02 Jan Here’s to Multicultural Books
Pack-n-Go Girls Adventures is a proud sponsor of Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2018. Here at WorldTrek Publishing, we are champions for more diverse books. And MCBD is passionate about changing the pages of the books our children read to reflect the diversity in our world. If you are reading this, you probably believe in the importance of giving children books where they see themselves in the pages, so we don’t need to preach to the choir.
Something that you may not have thought about, though, is what this means for kids ten, fifteen, or twenty years into the future. We already live in a world with blurred geopolitical lines. Our lives touch the global economy in countless ways. If you doubt that, just check the labels on any ten things you own.
- ABC News reports that in 1960, foreign goods made up eight percent of everything Americans purchased. Today, it’s over sixty percent.
- If you ever call a customer service or tech support line, chances are good you hear an accent different from your own.
- What are your favorite foods? If you’re like we are, they include flavors from around the globe.
- Where do your contacts on social media live or travel to? Most likely you get a glimpse of the larger world every time you sign on.
- Wander around town in any major city (and plenty of small ones) and you’ll hear a cornucopia of languages.
- If you work for a Fortune 500 company, chances are good you have counterparts in other countries and may have regular conference calls or even travel to meet with them.
Now think back thirty or even twenty years ago. How much of this has changed since then? How much faster is it changing now? Our kids are moving into a world that will expect them to be comfortable with other cultures and sensitive to our differences. Even in monochromatic cultures, people need to be curious, inclusive, patient, and collaborative. With today’s world and—even more—tomorrow’s world, we need to raise our children to be agile and adaptable in working with other cultures.
What better place to start than trekking the world in books with characters who reflect the reality of our world! Pack-n-Go Girls take you there!