Today I am thrilled to be showcasing and reviewing Where Will I Live as part of the 5th annual Multicultural Children's Book Day (MCBD2018) whose mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in home and school bookshelves. A big thank you to Second Story Press for sending me this book.
Title: Where Will I Live? by Rosemary McCarney
Published: April 4, 2017
Published by Second Story Press
Hardcover nonfiction picture book: 24 pages
For children ages 5 - 9
Content rating: G
Book Description:
Where do you go if your home is no longer safe?
Every child needs a home. They need somewhere safe where they can be happy, eat their meals with their family, play with their toys, and go to sleep at night feeling unafraid.
But many children all over the world have had to leave their homes because they are no longer safe. Because of war and conflict, they and their families have become refugees. For them life is hard and full of questions. In spite of everything, they find time to laugh, play, and make friends. And most importantly, they have hope that somewhere, someone will welcome them to a new home.
Written by Rosemary McCarney, Canada's Ambassador to the United Nations, Where Will I Live?will help children whose lives are not directly affected by this crisis think about the importance of home, and what life is like for a child refugee who does not have a permanent, safe home to shelter them and their family. The beautiful photographs in this book were taken by the UNHCR—the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees—and include images of children on the move and in refugee camps in countries such as Lebanon, Rwanda, Iraq, Niger, Hungary, Jordan, South Sudan, and Greece.
Buy the Book:
My Review:
Reviewed by Laura Fabiani
With a stunning book cover and a title that invites the reader to open its pages, it's hard to resist Rosemary McCarney's latest book that brings the topic of refugee children into the classroom or home library.
Each page in this book contains a full-page photograph provided by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) that depicts a moment in a refugee child's life, whether it be running to safety in the middle of the night, travelling on the back cart of a truck, crossing arid land with other families loaded with their belongings as they move to another place, or on a boat filled with families in search of a safe place to live.
Some of these photos are heartbreaking, as we see the fear and uncertainty in the child's face as they are displaced, while others are hopeful as we witness children at play no matter where they find themselves. Each photograph is labelled with the country where the photo was taken.
The photographs themselves tell a story and parents will have much to discuss when reading it with their children. There is little text, however, one sentence or a few words per page, which may leave too much unsaid, and this may be scary to a child who is learning about refugee children for the first time. I believe this can be a good resource for teaching, if the parent is prepared to fill in the gaps when children undoubtedly will ask many questions.
This is a much needed book as we struggle to find positive ways to introduce our children to world events and social issues.
Note: On the back cover it states that proceeds from this book will be donated to refugee children's programs around the world.
Disclosure: Thanks to Second story Press for sending me this book for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.
About the Author:
Rosemary McCarney is Canada's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations and the Conference on Disarmament and past President and CEO of Plan International Canada. She is the author of the internationally bestselling Every Day is Malala Day, Because I Am a Girl: I Can Change the World, and The Way to School.
About Multicultural Children's Book Day:
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:
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:
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.
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.
This is a really important book to teach our children about refugees and empathy! Thank you for your wonderful and sensitive review!
ReplyDeleteThank you also for sharing via the Multicultural Children's Book Day linky and for being a reviewer!
I hope you can join us tonight at our Twitter Party from 9-10pm EST. We will be giving away hundreds of diverse children's books in the form of 13 book bundles. One will be given away every six minutes.
The questions with the book prizes are posted here: https://www.pragmaticmom.com/2018/01/readyourworld-twitter-party-11-book-bundle-giveaway/
Thank you so much Mia! It was an honor to be a part of MCBD!
DeleteIt is heartbreaking to think of children with no homes. Thank you for sharing this book with us.
ReplyDeletehttps://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/2018/01/multicultural-childrens-book-day.html
I totally agree. I wish such things did not happen.
DeleteThis is the second blog I visit this morning mentioning Multicultural Children's Book Day, what a great way to raise awareness. Where Will I Live? sounds heartbreaking and informative and like a great teaching resource.
ReplyDeleteI discovered MCBD two years ago. I stresses how important kidlit is and how we can introduce our children to diverse books.
DeleteThis sounds like a great event. The images for the book are stunning.
ReplyDeleteNot only are they stunning but they reveal so much about the refugee crisis without any words.
DeleteThis book hits too close to home. I teach English to some refugee students and families. Things that people at school think are the end of the world (aka running in the halls) are minor compared to what these children have seen and experienced. I know I need to have a copy of this book. I'm sad I missed the Twitter party but will be on the lookout for future multicultural discussions!
ReplyDeleteYou would definitely appreciate this book. We need to show compassion for these children who have undergone traumatic moments. Thanks for stopping by!
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