The following is a list of hand-selected children’s book advocates, writers, and bloggers who work with the MCBD Team by extending the reach and spreading the word about Multicultural Children’s Book Day. They are our CoHosts.
These CoHosts and Global CoHost’s sites will also host the wildly-popular book review/blog post-link-up that occurs during the last week in January. We would appreciate it if you could take a few minutes and visit each of these excellent blogs. These reviewers and powerhouse bloggers were selected by the MCBD team because of their true dedication to supporting diversity in children’s literature.
Leanna is a stay-at-home mom and homeschooler. She draws inspiration from the Writings of the Bahá’í Faith and tries to raise her Monkeys in a fun, spiritual, loving environment. She and her husband, who is from Costa Rica, are raising their kids to be bilingual and bicultural but more importantly to be “world citizens.” All Done Monkey is dedicated to sharing this journey with you! All Done Monkey focuses on multiculturalism, global education, natural parenting, and spiritual education.
Leanna is the founder of Multicultural Kid Blogs.
Connect with her: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest
Eugenia Chu is an attorney, turned stay-at-home mom, turned award-winning and best-selling children’s book author. She is Chinese-American and lives in Miami with her husband and son, Brandon, who is the inspiration for her stories. She has been a presenter at numerous schools, libraries, and book festivals.
When Brandon was very little, the author couldn’t find children’s storybooks to read to him that touched upon Chinese culture and which included some Chinese (Mandarin) words to teach and/or reinforce his Chinese vocabulary, so she started writing her own. Eugenia is the author of: Brandon Makes Jiăozi (餃子); Brandon Goes to Beijing – Běijīng (北京); Brandon Goes to Hong Kong – Xiānggăng (香港); Celebrating Chinese New Year; Celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival; Celebrating Dragon Boat Festival; and is a contributing author of Once Upon a Plate – A Culinary Journey Through Stories. She also has new books coming out, so stay tuned!
Connect with Eugenia via her website, Twitter, and Instagram.
Koloud Tarapolsi is a Libyan American quilling artist and an Arab world & Muslim cultural blogger on ACraftyArab.com. She creates free crafts, recipes & downloads for kids to educate them about the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region. Her blog also includes hundreds of MENA books, reviews, and book lists for educators to use to diversify their libraries and classrooms.
Kay sells handmade Arab crafts and cards to promote a positive image of Arab culture at select stores in Seattle, WA, and Washington, DC. In 2002, Kay created an Arabic Alphabet Animal line that now includes two posters, game cards, magnets, and a coloring book. Kay teaches MENA art education to various schools in the Pacific Northwest and has been an artist in residence in several summer camps. In her spare time, Kay enjoys being a docent at the Seattle Art Museum and in the Spring, Kay takes adults on an Art & Cooking Moroccan educational tour. She is currently writing a children’s picture book on Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a shero for her 3 daughters.
Connect with her: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest
Frances Díaz Evans is a Latina author and educator. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Universidad del Este in Puerto Rico and a master’s degree in Spanish education from the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina.
She is the founder and writer of the multicultural, bilingual parenting website, Discovering the World Through My Son’s Eyes and Discovering Español a business dedicated to teaching Spanish online.
Through her work as a multicultural and language advocate, she promotes and enhances Latino culture and the Spanish language both online and in her local community. Now, as an author, she hopes to continue to promote the love of Puerto Rico and the importance of bilingualism to children and teens around the world. Coco la cotorra puertorriqueña is her first children’s book.
Connect with her: Facebook LinkedIn Instagram Twitter Pinterest Outschool
Naima Carter Russell is a picture book lover, a multi-passionate creative, Atlanta mom, actress, and craft-a-holic. She is passionate about helping you find the best Black joy books, diversify your bookshelf & make story time more dramatic. When she’s not folding laundry she’s searching for picture books that enchant, surprise, encourage, inspire, and bring joy for her kids and yours!
Connect with her on Instagram, Facebook, and her blog.
Bethany Edwards is an elementary educator and reading specialist with experience teaching in the US and in international schools. She also offers reading courses for parents/caregivers at Biracial Bookworms Academy. Her goal is to help parents and educators raise readers, activists, and leaders using multicultural and diverse books, culturally rich experiences, and learning multiple languages.
Connect with Bethany on Pinterest Instagram Facebook Twitter Biracial Bookworms Academy, Goodreads
Svenja is an adoptive mom and social worker, originally from Germany, living in South Africa. As a mom and adoptive mom of two little black girls, she always searches for multicultural children’s books that have a positive message, and that do not support stereotypes. She shares her findings on her website, Colours of Us.
Svenja is passionate about promoting diversity in children’s literature and toys. She believes that all children deserve to see themselves reflected in the books they read and the toys they play with. Because representation matters!
Connect with Colours of Us via her website which is filled with wonderful diverse booklists, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram
Jodie Rodriguez is the founder of Growing Book by Book where she helps you bring joy and play into children’s lives through books. Jodie has worked with thousands of families and educators during her 25-year career. When she’s not working, she’s reading, gardening, cooking, and nibbling on dark chocolate.
