I AM FARMER: Growing an Environmental Movement in Cameroon
by Baptiste and Miranda Paul and illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon
I am honoured today to take part in the 6th annual Multicultural Children’s Book Day as a book reviewer. It is my 5th time reviewing a book for this event and every year I am encouraged by the growth and by all the passionate, diverse authors who are beginning to fill our shelves with a wide array of stories. If you are interested in my past reviews, I will leave links at the bottom of the page but for now on to this year’s book. Pick up a PDF Book KWL Chart as well to use with this book or any others.
I am Farmer: Growing an Environment Movement in Cameroon by Baptiste and Miranda Paul is a non-fiction title that introduces readers to a number of different topics, including clean water issues in Cameroon, how one person can make a difference in the lives of others, and sustainable farming. The book details the rise of the environmental gardener, Farmer Tantoh, from mocked child to a respected, inspiring environmental leader in Cameroon. When Farmer Tantoh became sick with typhoid fever from unclean drinking water, it led him to learn how to access and collect clean drinking water for villages in Cameroon which resulted in him saving many lives. He positively changes the lives of many people and has even set up a non-profit organization, Save Your Future Association, to collect supplies and money to help other villages access clean water.
The illustrations of the book help bring his story to life and show the contrast between the dry/drought of Cameroon and the beauty and bounty that are possible there. The writing is clever in phrases such as:
When he begins school, Tantoh drinks up facts and figures faster than his teacher can pour them onto the chalkboard. His hand shoots up like a cornstalk.
Imagery created here matches his passion.
Throughout the story, the reader learns of proverbs that Farmer Tantoh used to motivate himself and those around him. One example is:
When you don’t have what you want, use what you have.
When the resources were limited, as he did not have access to tractors, irrigation systems, or motorized tillers to bring clean water to the village, he used the resources he did have, the people of the village to help him. This quote below from Farmer Tantoh encourages all of us to do simple things to improve our world.
The book would fit nicely as a resource for any classroom looking at topics such as:
clean water issues
environmental impacts of local gardening and farming
the power of 1 individual to bring about positive change for many
following one’s dreams and passions
proverbs
This book is to be released in February of 2019 published by Millbrook Press, a division of Lerner Publishing Group.
I hope you have enjoyed this review and I encourage you to check out all of the information below about Multicultural Children’s Book Day. There are so many new titles to discover!
FREE PDF DOWNLOAD
Please feel free to download this worksheet to use with this book or others in your classroom.
Click on the image
Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2019 (1/25/19) is in its 6th 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 homes and school bookshelves while also working diligently to get more of these types of books into the hands of young readers, parents, and educators.
MCBD 2019 is honored to have the following Medallion Sponsors on board
MCBD’s super-popular (and crazy-fun) annual Twitter Party will be held 1/25/19 at 9:00pm.E.S.T. TONS of prizes and book bundles will be given away during the party. GO HERE for more details.
We will be giving away Book Bundles every 5 minutes!
I AM FARMER: Growing an Environmental Movement in Cameroon by Baptiste and Miranda Paul and illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon I am honoured today to take part in the 6th annual Multicultural Children's Book Day as a book reviewer. It is my 5th time reviewing a book for...
Clever Carmel - Multicultural Children's Book Day Review *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...
MYSTERY AT THE CHRISTMAS MARKET A PACK-N-GO GIRLS ADVENTURE BOOK MULTICULTURAL CHILDREN'S BOOK DAY REVIEW Another year has flown by and its time to celebrate Multicultural Children's Book Day on January 27th, 2017. Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017...
Multicultural Children's Book Day 2016 Multicultural Children's Book Day is January 27th. A day to celebrate and to spread the word and raise awareness about the importance of diversity in children's literature. This is the second year I'm...
This is my first year with Multicultural Children's Book Day and I will be reviewing The Year of the Sheep by Oliver Chin and illustrated by Alina Chau. Please continue to read the post after the review for an activity to accompany the book and...
Bonnie is an admitted book, planner, craft, coffee and chocoholic. She loves sharing her passion for books, journaling, mindfulness, meditation, crafting and gaining confidence in developing our creative souls. Former high school teacher now she is the creator and owner of Adalinc to Life Blog.
