Clever Carmel – Multicultural Children’s Book Day Review

Multicultural Children's Book Day

*Disclosure – I received an ePub copy of the book from author Henrietta Nwagwu-Rochford in order to facilitate my review for Multicultural Children’s Book Day.*

January time again everyone!  That means Multicultural Children’s Book Day and Family Literacy Day here in Canada (same day) happens on January 27th.  It is a milestone for the Multicultural Children’s Book Day event as this year marks its 5th year.  What better way to celebrate family literacy then encouraging and promoting multicultural books.  There is so much to discuss that this post usually ends up being a long one, so grab your favourite drink and enjoy.  Multicultural Children’s Book Day was started and continues to flourish with the passion and dedication of its founders, Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen.  The growing popularity of the event is significant to the book industry as it highlights the importance and value we all as readers and consumers of children’s books place on increasing the diversity in the selection available for us to read. Let’s fill our bookshelves with more diverse books. Teachers have you grabbed your Free 2018 Swag Bag – this is an offline classroom and library event to help you celebrate MCCBD in your own classroom or library. Just head to the above link to check out how to have your own MCCBD party. Don’t forget to check out the info at the bottom of the post for important info for your chance to win lots of books for your school library or home library.  And how about hundreds of book reviews of new diverse/multicultural books to get you excited about the year to come in children’s books.  Visit this page to see all of the Co-hosts of the event to begin your exploration. More info will follow the review. Here is a wonderful book trailer that has the author talking about her book as well as the initial response by kids, parents and educators.

MY THOUGHTS on the book Clever Carmel by Henrietta Nwagwu-Rochford.

Fifa cup excitement this year.  Who are you going to cheer for?  What is Carmel to do when she wants to cheer for 2 different teams? Clever Carmel is a delightful story about a young girl who is given a school assignment to learn about the countries from where her parents originate. The teacher also assigns a project for the students to design their own Football shirt for the country they will support in the upcoming FIFA tournament and then to present their findings to the class. Carmel is very excited but is not sure which country she should choose to support.  If she chooses Nigeria, the country where her mother is from, then her English father might be upset.  If she chooses her father’s country then maybe her mother will be upset.  Why should she pick sides?  She is a combination of both.  Carmel, in the end, solves her own dilemma with a creative solution.  A wonderful story to highlight dual nationalities and a strong female character who can solve her own problems.  This book will surely be a hit this year!

Read this story and have your child also design their own FIFA World Cup Football Shirt. Just click on the image.

  Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (1/27/18) is in its 5th 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 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.

Current Sponsors:  MCBD 2018 is honored to have some amazing Sponsors on board.

Find out more about all the sponsors here.

2018 MCBD Medallion Sponsors HONORARY: Children’s Book Council, Junior Library Guild PLATINUM:Scholastic Book Clubs GOLD:Audrey Press, Candlewick Press, Loving Lion Books, Second Story Press, Star Bright Books, Worldwide Buddies SILVER:Capstone Publishing, Author Charlotte Riggle, Child’s Play USA, KidLit TV, Pack-n-Go Girls, Plum Street Press BRONZE: Barefoot Books, Carole P. Roman, Charlesbridge Publishing, Dr. Crystal Bowe, Gokul! World, Green Kids Club, Gwen Jackson, Jacqueline Woodson, Juan J. Guerra, Language Lizard, Lee & Low Books, RhymeTime Storybooks, Sanya Whittaker Gragg, TimTimTom Books, WaterBrook & Multnomah, Wisdom Tales Press 2018 Author Sponsors Honorary Author Sponsors: Author/Illustrator Aram Kim and Author/Illustrator Juana Medina Author Janet Balletta, Author Susan Bernardo, Author Carmen Bernier-Grand, Author Tasheba Berry-McLaren and Space2Launch, Bollywood Groove Books, Author Anne Broyles, Author Kathleen Burkinshaw, Author Eugenia Chu, Author Lesa Cline-Ransome, Author Medeia Cohan and Shade 7 Publishing, Desi Babies, Author Dani Dixon and Tumble Creek Press, Author Judy Dodge Cummings, Author D.G. Driver, Author Nicole Fenner and Sister Girl Publishing, Debbi Michiko Florence, Author Josh Funk, Author Maria Gianferrari, Author Daphnie Glenn, Globe Smart Kids, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, Author Quentin Holmes, Author Esther Iverem, Jennifer Joseph: Alphabet Oddities, Author Kizzie Jones, Author Faith L Justice , Author P.J. LaRue and MysticPrincesses.com, Author Karen Leggett Abouraya, Author Sylvia Liu, Author Sherri Maret, Author Melissa Martin Ph.D., Author Lesli Mitchell, Pinky Mukhi and We Are One, Author Miranda Paul, Author Carlotta Penn, Real Dads Read, Greg Ransom, Author Sandra L. Richards, RealMVPKids Author Andrea Scott, Alva Sachs and Three Wishes Publishing, Shelly Bean the Sports Queen, Author Sarah Stevenson, Author Gayle H. Swift Author Elsa Takaoka, Author Christine Taylor-Butler, Nicholette Thomas and  MFL Publishing Author Andrea Y. Wang, Author Jane Whittingham Author Natasha Yim 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.

TWITTER PARTY Sponsored by Scholastic Book Clubs: MCBD’s super-popular (and crazy-fun) annual Twitter Party will be held 1/27/18 at 9:00pm.

Join the conversation and win one of 12-5 book bundles and one Grand Prize Book Bundle (12 books) that will be given away at the party! http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/twitter-party-great-conversations-fun-prizes-chance-readyourworld-1-27-18/ Free Multicultural Books for Teachers: http://bit.ly/1kGZrta Free Empathy Classroom Kit for Homeschoolers, Organizations, Librarians and Educators: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/teacher-classroom-empathy-kit/

Hashtag: Don’t forget to connect with us on social media and be sure and look for/use our official hashtag #ReadYourWorld.

multicultural children's book day
Bonnie is an admitted book, planner, craft, coffee and chocoholic. She spends her free time buried in books or craft supplies. When she is not creating she loves helping other women find their creative centre. Former high school teacher now she is the creator and owner of Adalinc to Life Blog and Boutique.