• Home
  • Our Shop
  • About Us
    • About MKB
    • Our Shop
    • MKB Board
    • Editorial Board and MKB Administrators
    • Our Contributors
    • For Bloggers: Join MKB
    • Books and Products from Our Members
    • Cultural Resources
    • Contact Us
  • Product Promotion Services
  • Blog Hops & Series
    • Holidays Around the World
      • Martin Luther King Day
      • Chinese New Year
      • Purim
      • Passover
      • Easter Around the World
      • Ramadan
      • Hajj (Eid al Adha)
      • Rosh Hashanah
      • Day of the Dead
      • Diwali
      • Hanukkah
      • Christmas in Different Lands
    • Heritage Months
      • Black History Month
      • Women’s History Month
      • Asian-Pacific Islander Heritage Month
      • Middle Eastern and North African Heritage Month
      • Hispanic Heritage Month
      • Native American Heritage Month
    • Blogging Carnivals
    • Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop
    • Global Learning for Kids
  • Resources for Raising Global Citizens
  • Privacy Policy

Multicultural Kid Blogs

For families and educators raising world citizens, through arts, activities, crafts, food, language, and love.

Multicultural Summer Reading for Kids

May 20, 2016 by Jenny B

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Multicultural summer reading is an opportunity to learn about other cultures and countries.
For multicultural families and parents working to raise global citizens, summer reading is an opportunity for kids to expand their horizons and understand their roots. Children explore places, cultures and history through books. They gain new perspective and strengthen language skills with multicultural summer reading.

If you live in the southern hemisphere, you are heading into winter rather than summer. Of course, encouraging children to read is important everywhere and always. Put the resources below to work as they fit your calendar. 

Libraries in the U.S. have been offering summer reading programs for more than 100 years. These programs keep children engaged and learning during the summer months and have been adopted by 95% of public libraries. Typically, the programs challenge children to read a certain number of books or minutes during the summer. The libraries provide a log, host activities, and often offer incentives.

The concept of summer reading programs is not universal. These programs were developed to combat the learning loss associated with long American summer vacations. They also depend on an extensive public library system, something that is not available worldwide.

Of course, families around the world recognize the importance of reading, and we all want to give our children the opportunity to read as much as they can. If you don’t have a summer reading program in your area, there are online summer reading challenges. You’ll find resources below that you can use to encourage multicultural summer reading.

Whether you are participating in your local reading program or encouraging reading on your own, help your child find and learn from multicultural books. With your help, your child can:

  • Read stories about her family cultures.
  • Read stories that are set in places her family members live.
  • Read stories that take place in other countries.
  • Read books in a language she is learning.
  • Locate the countries she reads about on a globe or map.
  • Look at photos of the places stories are set.
  • Choose stories with main characters who have religions different than her own.
  • Cook a meal from a culture in a book she reads.
  • Learn about an artist from a country in a book she reads.
  • Listen to children’s songs from a country in a book she reads.

You will think of more fun ways to engage your child with multicultural books. Most important, ask your child what questions she has about the people and places in the stories she reads. If you don’t know the answers, look for them and learn together.

Multicultural Summer Reading Resources

Online Reading Programs

Do-it-yourself Summer Reading Camp from PBS and Education.com – You’ll find a variety of materials to engage kids with books during the summer. Although not specifically a multicultural summer reading program, the materials can be used with any books. 

Spanish Summer Reading Program from Spanish Playground – This program has activities to encourage language learners and native speakers to read in Spanish.

The Seventh Annual New York Times Summer Reading Contest – This contest is for readers anywhere in the world, ages 13-19. Each week the New York Times asks “What interested you most in The Times this week? Why?” They choose the best comments and publish them each week.

Family Dinner Book Club  – A year-round program hosted by bloggers Growing Book by Book, Sunny Day Family, and Daisy at Home. For a featured book of the month, they share a craft, a menu, conversation starters and a family service project.

Scholastic Summer Challenge – An online program where kids log the minutes they read. Children can participate individually or with their school. Although not specifically a multicultural summer reading program, the materials can be used with any books.

Printable Reading Challenges and Logs

You can find many printable reading challenges and logs online. These are a few of my favorites.

My Sister’s Suitcase has a fun bingo-card reading challenge.

No Time For Flash Cards has great summer reading calendars. The link is to the 2015 calendars, but if they are not updated soon, you can use the prompts and adjust the dates. You will find other excellent summer reading resources on the website, too.

Spanish Playground has a log for kids to color and a reading challenge in Spanish.

Multicultural Summer Reading – Book Lists and Recommendations

Multicultural Children’s Book Day –  A wonderful collection of links to reviews of diversity children’s books.

Read Around the World Summer Series – In this summer series, bloggers from around the world recommend children’s books in different age groups. The 2016 series kicks off June 1. You can find last year’s recommendations on the Read Around the World Pinterest Board. This is a fabulous resource for finding multicultural summer reading.

Multicultural Kid Blogs has many thoughtful book recommendations including:
Multicultural Literature for Middle School
Jewish Kidlit Awards
Books to Help You Explore the Middle East
Women’s History Month: Strong Girls in Kids’ Books
Find more MKB recommendations and reviews from member bloggers on the Multicultural Kids’ Books Pinterest Board.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailby feather
The following two tabs change content below.
  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Google+ profileMy Pinterest profileMy YouTube channel

Jenny B

Jennifer raised her three children speaking English and Spanish, and she has been teaching Spanish to other young world citizens for over twenty years. On her blog Spanish Playground, she shares resources for parents and teachers of Spanish language learners.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Google+ profileMy Pinterest profileMy YouTube channel

Latest posts by Jenny B (see all)

  • No-Prep Class Activities With No Materials - November 13, 2017
  • Multicultural Summer Reading for Kids - May 20, 2016
  • Día de los Niños: Celebrating Kids and Books - April 11, 2016

Filed Under: Books for Children, Education, Learning About Culture, Teaching Global Citizenship Tagged With: multicultural children's books, summer reading

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Comments

  1. Robbie @ use resources wisely says

    May 20, 2016 at 8:33 am

    I love this! I have one avid reader and one not so much. Always trying to find new ways for him to stay engaged, and it has to be hands on.

Follow Us!

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on Google+Follow Us on TwitterFollow Us on PinterestFollow Us on RSSFollow Us on Instagram

Anti-Bullying Resource FREE Download

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Grab Our Button!

grab button for Multicultural Kid Blogs
<div class="multicultural-kid-blogs-button" style="width: 200px; margin: 0 auto;"> <a href="https://multiculturalkidblogs.com/" rel="nofollow"> <img src="https://multiculturalkidblogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/button-take-3.jpg" alt="Multicultural Kid Blogs" width="200" height="200" /> </a> </div>
Multicultural Children's Book Day Co-Host

Archives

Copyright © 2023 · Lifestyle Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT