1/24/18- Multicultural Children's Book Day

So, one of the cool things about being a part of the Kid Lit (Children's Literature) community is that occasionally I get free books.  Sometimes I win the books, sometimes I swap books with fellow authors, and then sometimes I get books to review as part of raising awareness for an awesome cause.  One such awesome cause is Multicultural Children's Book Day, which will be January 27 this year. 

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2018 (1/27/18) is in its 5^th year and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom. Their 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.  

As a female engineer, supporting diversity in my profession is close to my heart and supporting diversity in children's book is an extension of that.  It's why I'm excited to be participating in MCBD and to have received books from Real MVP Kids that feature children from all kinds of cultural backgrounds.  The books in the Real MVP Kids catalog are the perfect books for reading on MCBD with your children.

About the books:

I received 5 books from Real MVP Kids to review for MCBD: Celebrate! Our Difference, Celebrate! The Way I'm Made, Celebrate! Bedtime, Celebrate! Mommies and Daddies, and Celebrate! Grandmas and Grandpas.  

Celebrate! Our Differences guides children in becoming friends with others who are different than themselves, realizing that “we’re more alike than different” while celebrating those things which make an individual unique.  Celebrate! The Way I’m Made helps children appreciate their own unique qualities, from physical traits to skills and strengths, affirming that they are good.  

Celebrate! Bedtime walks through a comforting bedtime routine while teaching gratefulness, obedience and calming strategies and features each of the MVP Kids families saying “goodnight” in their heritage language.  Celebrate! Mommies and Daddies strengthens parent-child bonds as children describe the ways their parent(s) love and care for them.  The MVP Kids families express “I love you” in their heritage languages.   In Celebrate! Grandmas and Grandpas, grandparents help children apply proverbs and cultural wise sayings to everyday situations, teaching young people to value elders and encouraging grandparents to strengthen their bonds with the younger generation.

Here's a link to MVP Kids and the books: https://realmvpkids.com/series/celebrate/

Review of books: 
All five books are great to read with toddlers (and babies and older kids too!).  Jack, my toddler, enjoyed reading them with me, but his favorite book (of the series) seemed to be Celebrate! The Way I’m Made.  He liked the rhyme of that book the best and enjoyed pointing out the different body parts when I'd read them (eyes! hair! hands!).  He also really liked the illustration of the kids and balloons on the cover, always asking for the balloons book.

Of course what I liked about the series was a little different from what my toddler preferred.  The themes in each book are familiar, like body positive in Celebrate! The Way I’m Made, and comforting, like the love of parents in  Celebrate! Mommies and Daddies, making the stories good to share with young children.  But what make these books stand out from other books that  have similar themes is the cast of children-- every illustration in the books has children of different colors, genders, ethnicity, and shapes and sizes.  A child should be able to self-identify with at least one character in the series, which is important to me as a female engineer and mother.   The illustrations are colorful and pleasant, invoking the celebration in each book.  There is also "Helpful Teaching Tips" at the end of each book that will help parents/guardians and educators in navigating difficult subjects, like low self-esteem (related to the body positive theme in Celebrate! The Way I’m Made).  

Using the Goodreads, Amazon, B+N, etc. 5 star review format, I give these books 4 out of 5 stars.  These books will not only be the perfect read for MCBD, but for any time you want to talk about diversity, love, positive body image, multicultural awareness, and so on.  Happy reading everyone! 

Now for some FREE stuff!

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.

And now a thank you to sponsors!

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.

1/12/18- Exercising When You Feel Like Shark

Yesterday I had a headache from about 4 am until 10 pm.  2 Advil and 2 Tylenol helped me power through work.  Bobby was able to pick up Jack from preschool, and they grabbed dinner. And while I laid, cuddling with Jack on the couch last night, I thought about how I should walk the dogs.  How I should get exercise.  And then I thought, why don't I allow myself just to rest tonight?  The answer is guilt.

