Commemorating its 10-year anniversary early next year, nonprofit literacy organization Multicultural Children's Book Day will be opening submissions to donate free children’s books starting September 1.
Founded in 2012, Multicultural Children’s Book Day is an organization dedicated to placing diverse books into the hands of children for free. Spurred by the struggle to find inclusive books for their own families, book blogger Mia Wenjen and Valarie Budayr of Audrey Press Books launched MCBD as a way to raise awareness on the lack of diversity in children’s literature and provide a solution by offering the books they’d like to see more of to schools and libraries.
“When I became a mother of three, I was happy to see Asian American characters in children’s books, but when I saw Lee and Low’s blog post that the number of diverse books published had not increased in 14 years, I decided to focus my blog, PragmaticMom.com, on highlighting the great kid lit that I found,” Wenjen told PW.
Multicultural Children’s Book Day has donated more than 10,800 books to parents, teachers, and librarians, and hopes to push this number to one million within the next four years.
“We are laser-focused on providing diverse books to people who need them,” Wenjen said. “This is especially crucial in light of book banning where kids and teens no longer have easy access to the books that they need.”
The 10th Multicultural Children’s Book Day will take place on January 26, 2023. Gearing up for the milestone, Wenjen and Budayr have enlisted the support of other nonprofits such as Read Across America, Tennessee Association of School Librarians, the Children's Book Council, Reading Partners, Horizons National, and other organizations to help spread awareness.
Audiences can participate by signing up to review diverse children’s books, donating books, or becoming a sponsor. For more information about Multicultural Children’s Book Day, click here.
