Orthodox Christian Holidays -- a Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

Disclosure: Charlotte Riggle sent me these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Do you know anyone who is Orthodox Christian? I have good friends who are Greek Orthodox so I have some idea of the Orthodox traditions, but of course they are also different for different cultures and areas. However today I am sharing some amazing books to share some Orthodox traditions around two holidays--St. Nicholas Day and Easter. These books are by Charlotte Riggle and illustrated by R.J. Hughes. Both books have the same characters in it: Catherine and her best friend Elizabeth and Catherine's family. Since St. Nicholas Day was last week (Wednesday), I will start with Saint Nicholas Day Snow. (By the way today is St. Lucia Day, but as I am running late on my December holiday posts that one will be late as well.)

Multicultural Children's Book Day -- Link up!

Welcome to our 4th Multicultural Children's Book Day! Here's how to celebrate:

1. Link up your diversity book reviews
2. Win diversity book bundles at our Twitter Party tonight! We're giving away 100+ children's books from 9pm to 10pm EST. RSVP here. Use hashtag: #ReadYourWorld.
3. Get your a copy of Read Your World: A Guide to Multicultural Children's Books for Parents and Educators. It's FREE today through January 31st!

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.

Multicultural Books for Your 1st through 3rd Graders -- Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

Disclosure: Capstone Publishing gave me copies of these books free of charge for this review in return for an honest 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.

Today I get to share with you some fun multicultural books from a silver sponsor of Multicultural Children's Book Day. These group of nine books are a mix of picture books and easy reader chapter books. We will start with the amazing picture books. The first book is appropriate for January since it is about a girl who cannot wait to meet the POTUS when she goes to work with her mother at the White House. It is When Penny Met POTUS by Rachel Ruiz and illustrated by Melissa Manwill. 

Saraswati's Way -- Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

Disclosure: Monika Schroder gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review in return for an honest 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.

Can you believe Multicultural Children's Book Day is on Friday? I cannot wait to see all the great books reviewed in the link up on Friday. I am a co-host so you can see them here!!

Soccer Star -- a Multicultural Children's Book Day Review #ReadYourWorld

Disclosure: Mina Javaherbin gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review in return for an honest 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.

Today I am sharing with you a wonderful multicultural book that gives an inside look at life as a child in Brazil. It is Soccer Star by Mina Javaherbin and illustrated by Renato Alarcao. This tale follows Paulo Marcelo Feliciano through his day. His hope is to have time to practice soccer, but first he and his teammates must do their work. 

Announcement: Multicultural Children's Book Day Twitter Party (and Giveaways)

Please join us for our Multicultural Children's Book Day

Win 1 of 12 Book Bundles! Giving away Book Bundles every 6 minutes!

Twitter Party

Friday, January 27th

9 pm to 10 pm EST

Hashtag: #ReadYourWorld

We will be discussing the state of children's book publishing and giving away diversity book bundles every six minutes! We invite EVERYONE to join us: authors, publishers, parents, caregivers, librarians, KidLit lovers. You don't have to be an author or publisher sponsor to join us! Let's talk about our favorite multicultural and diverse children's books, authors, and illustrators!

How do you join the Twitter party? Just use hashtag #ReadYourWorld to find us. When you tweet, use the hashtag so everyone can find you!

Register below to be able to win!!

Multicultural Children's Books -- Mutlicultural Children's Book Day Review

Disclosure: Scholastic gave me a copies of these books free of charge for this review in return for an honest 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.

 Today I get to share with you three books from one of the Platinum Sponsors of Multicultural Children's Book Day. We have had so much fun with these books. We will start with The Granddaughter Necklace by Sharon Dennis Wyeth and illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline. 

The Last Cherry Blossom -- a Multicultural Children's Book Day Review #ReadYourWorld

Disclosure: Kathleen Burkinshaw gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review in return for an honest 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.

It is January and that means Multicultural Children's Book Day is approaching. This year it is January 27th and I am co-hosting, so be sure to check back to see the amazing array of books reviewed for this great day.