Clever Carmel – Multicultural Children’s Book Day Review
*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. (more…)
MYSTERY AT THE CHRISTMAS MARKET A PACK-N-GO GIRLS ADVENTURE BOOK
MULTICULTURAL CHILDREN’S BOOK DAY REVIEW
Another year has flown by and its time to celebrate Multicultural Children’s Book Day on January 27th, 2017. Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (1/27/17) is its fourth year and was founded by the co-creators are Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom and Valarie Budayr from Jump Into a Book/Audrey Press. Their 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.
This is my third year reviewing and I absolutely love sharing my love for books with all of you. The first year I reviewed Year of the Sheep and have an accompanying preschool alphabet activity. Last year I reviewed the book series, If you were Me and Lived in… Greece and have an accompanying quick recipe to make with your kids.
This is a pretty big post so you will have to bare with me. Lots of information to tell you about. So after the review don’t forget to read on to learn more about the FREE KINDNESS CLASSROOM KIT FOR EDUCATORS & HOMESCHOOLERS, all the DIVERSITY BOOK LISTS & ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS, how a classroom teacher can sign up for a FREE BOOK, and read all about the sponsors to Multicultural Children’s Book Day as well. (more…)
Multicultural Children’s Book Day is January 27th. A day to celebrate and to spread the word and raise awareness about the importance of diversity in children’s literature. This is the second year I’m participating as a book reviewer. Last year I reviewed The Year of the Sheep and created an activity to go with the book. This year I received 3 books in a larger series of books that introduce children to what their life would be like if they lived somewhere else in the world. It is written by author Carole P. Roman, you can visit her author’s page here. I received these books in order to facilitate a review for Multicultural Children’s Book Day. Come along with Carole P. Roman and us and take a trip around the world to see what we can learn.
[tweetthis display_mode=”box”]Celebrate Multicultural Children’s Book Day Jan 27th #readyourworld [/tweetthis]
If you were me and lived…GREECE: A Child’s Introduction to Culture Around the World by Carole P. Roman. All 3 of these books follow the same pattern. However, I will focus on the book about Greece.
First your child is shown where in the world the country is found on a map and given a historical overview to the country. The reader is introduced to Athens and how old it is and how it is the birth place of democracy. Next the reader is introduced to what your name might have been had you been born in Greece. If you were a boy, you may have been named Georgios (Geeg-org-os) or Nikolaos (Nik-kay-los) and if a girl, you were likely to be a Katerina (Kat-a-reen-a) or Sophia (So-fee-a). Through out the book the reader can learn words in the common language of that country as the author includes the phonetic pronunciation in brackets after key words. Readers will learn about key cultural landmarks such as, the Acropolis, and the Parthenon. Your kids will discover the common traditional foods, such as tzatziki, helloumi, or loukoumades of Greece along with the special holidays the Greek celebrate through out the year. And of course, there is a quick overview of the history of the Olympic Games. The back of the book also contains a glossary of vocabulary words along with their phonetic pronunciation. I know I love those glossaries as it is all Greek to me.
And here are a few shots of the inside of the book.
The only slightly minor thing was when my child and I tried to read the pages where the text is placed over top of photo like the photo above, it was a bit more difficult to read those pages. The text on the solid background as seen in the above photos made reading easier. Overall though, this book series is perfect for a quick overview of different countries and cultures around the world. If you know your child is studying a certain culture at school these books would be great to borrow from the library to supplement your child’s learning at home. If you are teaching at home this series is also a great resource for kids aged 5-9. This series would be perfect for a school collection as well as it covers a lot of different countries. You can see all of the books at Carole P Roman’s Site. Since we can’t afford travel around the world learning through books is one of the next best and available resource to expand your child’s knowledge of other cultures and countries.
To expand the learning on Greece my daughter and I made our own Tzatziki Dip. We have tried the store bought versions before but this recipe which I discovered on Two Peas and Their Pod – Tzatziki Sauce is simple, quick, light and tasty to make with your children. If you go to their site you can find the recipe and print it out. Below I have my daughter and I demonstrating just how easy and quick it is to make.