I see my friends sharing on social media all the exercise they are getting, some of them with autoimmune diseases like me (props to them), and I feel guilty that all I want is rest.  I feel guilty when the doctor suggests that my health (and joints) will be better if I get a little exercise.  I feel guilty that Jack wants me to play and dance with him, but all I can do is watch him from the couch.  I feel guilty that dogs love taking their walks, but I tell them tomorrow.

#WhatSickLooksLike

But it's silly to feel guilty about exercise when you're sick.  If I had a cold or the flu, people would tell me to rest, and most likely I would. So if I have a headache, because of inflammation from the RA, then I should rest.  Rest is just as important as exercise when you have RA or other autoimmune diseases, so I should honor when my body is telling me to rest.

And the times I feel moderate to excellent, I will capitalize on that and exercise. The exercise might only be folding the laundry, dancing with Jack, or walking the dogs because  I'm not going to push myself and then inadvertently cause inflammation.  I want to find the right balance of exercise, so that I'm not resting all the time.  I do enjoy walking the dogs or playing with Jack.

The balance between exercise and rest is delicate when living with RA, and I don't want to feel guilty for those days when I need rest.  I want stop feeling guilty about what my body (and mind) needs.  If I need, or want, to rest, then I should rest.  I should not be worrying about exercising when I feel like shark (and I think neither should you).  Join me on the couch and say no to exercising when you feel like shark.

1/2/18- New Year's Resolutions

2017 was a pretty good year for me.  I released a book, traveled twice to Disneyland, wrote about awesome engineers for STEMedia, enjoyed my work some days, and spent blissful time with my friends and family.  Although the past 2 weeks have been a bit busy and emotionally draining (there were some good times and some not good times this Christmas), 2017 was a good year for me on a personal level. I know some bat shark stuff happened in the US this year, shark you Hurricanes Harvey and Maria, but for me, I enjoyed 2017.

I believe 2018 will also be a good year (for me), and I'm not setting New Year's resolutions.  That's right no resolutions.  I have some writing goals and some personal goals, but if they don't happen this year, I'll get them done in 2019.  I've seen too often my parent friends stress out and feel time poor with all that is on their and their child's plates.  I've talked with my chronically ill friends about how some days the only energy you have is to eat and watch TV.  So this year I've decided to not sweat about my goals. Because goals are nice to have but are not a need to have.  

What are these goals that are nice to have but not a need to have?  I'll tell you:

1) Write every week-- If for some reason I don't write for one of the weeks, no big deal, I can do it some other time. Since my income to pay for food, shelter, etc doesn't come from writing, I've got the flexibility of when I write.  It's nice to write, but it's not a need. Gasp!  I'm sure other writers are horrified at this idea, but I don't want writing to be a chore. I want to write because I want to do it.  Writing started to feel mandatory at the end of 2017, and I want writing to stay fun and continue to make me feel happy. 

2) Submit queries to agents and publishers-- If for some reason I don't query an agent for the whole year, there will be agents to query in 2019.  A list of agents to query seems to be a pretty steady fact in the writing business, and as much as I'd love an agent sooner rather than later, I know that it takes time.  And if part of the reason it takes time is because of me, then so be it.

3) Take a vacation-- I'm like 99.9999999999999999999% sure that will happen this year, but it might not be some fancy vacation at a nice resort on a tropical island.  It might just be in the next city over at a Holiday Inn Express/Best Western/Comfort Inn/etc.  I don't really care where it, as long as it is time off from work and somewhat relaxing.   

That's it.  Those are my goals.  They're pretty achievable.  I asked a friend if she had any New Year's Resolutions, and she had a pretty good answer: sleep more and eat more.  Those are also very achievable goals.  So that's what I'm going to encourage us all to do this year-- set the bar low because you'll feel great when you easily trip over your goals.  In seriousness, I want to encourage you to set goals or resolutions, or whatever you want to call them, that you know you actually achieve.  Goals that you won't sweat about. Even if it's just eating more. 

Happy New Year's and best wishes!