Book Review and Activity of Shanghai Sukkah

                                          
Shanghai Sukkah 

Written by Heidi Smith Hyde 

Illustrated by Jing Jing Tsong 

For Multicultural Children’s Book Day #ReadYourWorld 

Reviewed by Maritza Martinez Mejia – Author 
www.luzdelmes.com

Multicultural Children’s Book Day falls on January 27, 2016. The mission of MCCBD is to not only raise awareness for kids’ books that celebrate diversity, but to also get more of these of books into classrooms and libraries. MCCBD assigns a book for participating bloggers to review.

I reviewed Shanghai Sukkah. A young boy named Marcus had to move with his family from Berlin to Shanghai fleeing the Holocaust in Europe.While playing in his new place with other Jewish boys, he made a new friend named Liang.  Although they spoke different languages, they learned how to communicate and became good friends. Marcus needed to build a Sukkah to celebrate the fall harvest holiday. Marcus and his friends worked hard to keep his traditions abroad and found the only place to build one on the roof, but made a simple Sukkah. Liang shared his harvest holiday called Moon Festival and invited Marcus to celebrate with him. Liang added enthusiasm to his Sukkah by bringing colorful lanterns to Marco’s Sukkah. Marcus and Liang found a way to bring both holidays together.

Author Heidi Smith uses simple sentence structure to make a good read for k-4 graders. Colorful illustrations depict the life style of a story of Jewish culture living in China. The back of the book has an informative historical notes and photos of Jews and their homes in Shanghai. Parents and teachers can discuss history and cultures.

Activity to Shanghai Sukkah - designed by Maritza Martínez Mejía @2016

About Multicultural Children’s Book Day

The MCCBD team’s mission is to spread the word and raise awareness about the importance of diversity in children’s literature. Young readers need to see themselves within the pages of a book and experience other cultures, languages, traditions and religions within the pages of a book. MCCBD encourages readers, parents, teachers, caregivers and librarians to follow along the fun book reviews, author visits and event.  The full name of this event is Multicultural Children’s Book Day and the official hashtag is #ReadYourWorld on Twitter and other social media.

The co-creators of MCCBD are Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom and Valarie Budayr from Jump Into a Book/Audrey Press. Find a bio for Mia and Valarie here. View the Diversity Book Lists and Resources for Educators and Parents here. Connect with Multicultural Children’s Book Day on Facebook.

MCCBD Sponsors

Multicultural Children’s Book day 2016 Medallion Level Sponsors! #ReadYourWorld

Platinum: Wisdom Tales Press * StoryQuest Books*Lil Libros

Gold: Author Tori Nighthawk*Candlewick Press,* Bharat Babies

Silver: Lee and Low Books*Chronicle Books*Capstone Young Readers T

Tuttle Publishing ,NY Media Works, LLC/KidLit TV

Bronze: Pomelo Books* Author Jacqueline Woodson*Papa Lemon Books* Goosebottom Books*Author Gleeson Rebello*ShoutMouse Press*Author Mahvash Shahegh* China Institute.org*Live Oak Media

MCCBD Co-Hosts

Multicultural Children’s Book Day has 12 amazing Co-Hosts and you can view them here.
All Done Monkey, Crafty Moms Share,Educators Spin on it,Growing Book by Book,Imagination Soup,I’m Not the Nanny,InCultural Parent, Kid World Citizen,Mama Smiles,Multicultural Kid Blogs,Spanish Playground

Classroom Reading Challenge
MCCBD holds a Classroom Reading Challenge. This very special offering offers teachers and classrooms the chance to very easily earn a free hardcover multicultural children’s book for their classroom library. These books are not only donated by the Junior Library Guild, but they are also pre-screened and approved by them as well.

The Classroom Reading Challenge has begun! Teachers can earn a free diversity book! #teachers, #books  http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/?p=1796​