The Treasury of Glorious Goddesses: Isis, Athena, and Ixchel -- Book Reviews

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge from Goosebottom Books. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Last month (and January) I was able to share with you Goosebottom Books' The Thinking Girl's Treasury of Real Life Princesses Series (you can see them here and here). Today I am going to share the Treasury of Glorious Goddesses with you. These books are chapter books and are written in the goddesses' voice (first person). What is amazing to me is how captivated Hazel was with these stories. She did not know any mythology or at least not much and she asked each night for more chapters of whichever of the three books we were reading. Personally I only knew about Athena and did not remember everything from studying Greek mythology back in school. The other great thing about these books is at the end there is information about the culture the goddess oversees and the time period when she was popular. Things like what people wore, ate and did are given there. It adds a whole other dimension to the history behind the stories.

Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop #37

This link party is for multicultural/diverse posts!! It lasts an entire month.

Welcome to the Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop! The Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop is a place where bloggers can share multicultural activities, crafts, recipes, and musings for our creative kids. We can't wait to see what you share this time! Created by Frances of Discovering the World through My Son's Eyes, the blog hop has now found a new home at Multicultural Kid Blogs. 

This month our co-hosts are:

Raising a Trilingual Child on Multicultural Kid Blogs  

Crafty Moms Share  

Castle View Academy  

Raising a Trilingual Child  

Discovering the World Through My Son's Eyes  

Living Ideas Crazy Little Family Adventures  

Raising a Trilingual Child  

Peakle Pie  

A MultiAsian Family Life

The King Cake Baby -- Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

Disclosure: Keila Dwawon sent me a copy of this book 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.

It is here!! Today is Multicultural Children's Book Day (MCCBD)!! Have you checked out the link party yet to see all the amazing multicultural children's books out there? I saved one review for today!!

In case you do not know yet, 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. 

Multicultural Children's Book Day -- Book Review Link Party

It is hard to believe that Multicultural Children's Book Day (MCCBD) is tomorrow for 2016!! This is the third one!! I am proud to say that I have been a book reviewer for all three years and this year I have the honor of being a co-host. (In the three years I have reviewed:  Rainbow Stew, The Dragon New Year, Endeavour's Long Journey, The Mystic Princesses and the Whirlpool (which has a sale on the ebook through 1/27), Hathshepsut of Egypt, Doyli to the Rescue, and will be reviewing The King Baby Cake on 1/27.)

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. 

Doyli to the Rescue -- Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

Disclosure: WAKA Books sent me a copy of this book 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.

I am so excited to share this book with you!! I think this has become Hazel's favorite book in the last few weeks. She also has informed me she wants to be Doyli and live in the middle of the Amazon with no running water or electricity. The book is Doyli to the Rescue by Cathleen Burnham.

Hatshepsut of Egypt -- Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Goosebottom Books. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Today we are honored to review a book about a very strong woman, Hatshepsut. Have you heard of her? I hadn't, so I found this book fascinating. The book is Hatshepsut of Egypt by Shirin Yim Bridges and illustrated by Albert Nguyen. It is part of The Thinking Girl's Treasury of Real Princesses.

This is a series of books that share real princesses with girls. These are not your average fru fru princesses who wear pretty dresses and sit around waiting to be saved by a prince. These are women who had strength and guts to rule countries.

The Mystic Princesses and the Whirlpool -- Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from PJ LaRue. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

It is January and that means Multicultural Children's Book Day (MCCBD) is approaching!! This year I am honored to be a co-host of this amazing event!! 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.

Sharing Saturday 15-6

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! There were so many amazing ideas shared!! If you have not checked them out, please do so. For features this week we have a few Valentine Features, Book Features and a category I am calling Play and Learn Features.

The Dragon New Year Book Review for Multicultural Children's Book Day & Chinese New Year Blog Series

Disclosure: Peachtree Publishers sent me a copy of this book 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.

Today I am going to review my second book for Multicultural Children's Book Day (MCCBD). On Monday I reviewed the first book, Endeavour's Long Journey. There I shared all the exciting things going on with MCCBD. MCCBD is a national event which  Valarie Budayr from Jump Into a Book and Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom created to celebrate diversity in children's books. MCCBD team hopes 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. This year's MCCBD is January 27th! The 2015 sponsors for MCCBD are: 

Platinum Sponsors: Wisdom Tales Press, Daybreak Press Global Bookshop,  

Gold Sponsors:  Satya House,  Multicultural Kids.com,   Author Stephen Hodges and the Magic Poof,  

Silver Sponsors: Junior Library Guild,  Capstone Publishing, Lee and Low Books,  The Omnibus Publishing.  

