Multicultural Picture Books from Deirdre Pecchioni Cummings - #ReadYourWorld

Disclosure: I was sent these books as part of Multicultural Children's Book Day in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Today I get the pleasure of sharing five of Deirdre Pecchioni Cumming's books for Multicultural Children's Book Day. Most of the books are illustrated by Erika Busse. The first book I am sharing is my and Hazel's favorite of the five. We actually have only received an ecopy since it isn't quite in print yet. It is Like Rain Water. This one is illustrated by Charlene Mosley.

This beautiful book is in tribute to Deirdre's late mother. It describes a memory of her mother in her happy place--in indoor garden, and how that memory helps Deirdre look at things in life and try not to react immediately in anger or frustration. What an amazing message!! This book is a must read for everyone--not just kids. It reminds us that we can change our reactions by taking time to consider our our own actions will affect us and others. When we react to something we find unfair or that angers us we often do or say things we will regret later. Instead we need to be like rain water and take the time to consider our options and reactions. I cannot wait to see this book in print. It is such an amazing story with such an important lesson.

The next book is Think of It Like This! This book portrays an important and similar lesson. This book shows three different bad situations, a little girl tears her favorite dress, a favorite store is closed, and a girl's behavior is bossy and selfish. Each situation causes the person to feel bad or have a bad time, but when each problem is reevaluated new solutions are found and the problems are turned around and often better than if the problem hadn't happened in the first place. It reminds kids to think about their reactions and what is really happening. Is it the end of the world? Did it ruin your day? Does it really have to? Are you part of the problem? Can you change things? I love how this book shows such different bad situations and how some refocusing can change it. The girl's mother mends her dress, another candy store is found and a friend is there, the girl thinks about how she is treating others and how the others are playing together without her and changes her own behavior. Simple solutions and messages that are so important for our kids to learn.

Our next book is Kayla: Modern Day Princess. Kayla is the daughter of hard working parents. She usually only sees her mother in the morning because her mother works late at night. One night she gets to stay up and see her mother to hear the news of her mother's promotion, but her mother has a more important message for Kayla. Her message is about how special and important Kayla is. The story continues with Kayla meeting a new friend and learning even more about relationships and her own importance. I found this book to be a bit broken up in the story and a bit harder to follow. Hazel feels the book didn't talk a whole lot about the princess part besides the mom giving Kayla a tiara. She wishes there was more about that.

Our next book is My Trip to the Beach. Do you know that feeling that you are alone? Especially when you've had a bad day? This book talks about that feeling and suggests ways to cope. It relates a walk on the beach to various exercises one can do to help promote mindfulness and deal with stress. With everything from the setting sun to the rising sun bringing a clean slate. This book is meant to help kids learn how to deal with problems. I enjoyed it. The messages are not as clear in this one and it takes several readings to really get the full understanding of the message and exercises. I do love how she brings God into the story as well.

Our final book for tonight is I Want to Be a Bennett Belle. This book seems a bit specialized to me. I will admit I don't know anything about Bennett College or the Bennett Belles. Without this knowledge this book was a bit of a loss. However it is a sweet story sharing an important part of Deirdre's life and her family's. The story itself is about a girl and her grandmother sharing the story of Bennett College and being a Bennett Belle. It discusses how this group's mission is to instill self-respect, confidence and more for each of its female students. It sounds like an amazing college and I wish I knew more about it when I went to school. However with my own family tradition and history I know I made the right choice for me as well for college. 

We really enjoyed Deirdre's books. They each have a message that is about love, confidence and self worth as well as self control and mindfulness. They are books that help teach kids to be stronger and better people. 

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2019 (1/25/19) is in its 6^th 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 homes and school bookshelves while also working diligently to get more of these types of books into the hands of young readers, parents, and educators.

