I love when a book I have never seen before plops in my lap. I equally love being able to tell the world about said book, and have others fall in love with it, too.

I had the opportunity to review a book for Multicultural Children’s Book Day. Their mission, “…to not only raise awareness of the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these books in classrooms and libraries.”

I often tell people that as a child there were very few books that represented me, a black girl with coily hair. A black girl who had dreams, goals and aspirations. There were very few books that represented my family and portrayed dark girls in a positive light. When Anneke Forzani at Language Lizard sent, The Giant Turnip, I thought back to the child I was twenty something years ago. The child who would have loved to have this book in her lap.

It’s the time of year when soil is ready to be tilled, seeds planted, and Ms. Honeywood’s class to grow an abundance of fruit and vegetables. From sunflowers, to radishes, to tomatoes, The Giant Turnip, adapted by Henrietta Barkow, and illustrated by Richard Johnson, contains illustrations that match the colorful food soon to sprout in the schools garden.

As the pages progress, from digging soil to prepare the ground, to planting seeds, children will learn the basics of growing and harvesting food. They will also learn the patience it takes to turn a seed from a tiny kernel into something giant.

There are several things I love about The Giant Turnip. Along with its message of coming together, Ms. Honeywood’s class represents children who look like the children who reside in our vast world. Hues of brown that aren’t white-washed, and a representation of a child who uses a wheelchair. It’s important to not only have illustrations that show the diversity of the world we live in, but illustrations that represent children of every background in a positive light. Samira, a wheelchair user, comes up with the idea to tie a rope around the turnip and all pull together. Samira is seen helping pull and tug, participating with her classmates. This is what’s important.

The bilingual aspect of Language Lizard books means that children are able to read the books in their own language, or see how other languages are written. For this particular version of The Giant Turnip, it contained both Gujarati and English.

If reading aloud to young ones, The Giant Turnip provides plenty of opportunity to ask open ended questions. Bring in fruit and vegetables that are lesser known for children to identity and taste. This book would be fantastic if used during a unit on food, harvesting, seasons, etc.

Thank you again to Anneka at Language Lizard, for sending a fantastic book to review. And thank you Multicultural Children’s Book Day, for continuing to diversify the books in on classroom and library shelves.

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2019 (1/25/19) is in its 6th 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 Paul and Baptiste 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 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. 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.

Multicultural Children's Book Day- A Review!