Last year we had the honor of reviewing 3 lovely books for Multicultural Children’s Book Day. This year we are thankful to not only be reviewing an amazing book, La Princesa and the Pea, but also to have our book, Ibari’s Curls, being reviewed. We got lucky in being chosen to review this book because we LOVE it. La Princesa and the Pea is a multicultural take on a classic that, in my opinion, makes it so much better.

This post may contain affiliate links but all opinions are my own.

First some basics about the book:

TITLE: La Princesa and the Pea
PUBLISHER: Putnam
RELEASE DATE: September 5, 2017
AUTHOR: Susan Middleton Elya
ILLUSTRATOR: Juana Martinez-Neal
AGE LEVEL: 4-8, 32 pages
ISBN: 978-0-399-25156-6

Links for the illustrator:

Site: juanamartinezneal.com
Instagram: @juanamartinezn
Twitter: @juanamartinez
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/juanamartinezneal.illustrator/

REVIEWS:
– Princesa is a ★ A Junior Library Guild Selection
– Booklist starred review
– School Library Collection starred review

Our Book Review of La Princesa and the Pea

First off we just love this book! It was so fun to read and look at. The story is a Latino take on the classic story that we have all heard before and turned it into such a lovely visual journey. The artwork was inspired by the culture in Peru and it is colorful and intriguing.

Reading this story to my kids was fun because of the rhyming and rhythm of the couplets. It had a flow to reading it which made it entertaining as a parent to read. Another amazing thing about this book is that is includes Spanish words incorporated into the verse. So not only was the book engaging, it was educational. It includes a glossary in the beginning to help you teach your kids the meaning behind the words (helpful for those of us that forgot what we learned in our Spanish classes in school!)

Visually this book had incredible artwork. It was colorful, stimulating, and really helped tell the story. The artist created masterpieces that made it seem like you could touch the page and feel the suave fabrics. According to the books description, the artist was inspired by the art in the Peru culture. She originally grew up there and it really adds to the brilliance of this book and takes it to another level.

Overall I definitely recommend you check out La Princesa and the Pea. This author/illustrator duo also have another book together – La Madre Goose – Nursery Rhymes for Los Nińos – that I want to get for my kids. The book is stimulating visually and verbally. The artwork could be on its own and be something you’d want to look at for hours. It is simply beautiful. This is a definite buy for your cuties.

Thanks for reading!

Details about Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2018 #MCBD2018

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. View our 2018 MCBD Medallion Sponsors here: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/2106-sponsors/mcbd2018-medallion-level-sponsors/

View our 2018 MCBD Author Sponsors here: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/2106-sponsors/2018-author-sponsors/

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: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/about/co-hosts/

TWITTER PARTY Sponsored by Scholastic Book Clubs: MCBD’s super-popular (and crazy-fun) annual Twitter Party will be held 1/27/18 at 9:00pm.

Join the conversation and win one of 12-5 book bundles and one Grand Prize Book Bundle (12 books) that will be given away at the party! http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/twitter-party-great-conversations-fun-prizes-chance-readyourworld-1-27-18/

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