Thanks to our MCBD Facebook Group, I crossed paths with wonderful author named, Simone Da Costa. Simone’s book, I am Beautiful: When I Look at Me, I See … , is an inspirational book, created for middle school aged Black girls, aims to empower and liberate them to believe that they are beautiful, despite society’s notion of what “beauty” is.
(guest post from Shereen Rahming and the LRSJC)
Hello to you all. I am a mom and children’s book author. In the summer of 2015, my husband and I moved our family to the quaint town of Ladera Ranch, California. We arrived with all the hope and excitement of enthusiastic new residents. But we soon became unsettled by the homogeneity of the community. You see, we are a family of color who moved to a place where there are few people or images of people of color. My daughter went from rarely seeing representation of herself in school books and materials to never seeing it. I struggled with this. We weren’t sure how to proceed. We even pondered leaving.
Then through the power of social media, I became aware of another Ladera Ranch mom who was looking to start a social group with individuals who wanted to discuss social and racial justice, equity, and diversity. Naturally, I contacted her right away and was pleased to find out that there were other parents who wanted to engage in such conversations. We gathered for our first meeting in October 2016 and so was born the Ladera Ranch Social Justice Committee.
Our goal is to include and advocate for culturally and socio-economically diverse families within and beyond Ladera Ranch, including multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, and LGBT families. We would also like to support schools, teachers, and libraries in developing curriculum and policies that include and engage all students, promote critical thinking, and prepare children to interact effectively in our diverse global world.
Commissioning talented artists to create an exclusive poster for the yearly MCBD holiday was something we started in 2016. Thanks to the talents of artist/illustrator/author Robert Liu-Trujillo, we were able to offer supporters our very first downloadable poster in honor of our national online event. To view 2016’s poster by Robert, go here: Multicultural Children’s Book Day FREE Downloadable Poster.
For the 2017 MCBD event, we feel exceptionally blessed to have the wisdom, color and talents of world renown author/illustrator, Demi, on board as the creator of our gorgeous MCBD poster for our 1/27/17 event and upcoming e-book!
Demi is an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator who, during her successful career, has published over 300 titles. She is the great-grand daughter of the American painter William Morris Hunt, and the great-grand niece of architect Richard Morris Hunt. Demi earned her nickname as a young child when her father started calling her “demi” because she was half the size of her sister.
Demi’s books have sold over half a million copies and her work has been appreciated by many diverse people across the globe, such as the Dalai Lama and the Pope. The Empty Pot, her best-selling title, was selected by former First Lady Barbara Bush as one of the books to be read on the ABC Radio Network Program Mrs. Bush’s Story Time, sponsored by the Children’s Literacy Initiative. Demi’s book Gandhi was named a New York Times Best Illustrated Book and received an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award. To read Wisdom Tales Press’ extended biography about this amazing and talented lady, go HERE.
MCBD co-founders Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen have both been fans of Demi’s work for many years. In 2015, Valarie even created a robust blog post on her site, Jump Into a Book, called 19 Books Celebrating China with Author Demi.
As you can imagine, the MCBD team was thrilled and overjoyed when Demi agreed to create a breath-taking signature poster for our 2017 event.
NOW…it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for! Time for the 2017 MCBD 2017 Reveal!
Are you interested in receiving a FREE multicultural children’s book to review for MCCBD 2017? We have a new perk this year that will appeal to more than bloggers!
Review by MCCBD Project Manager, Becky Flansburg
Bilingual books are in high demand from parents, teachers and librarians, but it’s not often that one sees a English/Indonesian book much less one with such a timely topic.
“What Can We Do with Garbage?” was written by author Visi Asriningtyas and Visi is keen to write about environmental science – engineering related subjects, mostly for children to help them live in a more environmentally safe world for their everyday life. She was born in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in 1975.
