Our fingers followed her directions, awkwardly folding the dough over the filling inside.
We were living in China and our friend had invited us to a small New Year's celebration.
It was a holiday that my husband and I had read about, but our research didn't prepare us for celebrating with a family.
Creating large plates of fresh dumplings between bouts of laughter.
Little red money envelopes passed into eager small chubby hands.
Reflections on the past year and shared hopes for the year to come.
We understood the holiday better after celebrating it this way. We knew how people felt during it, and more about why it's important to them.
Which made it feel more important to us.
The Day of the Dead for Kids
We were able to preview a copy of "A Marvelous Mexican Misunderstanding" together, and it reminded me of that past Chinese celebration.
It's a story about The Day of the Dead/ El Dia De Los Muetros- a holiday we've read about before, but always through an adult perspective.
This story's written through a kid's eyes, celebrating with his family for the first time.
Adri had been dreading this festival ever since he moved back to Mexico. He's misunderstood one important thing (with help from his teasing sister.)
He thinks he's going to die.
And everything around him keeps mistakenly adding to this misunderstanding!
This touch of morbid delighted the kids (even our sensitive oldest) who weren't worried about the outcome at all. When he wrote his will, they giggled, "He's being so dramatic!"
And he is. Luckily, Adri's day has a dramatic outcome of a very different sort...
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His biggest fear turns into one of the best days of his life!
Reading A Marvelous Mexican Understanding together made us laugh. It also helped our kids understand the holiday better. They knew how Adri felt during it, and more about why it's important to his family.
Which made it feel more important to them.
Reading A Marvelous Mexican Understanding together made us laugh. It also helped our kids understand the holiday better. They knew how Adri felt during it, and more about why it's important to his family.
Which made it feel more important to them.
Your own copy of Marvelous Mexican Understanding is available here:
http://www.worldwidebuddies.com/marvelous-mexican-misunderstanding
OR it's a part of an amazing Mexican Story Box, with related toys & games here:
http://www.worldwidebuddies.com/story-box-mexico
>> 10% discount if you use code FRESHLYPLANTED at checkout <<
>> 10% discount if you use code FRESHLYPLANTED at checkout <<
Happy Reading!
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.
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.