Cheers,
Bonnie Dani
Educator, Writer, Blogger, Mom
Contact Me: bonniedani@adalinc.org
NOW READ BELOW TO FIND OUT ALL ABOUT MULTICULTURAL CHILDREN’S BOOK DAY
Discover their mission, the founders and all the amazing co-hosts. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #readyourworld to share this book and/or post.
Our Mission: The MCCBD team’s mission to spread the word and raise awareness about the importance of diversity in children’s literature. Our young readers need to see themselves within the pages of a book and experience other cultures, languages, traditions and religions within the pages of a book. We encourage readers, parents, teachers, caregivers and librarians to follow along the fun book reviews, author visits, event details, a multicultural children’s book linky and via our hashtag (#ReadYourWorld) on Twitter and other social media.
For your information: The co-creators of this unique event are Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom and Valarie Budayr from Jump Into a Book/Audrey Press. You can find a bio for Mia and Valarie here.
Multicultural Children’s Book day 2016 Medallion Level Sponsors! #ReadYourWorld
This very special offering from MCCBD offers teachers and classrooms the chance to (very easily) earn a free hardcover multicultural children’s book for their classroom library. These books are not only donated by the Junior Library Guild, but they are pre-screened and approved by them as well.
This is my first year with Multicultural Children’s Book Day and I will be reviewing The Year of the Sheep by Oliver Chin and illustrated by Alina Chau. Please continue to read the post after the review for an activity to accompany the book and information on the mission behind Multicultural Children’s Book Day, its founders, sponsors and much more.
*I was given a complimentary PDF copy of this book to facilitate this review for Multicultural Children’s Book Day from the publisher Immedium. The opinions are my own.
Title: The Year of the Sheep: Tales from the Chinese Zodiac Author: Oliver Chin Illustrator: Alina Chau Publisher: Immedium Published: January 1, 2015 Pages: 36 pages Recommended Ages: 3-8 My Thoughts: The Year of the Sheep is the tenth book in a planned series by Oliver Chin. The Year of the Sheep is the newest release in time for February 19th, 2015 which begins the year of the sheep. The story tells a tale of Sydney the Sheep who along with her pal, Zhi, the shepherd’s daughter, come together in a time of adversity to cooperate with all the animals to solve a problem that affects them all. Children learn about jobs and why they must be done, that sometimes there is safety in numbers, how to work together to solve problems, and also how to use your own unique personality and character to help your community. This is a heart warming, charming tale where children will learn about the personality of those who are born in the year of the sheep. The illustrations are enchanting, gorgeous watercolours by Alina Chau and add to the enjoyment, and I’m sure the endearment of this book. As my daughter said about Sydney ‘she is just so cutie, and pretty, and I love her.’ Sydney will capture the hearts of many. Activity
In order to do this activity, please go to the Immedium Site where they have free colouring pages which can accompany each of their books. That is where I got this colouring page of Sydney the Sheep. I printed it out at home and enlarged it on my printer in order to make my Alphabet Activity. Please, go to their site and get the free printables there. I do not have them here.
Print free colouring page out at home
All you will need for supplies are glue, cotton balls and crayons. I first wrote the letters of the alphabet on Sydney where I wanted my daughter to glue the cotton balls to make Sydney fluffy like a sheep.
Supplies
Then I would say a letter and she would have to find it and glue her cotton ball down on it.
After she was done finding all the letters, she filled in any gaps with extra pieces of cotton balls. Then she coloured the legs, arms, ears, and face of Sydney.
I think the end result is super cute and we had an afternoon activity that was easy to set up, worked on letter recognition, and it was easy clean up. This could also be adapted to use with sight words or numbers as well. I hope you enjoyed my post for Multicultural Children’s Book Day. If you are interested in this book, you can find purchasing information on the Immedium Site. Please continue to read on for more information about Multicultural Children’s Book Day There are many other books and activities to see so make sure to visit the website and/or co-hosts sites.
