Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2019 (1/25/19) is in its 6th 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 homes and school bookshelves while also working diligently to get more of these types of books into the hands of young readers, parents and educators. I love participating each year in this movement.
Title: Seed Savers, Lily
Author: Sandra Smith
Publisher: Flying Books House, 2018
Ages: 9-12
Genre: Dystopian
#2 in Seed Savers series
Themes: gardens, seeds, friendships, resistance, corporate power, diversity, politics, Japanese-Americans, eating fresh produce, secrets, betrayal, love
Opening:
My name is Lily. When I first heard Clare and Dante were missing and presumed runaway, I couldn’t believe it. Clare is my best friend, after all, and her brother Dante like the brother I never had. Hadn’t I just seen them? Didn’t I see them practically every day?
Synopsis:
When her friends disappear under mysterious circumstances,
thirteen-year-old Lily sets out to discover more about the secret organization
with which they had become involved. Her investigation unearths a disturbing
secret from her own past, unsettling her world even more. In the meantime, Lily
makes a new friend and falls for a mysterious young man, even as she remains
unsure about whom she should trust. As her world crashes down around her, Lily
struggles to decide what to do next.
Lily is volume two of the Seed Savers series but
can easily be read out of order. It is a suspenseful and reflective book with
themes of self-empowerment, trust, acceptance of diversity, gardening, and
politics.
(publisher)
Why I like this book:
#2 is a series, but reads well as a stand-alone (I haven’t read the first but will now about Clare and Dante!) This is an action and secret packed adventure story for 5th to 7th grade. It is a fast, fun dystopian with a refreshing focus on gardens and seeds. Because of its length and pacing, I actually think it would make a great class read-aloud (which I hope you are still doing even in middle school!)
The premise of this series is intentionally scary because it is something that could really happen and links well with many environmental food-source issues we are discussing with our children. In this book, Lily, a Japanese-American 13-year-old who was left behind when Clare and Dante escaped to Canada, knows she need to find out the truth about her father whom she thought was dead, and she knows she’s got to be even more involved in the seed saver movement. I enjoyed the mentor character, Anna, who entrusts these children with teaching, contraband seeds, and a few illegal books. Making new friends and commitment to old friends is also explored in this novel. Lily has her first crush and starts to have to learn to make decisions independent of her friends. And she contemplates the power and conflict inherent in secrets. Lily tries to figure out whom she can trust and which lies are true.
The text offers wonderful incidental opportunities for readers to learn much about gardening, preservation, conservation, cooking with fresh produce, all of which happen to be passions of mine. This content can definitely offer teachers opportunities for extension activities in the classroom.
She has to grapple with her commitment to the cause and her new lifestyle. Seed Savers is about questioning the world around, problem-solving, becoming involved in making the world a better place, and our consequent personal growth.
Arc provided by Author
Resources/Info MCBD:
MCBD 2019 is honored to have the following Medallion Sponsors on board!
*View
our 2019 Medallion Sponsors here: https://wp.me/P5tVud-
*View our 2019 MCBD Author Sponsors here: https://wp.me/P5tVud-2eN
Medallion Level Sponsors
Honorary: Children’s Book Council, The Junior Library Guild, TheConsciousKid.org.
Super Platinum: Make A Way Media
GOLD: Bharat Babies, Candlewick Press, Chickasaw Press, Juan Guerra and The Little Doctor / El doctorcito, KidLitTV, Lerner Publishing Group, Plum Street Press,
SILVER: Capstone Publishing, Carole P. Roman, Author Charlotte Riggle, Huda Essa, The Pack-n-Go Girls,
BRONZE: Charlesbridge Publishing, Judy Dodge Cummings, Author Gwen Jackson, Kitaab World, Language Lizard – Bilingual & Multicultural Resources in 50+ Languages, Lee & Low Books, Miranda Paul and Baptiste Paul, Redfin, Author Gayle H. Swift, T.A. Debonis-Monkey King’s Daughter, TimTimTom Books, Lin Thomas, Sleeping Bear Press/Dow Phumiruk, Vivian Kirkfield,
MCBD 2019 is honored to have the following Author Sponsors on board
Honorary: Julie Flett, Mehrdokht Amini,
Author Janet Balletta, Author Kathleen Burkinshaw, Author Josh Funk, Chitra Soundar, One Globe Kids – Friendship Stories, Sociosights Press and Almost a Minyan, Karen Leggett, Author Eugenia Chu, CultureGroove Books, Phelicia Lang and Me On The Page, L.L. Walters, Author Sarah Stevenson, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, Hayley Barrett, Sonia Panigrah, Author Carolyn Wilhelm, Alva Sachs and Dancing Dreidels, Author Susan Bernardo, Milind Makwana and A Day in the Life of a Hindu Kid, Tara Williams, Veronica Appleton, Author Crystal Bowe, Dr. Claudia May, Author/Illustrator Aram Kim, Author Sandra L. Richards, Erin Dealey, Author Sanya Whittaker Gragg, Author Elsa Takaoka, Evelyn Sanchez-Toledo, Anita Badhwar, Author Sylvia Liu, Feyi Fay Adventures, Author Ann Morris, Author Jacqueline Jules, CeCe & Roxy Books, Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace, LEUYEN PHAM, Padma Venkatraman, Patricia Newman and Lightswitch Learning, Shoumi Sen, Valerie Williams-Sanchez and Valorena Publishing, Traci Sorell, Shereen Rahming, Blythe Stanfel, Christina Matula, Julie Rubini, Paula Chase, Erin Twamley, Afsaneh Moradian, Lori DeMonia, Claudia Schwam, Terri Birnbaum/ RealGirls Revolution, Soulful Sydney, Queen Girls Publications, LLC
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.
Co-Hosts and Global Co-Hosts
A Crafty Arab, Agatha Rodi Books, All Done Monkey, Barefoot Mommy, Biracial Bookworms, Books My Kids Read, Crafty Moms Share, Colours of Us, Discovering the World Through My Son’s Eyes, Descendant of Poseidon Reads, Educators Spin on it, Growing Book by Book, Here Wee Read, Joy Sun Bear/ Shearin Lee, Jump Into a Book, Imagination Soup,Jenny Ward’s Class, Kid World Citizen, Kristi’s Book Nook, The Logonauts, Mama Smiles, Miss Panda Chinese, Multicultural Kid Blogs, Raising Race Conscious Children, Shoumi Sen, Spanish Playground
TWITTER PARTY Sponsored by Make A Way Media: MCBD’s super-popular (and crazy-fun) annual Twitter Party will be held 1/25/19 at 9:00pm.E.S.T. TONS of prizes and book bundles will be given away during the party. GO HERE for more details.
FREE RESOURCES From MCBD
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/
In my 20's, with only my guitar and a rucksack, I wandered the continents, immersing myself in the lives of some wonderful people, projects and stories, which changed the way I view my responsibility to others and this earth. Right now I'm a European transplant in the US who writes books for children and young adults. Stories can help us not only navigate our world but can connect us to others, and allow us to inspire and help each other. I believe that equity and empathy should be at the core of our all actions, words, and stories.
I am also a school librarian and I get a kick out of book-matchmaking! And I use the pronouns she/her.
Thank you so much for your support of Multicultural Children’s Book Day! Seed Savers sounds like an epic adventure! I can’t wait to read it!