Only Korean kid in town,
Mom and Dad won’t talk about family history.
Chloe will uncover her heritage, no matter what!

On Multicultural Kids’ Books Day, let’s travel to Chloe’s boring town where the middle-schooler’s parents won’t discuss whatever made them move from Korea to the US, and everyone assumes she’s good at math and music because “she’s Asian” since no one there knows the difference between Japanese, Chinese, and Korean!

If you’ve ever felt like a fish in the wrong school, like this book cover shows, you understand Chloe’s wish to know her family’s history.

Books as mirrors, books as windows – thank you to the organizers and supporters of Multicultural Children’s Book Day (see the list below)!

What did you do when you felt out of place?
**kmm

Book info: Unidentified Suburban Object / Mike Jung. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2016. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Chloe is so frustrated with her parents’ silence about Korea and her classmates saying she gets good math grades and first chair violin in orchestra “because she’s Asian” that the thirteen year old is ready to pop!

Her new social studies teacher is Korean-American!? Chloe is so happy.
Ms. Lee assigns a family history project – Chloe is delighted!
Her parents are horrified – are they secret illegal aliens or something?

While her best friend is as obsessed with Korean culture as she is, Chloe really wants to know her family’s connection with their homeland – is that really so much to ask?
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Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (1/27/17) is in its fourth 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 on 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.

Census data shows that 37% of the US population consists of people of color, yet only 10% of children’s books published have diverse characters and content. Using the Multicultural Children’s Book Day holiday, the MCBD Team are on a mission to change all of that.

Current Sponsors:  MCBD 2017 is honored to have some amazing Sponsors on board. Platinum Sponsors include Scholastic, Barefoot Books and Broccoli. Other Medallion Level Sponsors include heavy-hitters like Author Carole P. Roman, Audrey Press, Candlewick Press,  Fathers Incorporated, KidLitTV, Capstone Young Readers, ChildsPlayUsa, Author Gayle Swift, Wisdom Tales Press, Lee& Low Books, The Pack-n-Go Girls, Live Oak Media, Author Charlotte Riggle, Chronicle Books and Pomelo Books.

Author Sponsor include: Karen Leggett Abouraya, Veronica Appleton, Susan Bernardo, Kathleen Burkinshaw, Delores Connors, Maria Dismondy, D.G. Driver, Geoff Griffin,  Savannah Hendricks, Stephen Hodges, Carmen Bernier-Grand,Vahid Imani, Gwen Jackson,  Hena, Kahn, David Kelly, Mariana Llanos, Natasha Moulton-Levy, Teddy O’Malley, Stacy McAnulty,  Cerece Murphy, Miranda Paul, Annette Pimentel, Greg Ransom, Sandra Richards, Elsa Takaoka, Graciela Tiscareño-Sato,  Sarah Stevenson, Monica Mathis-Stowe SmartChoiceNation, Andrea Y. Wang

 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.