In Japan every January the Grand Sumo Tournament is held. This year's event concluded January 26th with quite the historic underdog story! Wrestler Tokushoryu is the first bottom-ranked sumo wrestler to win a top-division title since March 2000. WOW!

I was quite excited to be gifted Sumo Joe by Mia WenJen to review for the Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2020 event. The easy-to-read book highlights the sport with a clever character face-off: a brother vs. sister martial arts challenge.  One of my newcomer LOVES, I mean is honestly infatuated with Japanese culture, and the illustrations by Nat Iwata allow so many opportunities for learning also.   Sumo Joe would be a perfect choice as part of a quad text set leading up to a target text on martial arts or Japan.  The  rhythmic text structure appeals to new and intermediate readers  along with building vocabulary outside the martial arts theme.  As if that wasn't enough, the illustrated glossary and author's note adds to the uniqueness of Sumo Joe.  Find a quick flip-through of Sumo Joe by clicking the cover image above!

 MCDB 2020 is in its 7^th year! This non-profit children’s literacy initiative was founded by Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen; two diverse book-loving moms who saw a need to shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural books and authors on the market while also working to get those book into the hands of young readers and educators.  

Seven years in, MCBD’s mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in homes and school bookshelves continues.

MCBD 2020  is honored to have the following Medallion Sponsors on board

Super Platinum

Make A Way Media/ Deirdre “DeeDee” Cummings

Platinum

Language Lizard, Pack-N-Go Girls

Gold

Audrey Press, Lerner Publishing Group, KidLit TV, ABDO BOOKS : A Family of Educational Publishers, PragmaticMom & Sumo Jo, Candlewick Press

Silver

 Author Charlotte Riggle, Capstone Publishing, Guba Publishing, Melissa Munro Boyd & B is for Breathe

Bronze

Author Carole P. Roman, Snowflake Stories/Jill Barletti, Vivian Kirkfield & Making Their Voices Heard. Barnes Brothers Books,  TimTimTom, Wisdom Tales Press, Lee & Low Books,  Charlesbridge Publishing, Barefoot BooksTalegari Tales

Author Sponsors, including recent ALA Award winning author Jerry Craft AND creator of MCBD 2020 Official Poster.

MCBD would like to also give a shout-out to their 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 MCBD CoHosts HERE.