Connect with her: Pinterest | Facebook | Twitter
Nikita Gupta, MBA, is a writer, author, blogger, and entrepreneur. Nikita is globally known for her multicultural lifestyle blog, Growing Up Gupta. On the blog, she shares her journey as an African American woman married to a South Asian/Indian man and also a plentitude of multicultural narratives. In addition to advice on interracial/intercultural dating and marriage, multiracial and multicultural parenting, fusion recipes, book reviews, culture, and more. Her new multicultural and bilingual children’s book is called I Love Masala Me.
Nikita has been a featured contributor for the Huffington Post, The Times of India, Brown Girl Magazine, South Asian Buzz, The Parent Voice Magazine, Multicultural Kids Blogs, Multiracial Family Man, among others. She has also been featured on podcasts with Indian-Interracial Marriage, Multiracial Family Man, Invisible India, and more.
Connect with Nikita on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Kelir Books aims to represent the diversity of the Tamil diaspora around the world and offer introductions to and celebrations of Tamil language and culture.
We create bilingual Tamil resources for all kinds of Tamilar, promote access to resources that are representative and inclusive of the complexities of socio-cultural identity in today’s world, and bring equity in Tamil language and cultural resources. We are the first to represent mixed-race and multicultural Tamil children and families in the Tamil children’s books.
@wearetamiltoo is our community that brings together and highlights the voices of all kinds of Tamilar – ethnically diverse Tamils; those living across the globe; mixed-race and multicultural families; intersectional (inter-caste, inter-faith) Tamils; language learners and bilinguals; and friends of Tamils from across the globe.
Persis Naumann, Fulbright Scholar and Bioethicist is the Creator and Editor of Kelir Books LLC, a female, minority, and Asian-Tamil-American owned small business established in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, USA. Peniel Prabakaran, Leadership, Communications, Community Development & Engagement Specialist is the Co-Creator and Author of Kelir Books. Both Persis and Peniel find their common passion, work, and leadership in promoting cross-cultural engagement with cultural humility and understanding.
You don’t have to be from Tamil heritage to be a part of our community. Come join us and explore the beautiful and one of the oldest languages and cultures in the world together with us!
Connect with Kelir Books on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and their website.
Amanda Hsiung-Blodgett is an Intercultural Language Consultant and the founder of Miss Panda Chinese, an online resource for parents and educators. Amanda is passionate about making learning Mandarin Chinese simple, building bridges between cultures, and facilitating positive learning experiences for children.
Amanda has worked and taught on four continents. Parents and children know her as “Miss Panda”. She is the Chinese language consultant for the top educational program, World Party Seasons 4 and 5 on Netflix. First Mandarin Sounds: an awesome Chinese word book is her debut children’s book. She adopts the Montessori approach to guide readers to learn essential Mandarin sounds with playful Chinese words. Her streaming album, “Let’s Learn Mandarin Chinese with Miss Panda!” has been assisting non-native families to acquire their first Chinese expressions with ease and fun. Furthermore, you can listen to her Playful Chinese podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Connect with Amanda at Miss Panda Chinese | Linkedin | Facebook | Instagram | Youtube
Multicultural Kid Blogs is a supportive community that brings together parents, educators, bloggers, writers, and artists from across the world. Our mission is to inspire and support parents, caregivers, and educators raising the next generation of global citizens through arts, activities, crafts, food, language, and love. We do this by creating educational and parenting content that celebrates global cultures, languages, and belief systems and by promoting diversity in all its forms while recognizing our common concerns and dreams for our children.
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram
Agatha Rodi lives in Patras, Greece. She’s an educator/writer/columnist/
The Hellenic Tourism Organization has under the auspices of the organization the «Story Telling Waves» workshops, Agatha mentors, as part of the «Kimolos Experience» Festival, organized by the Kimolistes NGO, on the Cycladic island of Kimolos. The workshops have to do with creative writing, storytelling with the children’s participation related to the environment, Kimolos’ island tradition, and Lefcadio Hearn’s legacy at the Lefkada Festival in the Ionian Islands.
CoWeb: www.agatharodi.com & www.kimolistes.com, LinkedIn: Agatha Rodi, Facebook/Twitter/Goodreads: Agatha Rodi, Youtube: Agatha Rodi and Instagram: @agatha_rodi
Author of the renowned Sparkling Me children’s books and books on multicultural parenting, Aditi Wardhan Singh is an award-winning, best-selling author of seven books. She is an authoritative voice on cultural sensitivity and empowerment, featured on numerous global publications and broadcast networks like NBC, CBS, HuffPost, Thrive, Richmond Family Magazine, Reading with Your Kids podcast, etc. Her passion for diversifying dialogue within multicultural families led her to found the collaborative RaisingWorldChildren.com platform. Today, she aims to help parents diversify their libraries by lifting other multicultural authors like herself. In her spare time, she enjoys choreographing dance recitals, volunteering, and having impromptu dance parties with her two charming kids.
Her upcoming works include a multicultural children’s book about belonging and a unique bilingual Hindi-English resource for children.
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