Celebrate Multicultural Children’s Book Day With Sunbelievable by Jo Ann Kairys

GOOD READ WITH RONNA
IS A PROUD PARTICIPANT IN
MULTICULTURAL CHILDREN’S BOOK DAY 2016

FEATURING SUNBELIEVABLE FROM STORY QUEST BOOKS

Welcome to Multicultural Children’s Book Day!
We’re delighted you stopped by.  We’ve got a review of a terrific and unique picture book from our friends at Story Quest Books today. But before you get the scoop on Sunbelievable, please take a few minutes to learn more about MCCBD and help us celebrate and promote diversity in kidlit. Use the hashtag #ReadYourWorld and spread the word!

THE MISSION OF MULTICULTURAL CHILDREN’S BOOK DAY:
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.

PICTURE BOOK REVIEW

SUNBELIEVABLE
Connecting Children with Science and Nature 
Written by Jo Ann Kairys and Daniel Kairys, M.D.
Illustrated by Jo Ann Kairys and Frank Thompson
(Story Quest Books; $15.95, Ages 4-8)

This multiple award winning picture book will draw young readers in immediately with its magical mood, vibrant colors and creative artwork done by cleverly combining photography and collage. Readers will feel as though they’ve stepped inside the book alongside the two adorable main characters.

The charming story opens with sisters YaYa and Leen at the beach as dusk approaches after what was clearly a busy afternoon of building sandcastles and collecting shells. Later, back at home, when it’s bedtime, little Leen doesn’t want to go to sleep so big sister YaYa makes up a story to lull her sister off to dreamland. While bringing inventive ideas into her whimsical tale of the sun’s power and all the wild and zany things it can do, YaYa manages to enthrall and entertain Leen. Does the sun really teach at Firefly School? Can flowers talk to each other? Can the sun talk to birds? Can it scrub its rays clean? The interplay between the siblings is delightful and soon Leen is joining in with a story of her own. Both girls happily drift off to sleep full of sunbeams and the promise of a beautiful sunrise the next morning.

Using peppy dialogue that kids can relate to, the authors have created a fast-paced story with jump-off-the-page illustrations that not only complement the text, but definitely add another layer of appeal to Sunbelievable. I also love the playful handling of the topic of the sun’s various roles that provide inspiration for these two young girls’ imaginations. What better way to put your own child to bed at night than with a picture book that fills growing minds with new STEM ideas to dream about? I can just hear the conversation you’ll have with your child after reading this story! This is not only a sun power story, but a girl power one as well.

In the back matter, you’ll find helpful educational information about the sun courtesy of  NASA’s Chief Technologist, Robert D. Braun, Ph.D. Also included is a Firefly Lullaby poem. Its accompanying music can be listened to online at StoryQuestPublishing.com.

But why is this book included in Multicultural Children’s Book Day you may ask? Because, children of all races, ethnicities, and abilities should be represented in literature so that, as the MCCBD mission states, young readers can “see themselves within the pages of a book.” Sunbelievable is an excellent example!

RELATED ACTIVITY:
Making a fun sun print (aka a Cyanotype)
This easy activity requires the advance purchase of sun print paper available online or at a photo supply store. Another option is to use red or black construction paper. Once you have chosen the paper, head outdoors with your child and look for things found in nature like leaves, flowers or sticks and arrange them in a design. If you prefer, look around the house for a spoon, a coaster or a coin from your wallet. It’s recommended to use items with clear, defined borders as the goal is to have good contrast for the finished print. Place the item/s on the paper and leave out in the sun for at least five minutes. What is happening is the sun is fading the exposed part of the paper thus creating an image where the item/s were placed! After time sitting in strong sunlight, the paper can be rinsed under the faucet. Your child will soon see the image appear and in doing so learn about the power of the sun, or solar energy. 

MCCBD FOUNDERS:
The wonderful 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.

MORE ABOUT MULTICULTURAL CHILDREN’S BOOK DAY

•  MCCBD now has its 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 to subscribe and stay up-to-date with this topic.
  
• Our Diversity Book Lists and Resources for Educators and Parents are now available. Spread the word! http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/multicultural-reading-resources/diversity-book-lists-for-kids/
• Connect with us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MulticulturalChildrensBookDay
• Connect with us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MCChildsBookDay

Check out this Linky to see all MCCBD coverage!
Remember to always use the hashtag #ReadYourWorld

MCCBD SPONSORS
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

MCCBD CO-HOSTS: 
Multicultural Children’s Book Day has 12 amazing Co-Host and you can us the links below or view them here.

All Done Monkey * Crafty Moms Share * Educators Spin on it * Growing Book by Book * Imagination Soup * I’m Not the Nanny * InCultureParent * Kid World Citizen * Mama Smiles * Multicultural Kid Blogs * Spanish Playground

Classroom Reading Challenge: Help spread the word about our 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.

What we could really use some help with is spreading the word to your teacher/librarian/classroom connections so we can get them involved in this program. There is no cost to teachers and classrooms and we’ve made the whole process as simple as possible. You can help by tweeting the below info:

​Teachers! Earn a FREE #Multicultural Kids Book for Your Classroom! #teachers, #books #teacherlife
http://ow.ly/UUy96

The Classroom Reading Challenge has begun! Teachers can earn a free diversity book! #teachers, #books
http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/?p=1796​

Please click here to read my review from last year’s Multicultural Children’s Book Day. Enjoy!

​- Reviewed by Ronna Mandel