Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Green Kids Club: The Elephant and the King


To participate in Multicultural Children's Book Day, our family recently received The Elephant and the King from Green Kids Club, written by Sylvia M. Medina and illustrated by Joy Eagle. The dynamic duo have written and illustrated many books for Green Kids Club. We have never read any books by Green Kids Club before, but we are glad we discovered them. The Elephant and the King features young Green Kid members Maya, Victor, and Maatia. Green Kid members possess the ability to talk with animals because they drank water from a magic spring. The story follows Maya and Victor who are visiting Botswana, Africa and the local Maatia shows the two around. Maya wanted to see elephants during her visit, but Maatia warned her that it might not be possible to see them due to the poachers. The three encounter a baby elephant searching for her mother who has been captured by poachers. Maatia drinks the magic spring water and becomes a Green Kid just like Maya and Victor. The three members, along with the help of other animals, help save the mother elephant from poachers.

I wasn't sure about the book at first. I usually pre-screen books before I read them to my children. I have a highly sensitive child so I wasn't sure if the book would upset her if she found out people kill elephants for their tusks. We read it, and both my children loved the book. They asked if there were other Green Kids Club books, and I told them there were so it looks like we will be buying some. The book was written in a very gentle way about the illegal poaching of elephants. My children learned some interesting things about elephants, and they were particularly amused by the fact that elephants help fertilize plants by excreting seeds that they have eaten in fertilized dung piles. After reading the book, my youngest grabbed the book and drew a picture of an elephant and labeled the parts of the elephant she knew. I love a book when it teaches my children something new.

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (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. 

Current Sponsors:  MCBD 2018 is honored to have some amazing Sponsors on board.

2018 MCBD Medallion Sponsors
BRONZE: Barefoot BooksCarole P. RomanCharlesbridge PublishingDr. Crystal BoweGokul! WorldGreen Kids ClubGwen JacksonJacqueline WoodsonJuan J. GuerraLanguage LizardLee & Low BooksRhymeTime StorybooksSanya Whittaker GraggTimTimTom BooksWaterBrook & MultnomahWisdom Tales Press

2018 Author Sponsors
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/

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