Today on my blog I am celebrating Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2018 by telling you about a book called The Elephant and the King.
Let me tell you the background to MCBD
Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (1/27/18) is in its 5th 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 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.
My Book
I was given my book by our sponsor Green Kids Club. They create gorgeous colourful picture books to teach children about the planet, its ecosystems and the creatures who live here. My book is one of a series where two children Maya and Victor drink water from The Green Spring and are granted the ability to talk to animals.
So, are you ready to pay attention?
I am going to:
-tell you what I think about the book
-tell you my idea for an activity to encourage reading
-tell you about the Twitter party
-tell you where you can go to find more books about our fabulous planet.
My book review
Series:Green Kids Club
Age: 7 upwards
Source: Sylvia M Medina (author)
This colourful book is gentle in tone and charming in its illustrative style. This means it is able to deliver a tough message without upsetting even a sensitive child. Victor and Maya are visiting Botswana and meeting their friend Maatla when Maya asks to see an elephant,
Maya’s desire to see an elephant worries her friend Maatla as he is aware that the elephants are under attack from poachers. The children learn that there are people who will kill an elephant to take the tusks. Tusks are a unique substance for carving and they are valuable in Asia. (Woolly mammoths had tusks too and you don’t see many of them about. )
Maatla takes the children to look for elephants and, inevitably, drama and excitement follow. Maya and Victor have magic powers that allow them to help animals and those powers can be shared with. Maatla is given the same gift and he is stupefied when he can suddenly hear animals speaking. The ending is a happy one but pages of facts at the back of the book open children’s eyes to an unpleasant situation going on in the world right now.
If you read this book to your children you mighy tell them that public opinion persuaded the Chinese to ban the sale of ivory. Young eco-warriors need messages of hope. Despite the poachers’ activities, this book gives a strong sense of that Africa’s animals are precious and valued.
This is the first and only book I have read from this series. Animal lovers will find many more on Amazon.
My activity to encourage reading
Remember I said I had an activity? OK, here is my book gift package idea.
The story about the baby elephant in danger got me thinking. And when kids start thinking they want to play. How about when you go to Amazon to buy this book head on over to the page where they sell African animals. It is called Schleich and they have all the animals from The Elephant and the King.
You can act out the exciting scenes where the baby elephant is in danger and the lion and the other animals get involved.
The Twitter party?
TWITTER PARTY Sponsored by Scholastic Book Clubs: MCBD’s super-popular (and crazy-fun) annual Twitter Party will be held 1/27/18 at 9:00pm.
Join the conversation and win one of 12-5 book bundles and one Grand Prize Book Bundle (12 books) that will be given away at the party! http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/twitter-party-great-conversations-fun-prizes-chance-readyourworld-1-27-18/
You want more great books – start with great publishers.
Where? Here! These guys have sponsored us because they care about Multicultural books enough to publish them.
2018 MCBD Medallion Sponsors HONORARY: Children’s Book Council, Junior Library Guild PLATINUM:Scholastic Book Clubs GOLD:Audrey Press, Candlewick Press, Loving Lion Books, Second Story Press, Star Bright Books, Worldwide Buddies SILVER:Capstone Publishing, Author Charlotte Riggle, Child’s Play USA, KidLit TV, Pack-n-Go Girls, Plum Street Press BRONZE: Barefoot Books, Carole P. Roman, Charlesbridge Publishing, Dr. Crystal Bowe, Gokul! World, Green Kids Club, Gwen Jackson, Jacqueline Woodson, Juan J. Guerra, Language Lizard, Lee & Low Books, RhymeTime Storybooks, Sanya Whittaker Gragg, TimTimTom Books, WaterBrook & Multnomah, Wisdom Tales Press
2018 Author Sponsors Honorary Author Sponsors: Author/Illustrator Aram Kim and Author/Illustrator Juana Medina Author Janet Balletta, Author Susan Bernardo, Author Carmen Bernier-Grand, Author Tasheba Berry-McLaren and Space2Launch, Bollywood Groove Books, Author Anne Broyles, Author Kathleen Burkinshaw, Author Eugenia Chu, Author Lesa Cline-Ransome, Author Medeia Cohan and Shade 7 Publishing, Desi Babies, Author Dani Dixon and Tumble Creek Press, Author Judy Dodge Cummings, Author D.G. Driver, Author Nicole Fenner and Sister Girl Publishing, Debbi Michiko Florence, Author Josh Funk, Author Maria Gianferrari, Author Daphnie Glenn, Globe Smart Kids, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, Author Quentin Holmes, Author Esther Iverem, Jennifer Joseph: Alphabet Oddities, Author Kizzie Jones, Author Faith L Justice , Author P.J. LaRue and MysticPrincesses.com, Author Karen Leggett Abouraya, Author Sylvia Liu, Author Sherri Maret, Author Melissa Martin Ph.D., Author Lesli Mitchell, Pinky Mukhi and We Are One, Author Miranda Paul, Author Carlotta Penn, Real Dads Read, Greg Ransom, Author Sandra L. Richards, RealMVPKids Author Andrea Scott, Alva Sachs and Three Wishes Publishing, Shelly Bean the Sports Queen, Author Sarah Stevenson, Author Gayle H. Swift Author Elsa Takaoka, Author Christine Taylor-Butler, Nicholette Thomas and MFL Publishing Author Andrea Y. Wang, Author Jane Whittingham Author Natasha Yim
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.
Don’t forget the teachers
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.
