Every year, on January 27th, our family celebrates Multicultural Children’s Book Day. This year marks the fourth year of the celebration. To celebrate Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017, our family received the book [easyazon_link identifier=”1940014735″ locale=”US” tag=”mylitpop-20″]Rice & Rocks[/easyazon_link] by Sandra L. Richards. We would like to thank Sandra Richards for sharing her words with us this year.
Celebrating Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017:
Celebrate Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 with Rice & Rocks by Sandra L. Richards
A finalist in the 2016 USA Best Book Awards, Rice and Rocks is the debut picture book from author Sandra L. Richards, an American-born daughter of Jamaican immigrant parents.
Rice and Rocks is a story about Giovanni and his pet parrot, Jasper. One night, Giovanni’s friends are coming over for Sunday night dinner. Giovanni discovers that his grandmother will be making rice and beans, a traditional Jamaican dish.
Giovanni, who refers to rice and beans as “rice and rocks” is afraid his friends will think the dish is strange… until Giovanni’s beloved Auntie saves the day. She and Jasper, Giovanni’s pet parrot, take Giovanni on a magical journey across the globe. Together, they visit places where people eat “rice and rocks” and as they celebrate various cultural traditions, Giovanni realizes how similar we all are. The journey changes Giovanni’s view of his grandmother’s Sunday night fare, making for a happy ending.
My children enjoyed this magical tale. They delighted in Giovanni’s journey with Jasper. As a parent, I appreciated the author’s message. It is so important for children to value their heritage and celebrate their uniqueness and share it with those around them.
After reading Rice and Rocks, we visited Sandra L. Richards’ website and discovered a word search based on the text. What a fun way to reinforce concepts learned while reading together!
Be sure to follow Sandra L. Richards, author of Rice and Rocks, on Twitter and Instagram.
Helpful resources for making the most out of Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017
Here are some resources to help you take learning to the next level:
- MCBD site
- Free Multicultural Books for Teachers
- Free Kindness Classroom Kit for Homeschoolers, Organizations, Librarians, and Educators
- Free Diversity Book Lists and Activities for Teachers and Parents
Be sure to check out our Multicultural Children’s Book Day review from 2016
Last year, our family enjoyed reading [easyazon_link identifier=”4805313471″ locale=”US” tag=”mylitpop-20″]The Peace Tree from Hiroshima: The Little Bonsai with a Big Story[/easyazon_link] by Sandra Moore. You can read more about that book here:
More information about Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017
Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (1/27/17) is 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 on the ongoing need to include kid’s 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.
Despite census data that shows 37% of the US population consists of people of color, only 10% of children’s books published have diversity content. Using the Multicultural Children’s Book Day holiday, the MCBD Team are on a mission to change all of that.
MCBD 2017 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, 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
MCBD 2017 would also 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 work tirelessly to spread the word of this event.
Lovely! I used to read a book called “Everybody Cooks Rice” to my third graders, which shared a similar premise about shared foods about the world and around cultures. Thanks for sharing this book with #ReadYourWorld!