About the Holiday

Today, I’m posting a review for Multicultural Children’s Book Day, a literary event that takes place every January and, this year, culminates on January 25 with a huge online celebration. Throughout the month bloggers, reviewers, and individuals post reviews of children’s books that offer multicultural themes, characters, and stories to inspire young readers and introduce them to their peers around the world as well as to global celebrations, ideas, and conditions. The mission of Multicultural Children’s Book Day is twofold: to raise awareness of children’s books that celebrate diversity, and to get more of those books into classrooms and libraries. To learn more about Multicultural Children’s Book Day and discover downloadable resources for teachers and individuals as well as a list of all the books reviewed during the month, visit the Multicultural Children’s Book Day Website.

Beautiful, Wonderful, Strong Little Me!

Written by Hannah Carmona Dias | Illustrated by Dolly Georgieva-Gode

 

Lilly, a girl with “divinely dark skin” dotted with freckles and hair that’s “frizzy, wild, never tame” wakes up, prepares for the day, and heads out into the city. She skips along listening to music and smiling brightly. “‘I’m a smart unique girl, / happy and proud!’ / I run out exclaiming / and singing out loud!” Soon, she meets her friends and they go off to play. They explore, swing, play hopscotch, hit baseballs, and make mud pies.

When they find puddles left from a recent rain, they jump and splash. Lilly bends over the clear, blue water. “In the reflection I clearly can see. / That all of my friends do not look quite like me.” Her unique looks, Lilly reveals, lead to many questions as kids wonder, “‘Is your family Hispanic or maybe Egyptian? Indian, Brazilian, or a little Sicilian?’” They can’t pin it down—where does she come from? “‘Do you speak Portuguese / Or Spanish at all? / Do you come from Peru, Ecuador, or Nepal?’”

All these questions and prodding make Lilly sad because her looks are not all that she is. She says, “‘I’m sassy and smart / With a kind giving heart. / I’m courageous and brilliant / and fierce and resilient.’” She’s proud of herself and of all the things she can do, and she greets the world with the confidence all children should have.

An Author’s Note following the text points out positive words used in the story. Readers are then invited to write down uplifting descriptions and draw a picture of themselves, including the traits that make them unique, in the space and frame provided.

For every child who wants to be seen for who they are inside, Hannah Carmona Dias has written an uplifting and empowering story. With honesty and admirable confidence, Dias’s main character, Lilly, addresses all those who are concerned only with figuring out where someone comes from and encourages them to instead focus on their intelligence, talents, kindness, and spirit. Clever rhymes carry the story and make the ideas accessible to all.

From Lilly’s bedroom to her dress patterned with rainbows to a sun-drenched day at the park, Dolly Georgieva-Gode’s vivid illustrations joyfully emphasize Lilly’s happy and self-confident personality. Lilly’s smile and eagerness to embrace her neighborhood and friends is infectious and will buoy readers to feel the same. Lilly’s friends, a group of diverse children, including one boy in a wheelchair, is a welcome depiction of community.

Images of Lilly at home, walking in the city, and playing with her friends are interspersed with portrayals of her feelings of being under a microscope, feeling like a jigsaw puzzle to be solved, and comparisons to typical movie princesses. One illustration that sums up Lilly’s feelings—as well as the message of the book—shows her explaining to others that Lilly (and every child) equals love.

A celebration of self-love and self-confidence, Beautiful, Wonderful, Strong Little Me! is an inspiring story for any child who faces questions from others, needs reassurance, or enjoys honoring their own strong self-image.

Ages 3 – 10

Eifrig Publishing, 2018 | ISBN 978-1632331700

Discover more about Hannah Carmona Dias and her books on her website.

To learn more about Dolly Georgieva-Gode and her art, visit her website.

About Eifrig Publishing:

The mission of Eifrig Publishing is to create books that are “good for our kids, good for our earth, and good for our communities.” They “are passionate about helping kids develop into caring, creative, thoughtful individuals who possess positive self-images, celebrate differences, and practice inclusion. Our books promote social and environmental consciousness and empower children as they grow in their communities.” To learn more about Eifrig Publishing, visit their website.

Check out the Beautiful, Wonderful, Strong Little Me! book trailer!

Multicultural Children’s Book Day Activity

Wonderful Me! Initial Bookend

 

You can show pride in yourself with this easy craft that will keep all your books tidy on their shelf! This craft makes a great gift for friends and family too!

Supplies

• Sturdy wooden letter blocks in the child’s first and last initials. Or, if the child would like to try on a new name or nickname, the first letter of their new name.
• Chalkboard or acrylic paint
• Colored chalk
• Paint brush

Directions

1. Paint the letters, let dry
2. With the chalk write words that describe you or names of your heroines and/or heroes
3. Display your bookends

Learn More about Multicultural Children’s Book Day

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2019 (1/25/19) is in its 6^th year and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom. Our mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in homes and school bookshelves while also working diligently to get more of these types of books into the hands of young readers, parents and educators. 