Bronze Sponsors:Double Dutch Dolls, Bliss Group Books, Snuggle with Picture Books Publishing,  Rainbow Books,   Author Felicia Capers,   Chronicle Books   Muslim Writers Publishing , East West Discovery Press. 

Endeavour's Long Journey Book Review for Multicultural Children's Book Day

Disclosure: East West Discovery Press sent me a copy of this book 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.

Today I am reviewing the first of two books for Multicultural Children's Book Day (MCCBD). What is Multicultural Children's Book Day? It is a national event which  Valarie Budayr from Jump Into a Book and Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom created to celebrate diversity in children's books. MCCBD team hopes 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. This year's MCCBD is January 27th!  More about MCCBD and the events this year later in this post. Now onto our book!!

Julie the Black Belt Series - Product Review

Today is the last day to enter my current giveaway!!

Disclosure: I was sent these books digitally to review free of charge from Immedium. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Today is Multicultural Children's Book Day!! Last week I reviewed Cathryn Falwell's Rainbow Stew as an official reviewer for the day. Now over at Pragmatic Mom and Jump Into a Book are the blog hop with all the books shared in one place and you can share your own review of a multicultural book. There are also some giveaways being held by a few of the sponsors!   Barefoot Books  is hosting a giveaway on their Facebook page.

After reading my Rainbow Stew post, Immedium contacted me to see if I would review a few of their multicultural books. I of course jumped at the chance. They sent me three Asian American books to review. I am going to review two of them for you today and the final on on Friday for the Chinese New Year. I hope you will join me on Friday for my other review. 

 

The books I am reviewing today are a series. The second book in the series, Julie Black Belt: The Belt of Fire by Oliver Chin was recently released. Since we had not read the first book in the series, Julie Black Belt: The Kung Fu Chronicles by Oliver Chin, they sent us that one as well.

Julie

Julie is a young Asian American who loves Brandy Wu, a kung fu master actress. Her parents ask her one day if she would like to learn kung fu and maybe earn a black belt like Brandy Wu. She decides to give it a try. Her younger brother, Johnny, also wants to try, but she says if he is good she will teach him after she learns. She tries on the uniform for class and thinks it needs a belt. At the class she is surprised when her teacher or Sifu (teacher in Chinese) as the students call him is a young man. At first she thinks all she is being taught is easy things but when she tries them she discovers they are much harder than she thought. At one point Julie is ready to give up and that is when Sifu whispers that a black belt is a white belt that doesn't give up. After that she is enthusiastic about kung fu and earns the yellow belt in the end. She knows she is on her way to a black belt.

Sifu

The Belt of Fire picks up where the Kung Fu Chronicle leaves off. Julie goes to her first yellow belt kung fu class. Then as they are starting the doorbell rings and a student in a different color outfit but with a yellow belt enters. He is introduced as Brandon, who moved into the neighborhood. Julie becomes jealous because Brandon seems better than her. She tries to compete with him. Soon the two students are making mistakes left and right because they are too focused on each other than themselves. Sifu's teacher comes for a visit and she helps Julie and Brandon learn to work together and to focus on themselves instead of each other. It works and they are able to make a great team. 

Johnny

What I love about both of these books is how it takes the girl to be the heroine in a typically male sport. I also love how it brings races (Brandon is white) together to have the same goal of bettering each person. The messages are so well woven into the stories. In the first book, Julie learns to not give up and keep trying even when it seems hard. In the second book, Julie and Brandon learn not to compare themselves to others, but to focus on oneself. The books themselves are written in an almost comic form, so it is a great way to expose younger children to comics and the upcoming graphic novels. I read the first book to Hazel this morning and she really liked it. She cannot wait to hear the second one. 

Both books are available for sale at Immedium's website. They are each $15.95 in hardcover. They are a wonderful way to introduce kung fu to young children as well as teach a few of the lessons from it.