We’re starting our celebration of Multicultural Children’s Book Day #ReadYourWorld early. The official date is two weeks from today, but we just couldn’t wait to share The Quickest Kid in Clarksville with you. Read on for more about this book, a free printable we’ve created to go along with it, as well as more information about this event.
The Quickest Kid in Clarkesville ( USA affiliate link – UK click here) is about a young girl named Alta who is used to being the quickest kid in Clarkesville. However, when Charmaine moves into the neighbourhood and asserts herself as being fast, especially in her new shoes, there is soon a race to be won. Charmaine races in her new shoes while Alta races in her very worn shoes.
Alta wins the race, but this isn’t the end of the story. The two rivals work together to take a banner to hold at the side of the road when Wilma Rudolph, an African American sprinter and the fastest woman on earth comes to town. They learn about cooperation and finding the best way to get a job done.
I like this story about encouraging kids. You don’t need lots of money to do well. You don’t need the best shoes or gear. You don’t need to have an ‘attitude’ either. What you do need, however, is self-confidence and lots of practice. You never know what the future will bring, but do your best now and always. This is important to remember in sports, academics, and everything that you do.
My children enjoy watching the Olympics when they’re on TV, and we all cheer for various athletes. At Sochi there were two athletes from my own hometown (with 2-3 degrees of separation). Things like this are great inspiration. And we take the children to live events as often as we can. Our own funds are limited so it isn’t as often as I’d like, but hearing the cheers of support from the crowd is wonderful.
There is a fun printable set of create-your-won trading cards available to go along with The Quickest Kid in Clarkesville. Get your own personal copy here.
Everyone has aspirations, no matter their age. It is difficult to always know what you can do to achieve your goals so I’ve prepared a personal poster for children to use to state their dream, and they can think about and write down what they must do to help them achieve it. To download and print your own copy, click on the image below.
The MCCBD team’s mission is 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.
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
- Platinum: Wisdom Tales Press * StoryQuest Books*Lil Libros
- Gold: Author Tori Nighthawk*Candlewick Press,* Bharat Babies
- Silver: Lee and Low Books*Chronicle Books*Capstone Young Readers Tuttle Publishing ,NY Media Works, LLC/KidLit TV
- Bronze: Pomelo Books* Author Jacqueline Woodson*Papa Lemon Books* Goosebottom Books*Author Gleeson Rebello*ShoutMouse Press*Author Mahvash Shahegh* China Institute.org*Live Oak Media
Multicultural Children’s Book Day has 12 amazing Co-Hosts
- you can view them here.
Classroom Reading Challenge
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. Click here for more information.
Diversity Book Lists and Resources for Educators and Parents are now available
For more information about Multicultural Children’s Book Day, connect with them on Facebook and Twitter.
