Today I’m posting a special book review of a soon-to-be-released chapter book as part of the Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2018 celebration. 
Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2018 (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. Learn more about our sponsors, twitter party, and free items below. And please follow us on twitter, @MCChildsBookDay, and help us spread the word to #ReadYourWorld.
Title: Katie Woo: We Love You!
Written By: Fran Manushkin
Illustrated By: Tammie Lyon
Publisher/date: Picture Window Books, a Capstone imprint/2018
Suitable for Ages: 5-7
Themes/Topics: friendship; team work; #ReadYourWorld
Opening:
Katie was talking to JoJo. She said, “Wouldn’t it be fun to be in a club?”
“For sure!” said JoJo. “It would be the best!”
Brief Synopsis:
Katie Woo, a young Japanese-American girl, starts a club, hosts a sleep-over, learns about volcanoes, and attends a father-daughter dance with her friends and family.
Links to Resources:
- Make peanut butter and jelly sushi using the recipe found in the book;
- Katie has a lucky kimono. View and color a kimono;
- Learn about and make a volcano, like Katie and her friends do;
- Katie and her father attend a daddy-daughter dance. Explore some kids’ dances and activities.
Why I Like this Book:
In four short, brightly-illustrated stories that are the perfect length for beginning readers, Katie Woo and her friends start a club, enjoy a spooky sleep-over, work together as a team to build a volcano, and attend a father-daughter dance. Katie Woo: We Love You! is the 10th book in this popular chapter-book series.
In “The Best Club,” Sophie, one of Katie’s classmates, starts a club that will be the “best”. But when no one measures up to Sophie’s definition of “best,” Katie and her friends rebuke Sophie for her mean attitude and exclusionary actions and form their own club, that they then allow Sophie to join. By showing readers how to confront and overcome discriminatory attitudes and actions, I think this story will help readers overcome these attitudes in their own classrooms. I also think this is a great discussion starter about what it means to be the “best” at something, thereby helping bolster kids’ self-esteem.
In “Katie’s Spooky Sleepover” a new friend, Janie, is scared by a spooky story and borrows Katie’s favorite lucky kimono to calm herself. I like that an object from Katie’s heritage is appreciated by her friend. This could also give rise to a discussion about different objects or cultural traditions that people use as comforts or as lucky omens.
Team building and a science lesson are the themes of “Katie Blows her Top,” as Katie learns to control her anger and her friends learn to take turns as they build a volcano together.
Finally, in “Daddy Can’t Dance,” Katie tries to teach her clumsy father to dance and shares a trick to keep her toes safe while they dance. Although I was surprised that it was a Daddy-Daughter dance instead of a parent-child dance, one of Katie’s friends attended with an uncle and another with a grandfather, thereby including kids who may not have a father at home.
A Note about Craft:
The Katie Woo books feature culturally-diverse characters that encounter situations and overcome problems that could affect any child. The characters seem oblivious to skin color and ethnicity. And by featuring a number of different cultures, Asian, Muslim, African-American, and Latino, Manushkin is able to focus on the similarities that unite us in everyday experiences, thereby offering a mirror for children from many backgrounds.
Find out more about Fran Manushkin and her other chapter and picture books.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, Capstone Publishing’s mission is to help “children develop a love of reading and learning, no matter their ability level”. In addition to the Katie Woo chapter book series and many other titles, Capstone published the award-winning A Different Pond, that I reviewed in December. Capstone provided an advance copy of Katie Woo! We Love You! in exchange for a fair and honest review.
And, as promised above, see the list of MCBD 2018 sponsors and learn more about this amazing celebration of Multicultural Children’s Books!
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.
This entry is being linked to the Multicultural Children’s Book Day list. Check out the other great #ReadYourWorld books and blogs featured there!
Wander, Ponder, Write 