I couldn’t wait to get the book, The Little Doctor/El doctorcito, to share with my K/1 class. This book is written by Juan J. Guerra, a doctor specializing in obstetrics and gynecology. The story recounts his experience as a young boy when he would help his grandmother navigate the healthcare system by translating at doctor visits. I was hopeful this book would connect to our yearlong social studies theme, Friendships & Schools. When I read this story to my students, they immediately began to make great connections to past learnings. My students concluded that reading books, being literate, studying hard in college and medical school allowed for Salvador, the young boy in the book, to realize his dream of becoming a doctor.
However, during the repeated readings of the book, my little ones were put off by the gruff nature of the doctor who tends to Salvador’s grandmother. The kids made comments like, “He’s a mean doctor” or “I wouldn’t want my doctor to talk to me like that!” I followed up their comments with questions such as:
- Why do you suppose the doctor is being insensitive?
- Could he be the only doctor at this clinic?
- Is the doctor stressed and overworked himself?
The students agreed that these could be plausible explanations. Still, it didn’t excuse being rude or insensitive to a patient. The students said they would expect their doctor to make them feel welcome and ask, “How are you feeling? How is your family? or How can I help you?”
In the story, The Little Doctor/El doctorcito, Salvador’s family is from El Salvador. I shared that my mom is also from El Salvador. We learned some facts about the small Spanish speaking country in Central America and watched a short video about the day in the life of a little girl in El Salvador. We discussed the similarities and differences between our school and homes, and the one depicted in the video. The kids loved locating El Salvador on the globe. Then we added the book image to our ‘book map’ and they said, “Look at all the countries we’ve traveled to by reading books!”
Moreover, our school is currently in the process of obtaining a Global Citizen Accredidation through the Council of International Schools. Our school community has been working hard to incorporate the various Global Citizen principles in units of study throughout the curriculum (ethics, diversity, global issues, communication, service, leadership and sustainable lifestyle). The topic of socio-economics came up during our book discussion. It was expressed that some families or communities with less resources might have to experience having such negative or insensitive situations in healthcare. Our first graders who studied Maslow last year said having quality healthcare was a basic need. Our little ones also made the connection that being literate and having access to quality schools benefits communities in general. When posed the question, “Why is literacy important?” many wonderful answers emerged.
Lastly we asked our little ones, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Using old shoeboxes, they creatively expressed their future goals. Thank you Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2018 and Juan J. Guerra for sending us this book. It was a great addition to our social studies unit.
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Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2018 (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.
MCBD 2018 is honored to have some amazing Sponsors on board.
2018 MCBD Medallion Sponsors
HONORARY: Children’s Book Council, Junior Library Guild
PLATINUM:Scholastic Book Clubs
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: 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
Honorary Author Sponsors: Author/Illustrator Aram Kim and Author/Illustrator Juana Medina
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, 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.
Visit the MCBD site: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/
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.
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We gathered inspiration from the picture book, Waiting for Biblioburro, by Monica Brown. The book is based on Luis Soriano, the Colombian teacher/librarian who brings books to children in the countryside of Colombia. We discussed that we, as community members have a responsibility to rebuild systems that are broken or unbalanced. In the spirit of Biblioburro, our students partnered with Reading is Fundamental of Southern California (RIFSoCal). Our little ones purchased one new book with the money earned doing various chores. They washed cars, swept the floors, helped with laundry, and even scrubbed handprints off the wall. They also went through their personal at home libraries and chose 3-4 books to donate. Our class then beautifully decorated book bags and used them to store the books. We will be donating the book bags, and the books, to RIFSoCal in an effort to support their mission of literacy and learning in school communities. A big bravo and love hug to our little, yet mighty advocates!