MCBD 2019 is honored to have the following Medallion Sponsors on board

Medallion Level Sponsors Honorary: Children’s Book Council, The Junior Library Guild, TheConsciousKid.org. Super Platinum: Make A Way Media GOLD: Bharat Babies, Candlewick Press, Chickasaw Press, Juan Guerra and The Little Doctor / El doctorcito, KidLitTV, Lerner Publishing Group, Plum Street Press, SILVER: Capstone Publishing, Carole P. Roman, Author Charlotte Riggle, Huda Essa, The Pack-n-Go Girls, BRONZE: Charlesbridge Publishing, Judy Dodge Cummings, Author Gwen Jackson, Kitaab World, Language Lizard – Bilingual & Multicultural Resources in 50+ Languages, Lee & Low Books, Miranda Paul and Baptiste Paul, Redfin, Author Gayle H. Swift, T.A. Debonis-Monkey King’s Daughter, TimTimTom Books, Lin Thomas, Sleeping Bear Press/Dow Phumiruk, Vivian Kirkfield,

MCBD 2019 is honored to have the following Author Sponsors on board

Honorary: Julie Flett, Mehrdokht Amini, Author Janet Balletta, Author Kathleen Burkinshaw, Author Josh Funk, Chitra Soundar, One Globe Kids – Friendship Stories, Sociosights Press and Almost a Minyan, Karen Leggett, Author Eugenia Chu, CultureGroove Books, Phelicia Lang and Me On The Page, L.L. Walters, Author Sarah Stevenson, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, Hayley Barrett, Sonia Panigrah, Author Carolyn Wilhelm, Alva Sachs and Dancing Dreidels, Author Susan Bernardo, Milind Makwana and A Day in the Life of a Hindu Kid, Tara Williams, Veronica Appleton, Author Crystal Bowe, Dr. Claudia May, Author/Illustrator Aram Kim, Author Sandra L. Richards, Erin Dealey, Author Sanya Whittaker Gragg, Author Elsa Takaoka, Evelyn Sanchez-Toledo, Anita Badhwar, Author Sylvia Liu, Feyi Fay Adventures, Author Ann Morris, Author Jacqueline Jules, CeCe & Roxy Books, Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace, LEUYEN PHAM, Padma Venkatraman, Patricia Newman and Lightswitch Learning, Shoumi Sen, Valerie Williams-Sanchez and Valorena Publishing, Traci Sorell, Shereen Rahming, Blythe Stanfel, Christina Matula, Julie Rubini, Paula Chase, Erin Twamley, Afsaneh Moradian, Claudia Schwam, Lori DeMonia, Terri Birnbaum/ RealGirls Revolution, Soulful Sydney, Queen Girls Publications, LLC 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. Co-Hosts and Global Co-Hosts A Crafty Arab, Agatha Rodi Books, All Done Monkey, Barefoot Mommy, Biracial Bookworms, Books My Kids Read, Crafty Moms Share, Colours of Us, Discovering the World Through My Son’s Eyes, Descendant of Poseidon Reads, Educators Spin on it, Growing Book by Book, Here Wee Read, Joy Sun Bear/ Shearin Lee, Jump Into a Book, Imagination Soup, Jenny Ward’s Class, Kid World Citizen, Kristi’s Book Nook, The Logonauts, Mama Smiles, Miss Panda Chinese, Multicultural Kid Blogs, Raising Race Conscious Children, Shoumi Sen, Spanish Playground

TWITTER PARTY Sponsored by Make A Way Media!

MCBD’s super-popular (and crazy-fun) annual Twitter Party will be held 1/25/19 at 9:00pm.E.S.T. TONS of prizes and book bundles will be given away during the party. GO HERE for more details.

We will be giving away Book Bundles every 5 minutes!

Twitter Party Details:

When: Friday, January 25th

Time: 9 pm to 10 pm EST

Where: On Twitter! Follow McChildsBookDay to participate

Hashtag: #ReadYourWorld

Sponsored By: Make A Way Media

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