story is about love and loyalty and overcoming hardships and living in poverty. It is written for fourth to seventh graders but I think even older kids may enjoy this book. It definitely has some emotional parts to it. I enjoyed this one. 

So that ends my Multicultural Children's Book Day reviews. I hope you will check out these books and join us tomorrow for the big link party of all the various reviews that are being done for the great event. 


 


Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (1/27/17) is its fourth year and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom. Our mission is to raise awareness on the ongoing need to include kid’s 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 diversity content. Using the Multicultural Children’s Book Day holiday, the MCBD Team are 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



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 work 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