MCBD 2019 is honored to have the following Medallion Sponsors on board!

*View our 2019 Medallion Sponsors here: https://wp.me/P5tVud-
*View our 2019 MCBD Author Sponsors here: https://wp.me/P5tVud-2eN

Medallion Level Sponsors

Honorary: Children’s Book Council, The Junior Library Guild, TheConsciousKid.org.

Super Platinum: Make A Way Media

GOLD: Bharat Babies, Candlewick Press, Chickasaw Press, Juan Guerra and The Little Doctor / El doctorcito, KidLitTV,  Lerner Publishing Group, Plum Street Press,

SILVER: Capstone Publishing, Carole P. Roman, Author Charlotte Riggle, Huda Essa, The Pack-n-Go Girls,

BRONZE: Charlesbridge Publishing, Judy Dodge Cummings, Author Gwen Jackson, Kitaab World, Language Lizard – Bilingual & Multicultural Resources in 50+ Languages, Lee & Low Books, Miranda PaulandBaptiste Paul, Redfin, Author Gayle H. Swift,  T.A. Debonis-Monkey King’s Daughter, TimTimTom Books, Lin Thomas, Sleeping Bear Press/Dow Phumiruk, Vivian Kirkfield,

MCBD 2019 is honored to have the following Author Sponsors on board!

Honorary: Julie Flett, Mehrdokht Amini,

Author Janet Balletta, Author Kathleen Burkinshaw, Author Josh Funk, Chitra Soundar, One Globe Kids – Friendship Stories, Sociosights Press and Almost a Minyan, Karen Leggett, Author Eugenia Chu, CultureGroove Books, Phelicia Lang and Me On The Page, L.L. Walters, Author Sarah Stevenson, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, Hayley Barrett, Sonia Panigrah, Author Carolyn Wilhelm, Alva Sachs and Dancing Dreidels, Author Susan Bernardo, Milind Makwana and A Day in the Life of a Hindu Kid, Tara Williams, Veronica Appleton, Author Crystal Bowe, Dr. Claudia May, Author/Illustrator Aram Kim, Author Sandra L. Richards, Erin Dealey, Author Sanya Whittaker Gragg, Author Elsa Takaoka, Evelyn Sanchez-Toledo, Anita Badhwar, Author Sylvia Liu, Feyi Fay Adventures, Author Ann Morris, Author Jacqueline Jules, CeCe & Roxy Books, Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace, LEUYEN PHAM, Padma Venkatraman, Patricia Newman and Lightswitch Learning, Shoumi Sen, Valerie Williams-Sanchez and Valorena Publishing, Traci Sorell, Shereen Rahming, Blythe Stanfel, Christina Matula, Julie Rubini, Paula Chase, Erin Twamley, Afsaneh Moradian, Lori DeMonia, Claudia Schwam, Terri Birnbaum/ RealGirls Revolution, Soulful Sydney, Queen Girls Publications, LLC

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 works tirelessly to spread the word of this event. View our CoHosts HERE.

Co-Hosts and Global Co-Hosts

A Crafty Arab, Agatha Rodi Books, All Done Monkey, Barefoot Mommy, Biracial Bookworms, Books My Kids Read, Crafty Moms Share, Colours of Us, Discovering the World Through My Son’s Eyes, Descendant of Poseidon Reads, Educators Spin on it,  Growing Book by Book, Here Wee Read, Joy Sun Bear/ Shearin Lee, Jump Into a Book, Imagination Soup,Jenny Ward’s Class, Kid World Citizen, Kristi’s Book Nook, The Logonauts, Mama Smiles, Miss Panda Chinese, Multicultural Kid Blogs, Raising Race Conscious Children, Shoumi Sen, Spanish Playground

TWITTER PARTY Sponsored by Make A Way Media: MCBD’s super-popular (and crazy-fun) annual @McChildsBookDay Twitter Party will be held 1/25/19 at 9:00pm.E.S.T. TONS of prizes and book bundles will be given away during the party ( a prize every 5 minutes!). GO HERE for more details.

FREE RESOURCES From MCBD

Free Multicultural Books for Teachers: http://bit.ly/1kGZrta

Free Empathy Classroom Kit for Homeschoolers, Organizations, Librarians and Educators: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/teacher-classroom-empathy-kit/

Hashtag: Don’t forget to connect with us on social media and be sure and look for/use our official hashtag #ReadYourWorld.

You can find Beautiful, Wonderful, Strong Little Me! at these booksellers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million | Eifrig Publishing | IndieBound

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