Sunday, January 25, 2015

Multicultural Children's Book Day: Review of "The Rainbow Files: The Day I Was The Only Kid in School"


 I received a free copy of this book for MCCBD 2015. I was not paid for this review. All opinions and thoughts are my own.




                                    Multicultural Children's Book Day
                                               January 27, 2015


I am very excited to be participating in my first Multicultural Children's Book Day. I think reading to children is very important, even when they are old enough to read themselves. It is equally important to discuss these books with your children after you read them.

The book I was chosen to read and review for this special day is, The Rainbow Files: The Day I Was The Only Kid in School. After reading this book you will realize that it facilitates great discussion. 

Included in this post is a great activity to do with your children and some important information about Multicultural Children's Book Day.






Review: The Rainbow Files: The Day I Was The Only Kid in School by Maria Kelly with April E. Kelly
  I am sure as a child you imagined a day when you would go to school and actually get to take over the classroom and teach whatever you wanted. This book is about that type of day. 

One night Shai Keshet awoke to a strange storm.  She was able to go back to sleep; but, the next day, when she arrives at school, she in the only student. It is decided by the principal that she, Shai Keshet, will get to be the teacher for the day. She can teach whatever she wants--and the teachers will be the students!

She chose some very interesting classes, which led to a day of fun and adventure. My children laughed out loud numerous times at the class choices and they loved the illustrations.
 


Activity
  Since we homeschool our children, they are almost always the only students in class. But even though this concept wasn't unusual to them, the amount of discussion that we had from this book still made a great homeschool class.

I asked my boys if they had a whole class all to themselves, what they would choose to teach. My older son said, "I wish I could do that because the whole day we would just have recess and gym." My younger son said, "I would teach a class on light-saber fighting."

This book can reach the reader on an even deeper level. I asked my kids several discussion questions related to this book.  

  • How would it feel to be the only person going through something?
  • What are some issues that you might face that would make you feel alone?
  • How would you handle those situations?
  • How could you take control of the situation? 
  • How would you treat someone who felt he or she was going through a situation all alone?
  • How could you help that person? 
I recommend this book, whether your child is in public school, private school, homeschool, or not yet in school. It engages children by being funny and interesting and encourages them with some very creative discussion.


So you may be asking, "Why are we having Multicultural Book Day?"

                The mission of Multicultural Children's Book Day:


Our mission is to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these of books into classrooms and libraries.”  (Founders: Valarie Budayr from Jump Into a Book and Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom


Did you know?  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.

So now you may be asking, "How can I help?"
 
Here are some ways you can help us celebrate Multicultural Children’s Book Day:





2015 MCCBD CO-HOSTS


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
A Special Thank You to the Children’s Book Council for their contribution and support.MCCBD is collaborating with Children’s Book Council to highlight wonderful diversity books and authors on an ongoing basis all year.


I plan to donate the book I reviewed to Hempstead County Library.


If you would like more information, or have questions regarding Multicultural Children’s Book Day, please contact Valarie Budayr at Valarie@AudreyPress.com or Mia Wenjen at pragmaticmomblog@gmail.com










4 comments:

  1. Great review! Love the creative discussion questions. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great to hear that you were able to have such a good discussion with your kiddos. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and for your support of Multicultural Children's Book Day!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love how you are teaching your kids how to be compassionate! Thanks so much for joining us for Multicultural Children's Book Day!

    ReplyDelete
  4. The article you have shared here very awesome. I really like and appreciated your work. I read deeply your article, the points you have mentioned in this article are useful.
    juegos friv al | friv 400 game | friv 2 gamers

    ReplyDelete