Multicultural Kid Blogs is pleased to offer its readers a chance to win a set of three children’s books by Mia Wenjen. Read on to learn more about the author and how to enter the giveaway!
Mia Wenjen is passionate about diverse children’s books. She’s not only the founder of the parenting blog PragmaticMom.com, but also of Multicultural Children’s Book Day, an annual event celebrating diversity in children’s literature. As an accomplished author, Mia focuses on both fiction and nonfiction children’s books with a primary focus on Asian culture.
Mia says, “I read every single book in my elementary school library and never saw myself reflected back. When I had children, there were books depicting Asian American children but I learned that the number of diverse books had not gone up in 14 years. We still need more stories to reflect the wonderful diversity of our world and I hope that I can contribute to that cause.”
Mia is well on track with achieving this through her many published and soon-to-be-published books. We’ve highlighted three which will be included in the giveaway at the end of this post.
Note: If you click on the book links below and make a purchase, Multicultural Kid Blogs will receive a small percentage that goes toward supporting this website.
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World [Barefoot Books], is a picture book for ages 3 years and up written by Mia Wenjen and illustrated by Robert Sae-Heng. It releases on May 23, 2023, in both hardcover and paperback. Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and was chosen by dPICTUS as one of the Top 100 Emerging Picture Books in the World for 2023.
From the Publisher: “Go on a tour of eco-friendly farms around the globe! From urban gardens to farms under the sea, discover the many different sustainable ways people have been growing food for centuries, and new innovations that are battling the effects of climate change on farming. Rhyming text and inset boxes with definitions for new vocabulary words make the topic accessible to young learners. End matter includes detailed information about each country’s farming practice, sustainable farming and more.”
From Kirkus Reviews: “A dozen sustainable farms around the world offer intriguing possibilities for the future of agriculture. Simple four-beat rhyming couplets concisely describe a plethora of farming methods old and new around the world, many of which will be especially useful in light of climate change.”
Sumo Joe
Sumo Joe [Lee & Low Books] is a picture book for children ages 3 years and up written by Mia Wenjen and illustrated by Nat Iwata. It is available in hardcover format.
From the Publisher: “In this sweet and funny story, Sumo Joe and his friends enjoy pretending to be sumo wrestlers. But when his little sister wants to join their boy-only game, what should Sumo Joe do? On Saturday mornings, Sumo Joe is a gentle big brother to his little sister. But on Saturday afternoons, he and his friends are sumo wrestlers! They tie on makeshift mawashi belts, practice drills like teppo, and compete in their homemade dohyo ring. They even observe sumo’s ultimate rule: no girls allowed! But when Sumo Joe’s little sister wants to join in the fun, Sumo Joe is torn between the two things he’s best at: sumo, and being a big brother.”
From Kirkus Reviews: “Friendly sibling rivalry sparks a face-off between the two Japanese martial art forms, sumo, and aikido. Spare rhyming text introduces Japanese-American Sumo Joe as a “Strong big bro, / built for sumo,” who is “gentle, though.” While sister Jo must go to aikido, Joe’s friends arrive to “practice sumo! With a saturation of ninja/ninjutsu books in the market, this is a refreshing new take on the martial arts genre. Young readers will enjoy this spirited debut with insightful integration of cultural exploration.”
Changing the Game: Asian Pacific American Female Athletes
Changing the Game: Asian Pacific American Female Athletes is a middle-grade anthology for children ages 8 years and up written by Mia Wen. It is available in paperback format. This book was recently acquired by Scholastic and will be released by them in June 2023.
From the Publisher: “Meet 17 Asian Pacific American female athletes from yesterday and today! From snowboarder Chloe Kim and hockey player Julie Chu to soccer player Natasha Kai-Marks, these champions inspire us as we learn how they rose to compete at the highest level and how they pave the way for others to follow.”
From Scholastic: “”I’m pleased to say that we are interested in school market paperback reprint rights to Changing the Game: Asian Pacific American Female Athletes. We are working on a new classroom program entitled Rising Voices: Amplifying AANHPI Narratives (the latest in our line of Rising Voices libraries, which have covered African American and Latino Boys, Girls of Color, and Latino Stories), and we think this title would make a great addition.”
Enter the Mia Wenjen Book Giveaway
One lucky reader will win a set of 3 books by Mia Wenjen: Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World, Sumo Joe, and Changing the Game: Asian Pacific American Female Athletes. Please enter via the entry form below. Entrants must be ages 18+ years old with a U.S. mailing address (no P.O. Boxes). Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveawayAbout the Author Mia Wenjen
Mia Wenjen is half Japanese & half Chinese American and married to a Korean American. This unusual ethnic combination made her seek out all kinds of Asian representation in children’s books for her three kids. She started a blog, PragmaticMom.com, to share her favorite books, and Multicultural Children’s Book Day to celebrate diverse KidLit.
Her debut picture book, Sumo Joe (Lee and Low, 2019) was selected as a Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year. She wrote Asian Pacific American Heroes for Scholastic (2020) and Changing the Game: Asian Pacific American Female Athletes as a Kickstarter pandemic project. Mia also wrote The Elusive Full-Ride Scholarship: An Insider’s Guide. Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World releases spring of 2023 through Barefoot Books, Boxer Baby (Eifrig Publishing) releases in 2024, and Postcards from Malcolm X: How Yuri Kochiyama Became a Civil Rights Activist comes out in 2025 (Red Comet Press). Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World is a Junior Library Guild Gold Selection, was selected as one of 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023 by dPICTUS and was featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.
Blog: PragmaticMom, Instagram: PragmaticMom, Twitter: PragmaticMom, Pinterest: PragmaticMom, FaceBook: PragmaticMom, LinkedIn: Mia Wenjen, YouTube: Mia Wenjen, TikTok: MulticulturalChildrensBD
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I’ve read several of Mia’s books in the past and have really enjoyed them. I’d love to have my own copy of Sumo Joe… fun story… and Changing the Game… one of the books I haven’t read yet.
My sons and I have enjoyed this author in the past and that is why I would like to win
I would like to win this prize for my grandson.
Book R such wonderful gift,that keeps giving thanks for sharing!!
I want to win this prize to gift to an elementary teacher.