Read Your World - Multicultural Children's Book Day

Today's  Book Bag book is part of Multicultural Children's Book Day. There are some great reviews of some brilliant books coming up and a whole host of amazing books to win!

The book we got assigned is called Obstacles by Gregory E Ransom Published by Lulu Publishing Services.

Now I have to be totally honest here, we haven't quite finished it yet, it's a chapter book and we decided to read out loud, together. So,  it's taking a bit longer than usual to get through it. That and the fact that now Ebi-kun is in the 5th grade we get very little downtime together.

Obstacles is a giant but he has a problem, he is little, which if you are supposed to be a giant, it's huge problem. Needless to say the other giants don't think he's up to much. He gets bullied by the local giant kids and ends up getting sent to a school up in the mountains but to get there is has to go through places like the Forests Of Future Regret and The Lake Of Lost Souls.

As soon as we started reading and discovered that Obstacles was being bullied I noticed Ebi-kun getting drawn in and giving advice on how Obstacles could handle the situation, for new readers here, we went through our own bullying incident when he started school so it is very much something he relates to. Plus he is mixed race, somewhat a minority in this neck of the woods, he understood what Obstacles was going through.

Obstacles character shines, the courageous talk and the self doubt, the stubbornness that won't let him quit, his empathy and love and his quiet determination to get through the problem no matter what makes him a lovable and relatable character even if he is a giant.

I think this would make a great book to read in class as well as one to read at home, it brings up some great topics for discussion and makes it easier to broach subjects that kids might not want to talk about.

We are looking forward to seeing where the tale takes us, both of us are enjoying the book and Ebi-kun asks each day to read it.

Activity

As bullying is one of the topics of the book and it is something that is close to my heart. I would love for you to show your kids this short video. I demonstarted this to my sons headmaster and was so happy that he showed the whole school in assembly, it was something that he hadn't come across before and there are almost 1400 kids at Ebi-kuns elementary school so that is a lot of kids to be touching by this simple gesture.

So take 10 minutes, show this to your kids and then talk about it.

Ready to join the fun? 

Use the #readyourworld to share your multicultural children's book day finds and to find what others are sharing!

More About Multicultural Children's Book Day

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (1/27/17) is its fourth year and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom. Our mission is to raise awareness on the ongoing need to include kid’s 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.  

Despite census data that shows 37% of the US population consists of people of colour, only 10% of children’s books published have diversity content. Using the Multicultural Children’s Book Day holiday, the MCBD Team are on a mission to change all of that.

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 work tirelessly to spread the word of this event. View our CoHosts HERE.

MCBD Links to remember:

MCBD site: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/

Free Multicultural Books for Teachers: http://bit.ly/1kGZrta

Free Kindness Classroom Kit for Homeschoolers, Organizations, Librarians and Educators:
http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/teachers-classroom-kindness-kit/

Free Diversity Book Lists and Activities for Teachers and Parents: http://bit.ly/1sZ5s8i

And info on the Twitter party and giveaways are HERE

Current Sponsors:  MCBD 2017 is honoured to have some amazing Sponsors on board. Platinum Sponsors include Scholastic, Barefoot Books and Broccoli. Other Medallion Level Sponsors include heavy-hitters like Author Carole P. Roman, Audrey Press, Candlewick Press,  Fathers Incorporated, KidLitTV, Capstone Young Readers, ChildsPlayUsa, Author Gayle Swift, Wisdom Tales Press, Lee& Low Books, The Pack-n-Go Girls, Live Oak Media, Author Charlotte Riggle, Chronicle Books and Pomelo Books

Author Sponsor include: Karen Leggett Abouraya, Veronica Appleton, Susan Bernardo, Kathleen Burkinshaw, Delores Connors, Maria Dismondy, D.G. Driver, Geoff Griffin,  Savannah Hendricks, Stephen Hodges, Carmen Bernier-Grand,Vahid Imani, Gwen Jackson,  Hena, Kahn, David Kelly, Mariana Llanos, Natasha Moulton-Levy, Teddy O'Malley, Stacy McAnulty,  Cerece Murphy, Miranda Paul, Annette Pimentel, Greg Ransom, Sandra Richards, Elsa Takaoka, Graciela Tiscareño-Sato,  Sarah Stevenson, Monica Mathis-Stowe SmartChoiceNation, Andrea Y. Wang

In The Book Bag - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

My best mate Di bought the box set of Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children for me for Christmas and I demolished the first book in just over 2 days, taking time off from work really frees up reading time!

I didn't know much about the book before I got it, just that it revolved around some old photographs, the whole concept is amazing and I love the intrigue of it all.

The book, written by Ransom Riggs is about a boy, his relationship with his grandfather, time travel and some peculiar children. I have to admit I didn't know about the time travel element before I started reading and it might have put me off, not my usual cup of tea but as it turned out it was fascinating.

I found myself not wanting to cook dinner because I needed to know what happened next.

My box set came with a set of photos, apparently these are all real photos that the author found from collectors and from the pictures he wove the tale.

The book is fascinating, a little bit weird and little bit romantic and very addictive. The first couple of chapters I thought it was going to be psychologically deep and scary, not suitable for kids but as I read on it didn't go as I expected. I would have LOVED this book as a kid, maybe age 10 and up and I'm sure Ebi-kun will enjoy it too.

The film is out here but not anywhere near us so I doubt I'll get to see it on the big screen, which is a shame, I would have liked to have seen it. Hopefully Ebi-kun will have read it by the time it comes out on the small screen!

Do I recommend this? Absolutely!

I'll do an update when I get round to reading the other two books in the set, I haven't started them yet because I have a sneaky suspicion that I won't be able to put them down!

Thank And Grow Rich by Pam Grout - In The Book Bag

Last weekend was a three day holiday here so we went down to visit the in-laws. The downside was that a typhoon was heading in so we had nothing but rain! The upside was I had lots of time to sit and read, an unknown luxury these days!

I saw that Pam Grout had released a new book, I loved her book E-squared so I eagerly downloaded the kindle version of Thank and Grow Rich (yes, the title is a play on words!)

Her work is all about connecting with the universe and manifesting what you want but she does it with a serious of games. in E-squared, Ebi-kun and I worked through the experiments together, it was a lot of fun and I keep thinking we should crack open the book and try it again.

This book is centrered more on the idea of gratitude, something that pretty much all the great manifestors say is important and this time there are 30 days of experiments or party games as she likes to call them.

Thank and Grow Rich

The other thing I like about her books is that she adds lots of fun stories and anecdotes,  some of her own tales and some of her readers, she manages to find just the right story to get her point across.

I just managed to finish the book, made notes of the different games and we will be playing along this month to see what happens! The one thing I love about the kindle is that I can mark various pages and highlight important bits - something I'd never do in a paper book!

If you have read the book, I'd love to know what you think, either leave a comment or hit me up the the Moms That Rock group. It would be fun to be doing the party games along with others at the same time!

If you are looking for a bit of fun woo-woo then this book is ideal, I do recommend reading E-squared first and then moving onto this, purely because she refers back to E-squared quite a bit and it would be useful to know what she is talking about.

In The Book Bag - Business For Punks

As soon as I saw this book, I knew I had to read it! Written by one of the co-founders of BrewDog Brewery, he talks about how being a punk helped him create a successful business.

Business For Punks

Brewdog turns over GBP50 million a year and sells in 55 countries, not bad for a pair of Scottish punks doing things their way! The book has a few 'rants' about their entrepreneurial journey, times when they came up against the establishment for not towing the line and doing everything the way you are "supposed" to do it.

He also talks about the tough times and how quitting was never an option, no matter how dire the situation got.

Many (non) punks think that punk is to do with the music and the hair, the fashion and anarchy but I don't think that is it at all. Punk is something you are at birth, it is the attitude and drive, the way you look at the world. The stubbornness not to be pigeon-holed and the feeling in your gut when you know you are right and screw what everyone else thinks!

Punks often look at the world differently which is why being an entrepreneur suits us, we don't have to do it anyway but our own way, we are not afraid to try something new, that with the added f* you attitude can make for a powerful combination!

Back to the book, for me, it was as if a good mate was sat chatting to me in the pub over a few beers. Someone who really got me, knew how I ticked and shared my frustrations.

As a business book, if you are starting your own business, it's not going to give you the structure, the biz plans, and all that jazz, it will give you the confidence that you don't have to do everything by the book and that you can still make a success of it.

If you are a fellow punk with an urge to work for yourself, you will probably find it a good read. If you are into reading business books that are all about doing things the right way, then read it anyway, it might give you a different angle to look at things by!