Mission: 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, Mia and Valarie are on a mission to change all of that. Their mission is to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these types of books into classrooms and libraries. Another goal of this exciting event is create a compilation of books and favorite reads that will provide not only a new reading list for the winter, but also a way to expose brilliant books to families, teachers, and libraries.
“MCCBD team hopes to spread the word and raise awareness about the importance of diversity in children’s literature. Our young readers need to see themselves within the pages of a book and experience other cultures, languages, traditions and religions within the pages of a book. We encourage readers, parents, teachers, caregivers and librarians to follow along the fun book reviews, author visits, event details, a multicultural children’s book linky and via our hashtag (#ReadYourWorld) on Twitter and other social media.”
Multicultural Children’s Book Day and our official hashtag is #ReadYourWorld.
The Co-Founders
Valarie Budayr:
On any given day, you may hear as many as six different languages spoken in my home.
I am Valarie Budayr, a children’s book author & publisher, reading & play advocate and reading activist who is committed to diversity in children’s books.My life and household has been diverse and multicultural for as long as I can remember. As the daughter of parents who emigrated from Sweden, I have been immersed in Nordic culture since childhood. As a child I attended German/English schools and as an adult I continued learning even more languages for a grand total of six (English, Swedish, French, Arabic, German, Japanese, plus working knowledge in a few others.)
I am also a wife to a Lebanese/Muslim man and am raising Lebanese-American children post 9/11. I may look like an All-American girl, but my multicultural roots run deep and I have been committed to raising my children as global citizens since the day they were born. As a family we speak Arabic, French, and English in our home and travel often to give our children exposure to people and various cultures on the globe.
Literacy has played a huge roll in my family. We are a family of avid book readers, however it has been very difficult to find books that have characters who are like my children, global citizens with a diverse and varied background.
Because my children are 1/4 Japanese-American, 1/4 Chinese-American and 1/2 Korean American, I personally sought out books for my kids where they could see themselves; something that I didn’t have growing up despite being a bookworm who read every single biography and fiction chapter book in my Southern California elementary school library.
I’m Mia Wenjen and I blog at PragmaticMom. I love children’s books. Blogging on KidLit for the past five years made me realize that there simply isn’t enough representation of kids of color in children’s literature. And, of the books that do exist, they don’t get the exposure they need and deserve.
I made it my mission two years ago to dedicate my blogging efforts to promote children’s authors of color, and, in proclaiming my personal goal, found may other people who agree. Valarie Budayr from Jump Into a Book was one of those people. She proposed creating a day to celebrate multicultural books for kids one day over Skype and thus Multicultural Children’s Book Day was born.
With each year, Valarie and I want to find ways to get multicultural books into the hands of underserved kids who most need them. We are delighted that you are here to help us celebrate! Thank you!
Our CoHosts:We have NINE amazing Co-Host. You can view them here.
Check out the Book Giveaway by Wisdom Tales Press:
Platinum Sponsor Wisdom Tales Press is hosting a book giveaway on their website that anyone can enter. Winner will receive 6 Wisdom Tales Books of their choice. Here’s a tweet: Book #giveaway at Wisdom Tales Press! Winner will receive 6 Wisdom Tales Books of their choice. #ReadYourWorld http://ow.ly/Hr0MC
First Book
We’re also partnering with First Book to offer a Virtual Book Drive that will help donate multicultural children’s books through their channels during the week of the event. We want to help get diversity books into the hands of kids who most need it and now we have a way to do it! The Virtual Book Drive is LIVE and can be found HERE.
Children’s Book Council:
MCCBD is collaborating with Children’s Book Council to highlight wonderful diversity books and authors on an ongoing basis all year.
Join the Twitter Party:
We are hosting a Twitter party! Join us for Multicultural Children’s Book Day Twitter Party on Jan 27th 9:00pm EST. Use hashtag: #ReadYourWorld to win 10 book packages. Use this info to share with your readers and to tweet it out!
Subscribe to MCCBD Paper.li: MCCBD now has it’s own Paper.li! A Paper.li is a free online newspaper that aggregates information on the topic of multicultural books for kids from all over the Internet. Please feel free subscribe and stay up-to-date with this topic.
