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Win 1 of 12 Book Bundles! We are giving away Book Bundles every 5 minutes! Twitter Party Friday, January 25th 9 pm to 10 pm EST Hashtag: #ReadYourWorld Register here to WIN!   To say everyone is all a-twitter about the upcoming MCBD2019 Twitter Party is an understatement. Every year, hundreds of parents, teachers, librarians, book reviewers, authors, publishers, and children's organizations show...

#ReadYourWorld Book Jam 2019 Cynthia Leitich Smith

We are so excited to present our #ReadYourWorld Book Jam 2019 in conjunction with Children’s Book Council! This year we have 10 amazing authors with unique book lists to share. Each author is also doing a book giveaway!

Please welcome Mariana Llanos with her list of Eight Essential Children’s Books to Build Empathy About Immigration. We are giving away 10 copies of her book, Luca’s Bridge/El puente de Luca. To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter at the bottom. 

Why do people emigrate? This is a question that doesn’t get asked and answered quite enough. Nevertheless, in the current climate people are quick to judge those who chose to leave their homes behind. I’m an immigrant, and as such, I am proud to represent all those millions of people who work tirelessly to build a better future for themselves and their families.

I’m thankful for this opportunity to share some of the books I consider essential to fight prejudice and intolerance. I came across most of these titles when I was researching for my new book Luca’s Bridge/El Puente de Luca (Penny Candy Books, 2019). These books are all wonderful in their own right, but together they make a powerful statement of empathy: build bridges of words, tear the walls of ignorance.

#ReadYourWorld Book Jam 2019 Cynthia Leitich Smith

We are so excited to present our #ReadYourWorld Book Jam 2019 in conjunction with Children’s Book Council! This year we have 10 amazing authors with unique book lists to share. Each author is also doing a book giveaway!

Please welcome Vita Murrow with her list of Diverse Trailblazers: On the Quest of Self-Discovery children’s books. We are giving away 10 copies of her book, Power to the Princess. To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter below.

Diverse Trailblazers: On the Quest of Self-Discovery

We are so excited to present our #ReadYourWorld Book Jam 2019 in conjunction with Children's Book Council! This year we have 10 amazing authors with unique book lists to share. Each author is also doing a book giveaway! Please welcome Meera Sriram today with her Multicultural Picture Books Celebrating Grandparental Love book list. We are giving away 10...

Guest post from Patricia Newman with Donna Rosenblum and Mehrdokht Amini

I usually write about nonfiction conservation topics that empower children to act as global citizens. When Donna Rosenblum, Executive Director of Reason2Smile, approached me with an idea for a book about the importance of education, I saw another way to empower young readers to act.

Approximately 262 million children worldwide did not attend school in 2017. Neema’s Reason to Smile illustrator Mehrdokht Amini comes from Iran, a country where access to education is not necessarily a right.

Neema’s Reason to Smile

Donna and Mehrdokht know first-hand the challenges faced by children from extreme poverty or worn-torn countries. I thought you’d like to hear their messages from the front lines.

#ReadYourWorld Book Jam 2019 Cynthia Leitich Smith

We are so excited to present our #ReadYourWorld Book Jam 2019 in conjunction with Children’s Book Council! This year we have 10 amazing authors with unique book lists to share. Each author is also doing a book giveaway!

Please welcome Renée Watson with her 8 Powerful Novels for Lovers of Poetry book list. We are also giving away a copy of her newest book, Watch Us Rise, co-authored by Ellen Hagan. Please fill out the Rafflecopter at the bottom to enter.

8 Powerful Novels for Lovers of Poetry

SO..what in the world is “On My Desk” anyway?

This series got started because, with my role as Project Manager, I get to enjoy the avalanche of amazing multicultural books for kids that are donated to our project.  A good chunk of the year my office looks like a small bookstore and I love every second of it.

Being appreciative of every book that crosses my desk, I wanted to find a fun way to share those books with the loyal folks who show up here to read every week and support this non-profit. In that moment, On My Desk | #ReadYourWorld Kidlit Books for 2019 was born! It’s my way of sharing some amazing titles that don’t always get the attention they deserve.

So even though MCBD2019 hasn’t occurred yet (1/25/19), I am LOVING all of the amazing books all these wonderful multicultural books for kids that I am discovering every time I open the mail.

Here’s what the Mailman Book Fairy brought me this week:

One of the best resources to explore the world of children’s literature with kids AND adults is none other than KidLit TV. Julie Gribble, a two Emmy Award nominee, a multi-award-winning writer, screenwriter, filmmaker, and producer, founded KidLit TV to help inspire children to learn and read. She has assembled an all-star team of diverse award-winning writers, illustrators, teachers, filmmakers, and reading specialists who work together to create fun new ways to reinforce an appreciation of reading that children will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

The diverse KidLit TV team also supports the We Need Diverse Books and Multicultural Children’s Book Day initiatives by encouraging the children’s literature community to create more books that reflect the diversity of our society.

KidLitTV creates fun new ways to reinforce an appreciation of reading that children will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Award-Winning Children’s Literature Resource

KidLit TV is a winner of the Parents’ Choice Gold Award, the Norton Juster Award for Devotion to Literacy, and one of the American Library Association’s Great Websites For Kids. KLTV is available in over 600,000 schools worldwide via our website and video distribution partners.

#ReadYourWorld Book Jam 2019 Cynthia Leitich Smith

We are so excited to present our #ReadYourWorld Book Jam 2019 in conjunction with Children’s Book Council! This year we have 10 amazing authors with unique book lists to share. Each author is also doing a book giveaway!

Please welcome Lila Quintero Weaver today with our second installment of our #ReadYourWorld Book Jam 2019 in conjunction with the Children’s Book Council. She has a list of 8 Fabulous Middle-Grade Latinx Novels. We are also giving away a copy of her book, My Year in the Middle. Please fill out the Rafflecopter at the bottom to enter.

Thank you to Annie Lynn and Walt Wilcezewski for donating their time and expertise to create our first official Read Your World Multicultural Children’s Book Day Music Video!!!

Please support Annie Lynn on her website and YouTube channel!

Special thanks to the kids for their vocals on this song:  Havana Chapman-Edwards, Will, Hailey, and Amanda!

Thank you to Matthew Winner who submitted photos of his students holding books covering their faces.

Thank you to everyone who contributed photos!