Available on Amazon and all good book stores! (aff link)

If you have read it, let me know what you thought!

Sherlock Holmes is in the Book Bag

As you know, Ebi-kun is an avid reader and ever since he started stringing words together, he will pick up anything and attempt to read it! I have a number of books left over from my teaching days, they have been sat on the shelf and recently Ebi-kun has been dipping in!

He was totally hooked on this Sherlock book, with three short stories, his nose was stuck in and didn't come out again until he was done!

This is the version he was reading, it's an OUP bookworm 2 book (cassette tape available lol!) but I have just found the whole collection of short stories for free on kindle, you can get it HERE.

Ebi-kun can tell you himself how he felt about it...

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In The Book Bag - Let's Pretend This Never Happened

I made a pact with myself to start reading more. It's not that I don't read but I rarely sit down and read just for pleasure these days, good meaty books that you can get lost in. And that makes me sad because I have lost many an hour buried in a good book!

I picked out Let's Pretend It Never Happened on a whim, it sounded light and fun, just what the doctor ordered.

OMG - this book is hysterical. I went through an emotional roller coaster reading it, from Nooooo that can't happen to what the heck and almost wetting my knickers.

I haven't enjoyed a book as much as this in a long time. maybe because I could relate to the misfit incidents or maybe because it was written in a way that just hits my funny button. There are some serious under-lying issues in the humour, if you take it just as antidotal humour and don't go all PC brigade, you'll be fine with it.

To be honest I'm still not sure how much of this is true and how much is embellished but as entertainment goes it doesn't really matter, the book takes us through the life to date of the writer. from growing up with a taxidermist and slightly mad father to giving birth to her daughter and everything in between. 

DON'T even look at the cover of this book, let alone buy it if you are offended by cursing or just easily offended! 

I also don't recommend reading the book whilst eating or drinking (chance of snorting whatever you are consuming then spitting it everywhere are very high) or in public unless you don't mind people looking like you as if you are a crazed lunatic!

If that hasn't put you off you are probably hardcore enough to read it! And if you do, or you already have, let me know what you think in the comments.

Get your copy of Let's Pretend This Never Happened here (aff link)

I'm also on the look out for similar, LOL type books, if you have any recommendations, I'm all ears.

In The Book Bag...

Ebi-kun has a new fad, thanks to his sensei. The books are called Deltora Quest by Emily Rodda, he has been reading them in Japanese but wants to read them in English too so he can compare the translation!

They are exciting fantasy books, I think 8 in the first series. He is ploughing through them, a book a day! Thankfully we joined the library a couple of weeks ago otherwise I might have to get a second job to keep the boy in books!

I know it seems odd that we have only just joined the local library but the reason is two-fold. Firstly, it's miles away! Secondly, it's all Japanese books and I have always encouraged him to read more English at home. They have a reading card for school where the kids are supposed to keep track of how many book they have read and how many pages. Ebi-kun has finally started using it! He was already 5 books down, 5 days into the month, all with 205 pages each.

We did discover that that there is a drop off point at school so he can just post the books there when he is done with them and the library truck comes round to school once a week so he can now borrow books from there too - he is like a kid in a candy store when it comes to books.

We have just finished Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire, it's fun reading them again, it is so long since I first read the series that I don't remember what half the story is about anyway! Ebi-kun wants to watch the film before we start on the next book, I think we might take a HP break over the summer and start again after we come back from the UK.

Now we are reading Beowolf by Micheal Morpurgo, illustrated by Michael Foreman and the illustrations are beautiful, fit perfectly with the text. Beowolf was one of my favourite books as a kid so I'm hoping Ebi-kun will fall in love with it too, might have to get him the old English version to read, then he can compare those two texts too!

Another book that is popular with him at the moment is Girls Who Rocked The World, this is a great book to dip in and out of since the stories are short. I also love the questions that they bring up, in fact when we were at the Magritte exhibition Ebi-kun asked why most of the famous artists were men. I'm happy that it's on his radar and he is noticing these things.

As for me, I have picked up E3 by Pam Grout. We had fun doing the experiments in E2 so I want to have a go with her next book. It's about abundance, manifesting money and woo-woo stuff, quite interesting when you start doing the experiments!

What's in your book bag at the moment? How about the kids?