First off though, a little background info:
Our mission is to not only raise
awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of
these of books into classrooms and libraries.
Mission: 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, Mia and Valarie are on a mission to change
all of that. Their mission is to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books
that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these types of books into
classrooms and libraries. Another goal of this exciting event is create a
compilation of books and favorite reads that will provide not only a new
reading list for the winter, but also a way to expose brilliant books to
families, teachers, and libraries.
“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.”
The
co-creators of this unique event are Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom and Valarie Budayr from Jump
Into a Book/Audrey
Press. You can find a bio for Mia and Valarie
here.
There are several sponsors that have gracious helped with this project. Sponsorship details
can be viewed HERE.
MCCBD’s 2015 Sponsors include:
Platinum Sponsors:
Wisdom Tales Press,
Daybreak Press Global Bookshop
Gold Sponsors: Satya House, MulticulturalKids.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
Beautiful Rainbow World by Suzee Ramirez
Lulu and the Very Big Meanies by Mac McGooshie, illustrated by
Real Street Kidz Multicultural Children’s Book Series by Quentin Holmes
There are also several co-hosts:
Africa to America
Kid World Citizen
Multicultural
Kid Blogs
Sprout’s Bookshelf
Sprout’s Bookshelf
First Book
We’re also partnering
with First
Book to offer a Virtual
Book Drive that will help donate multicultural children’s books through
their channels during the week of the event. We want to help get diversity
books into the hands of kids who most need it and now we have a way to do it!
The Virtual Book Drive is LIVE and can be found HERE.
Children’s Book Council:
And of course, for more info, go to the Multicultural Children's Book Day blog.
Now! Onto my review!
Mystery of the Giant Masks of Sanxingdui is an informative, wonderfully illustrated book by Icy Smith and Gayle Garner Roski. The narrator is Min, a young girl who lives with her parents and brother in the village of Sanxingdui. The story revolves around the tradition of mask-making during their Warrior Festival. A minor plot point involves the gift of an elephant to Min's brother, Wei. However, what begins a celebration, ends with the onset of a rainstorm and the impending threat of an attack from the village's enemy from the north. The village, having faced their enemies before, decide to hide their masks and try to prevent the imminent attack of their enemies, as Min's father says, "Sometimes fighting is necessary, but this time we will stop the fighting before it starts."
The final panel shows the village burning and burying their valuables, including the masks. Though the book ends in a somewhat sobering manner, an author's note speaks to the actual story of the masks, and how in 1986, construction workers in China accidentally stumbled upon a trove of artifacts from around 1300 BCE. It is unknown the fate of the village, but scholars have decided that it may have been destroyed through natural disaster, or an invasion (as the book uses). Because of the sophistication of the articles discovered for the time in which they were created, archeologists and anthropologists have found the excavation site to be a mystery.
I must admit, this is not the type of picture book that I would normally pick up. But, as someone who studied history and took an archeology class as an undergrad, I found this story to be interesting. I'd also not heard of the region of Sanxingdui, so I came into reading this with no context. The author uses key points to frame the story, but this text is a little wordy - I'd say it's for an older reader; and would be appreciated by an older reader who would have a better grasp of geographical constructs. As it is, I felt like I had learned more about the history of region in which the story takes place, and the author's note helped to cement the story's origins in reality. The colors of the illustrations are lovely, and I found myself looking closely at each spread to take in all of the details.
Mystery of the Giant Masks of Sanxingdui is a solid read, and is a good jumping off point for a reader interested in ancient cultures.
That's all for now, folks! Thanks for stopping by!
