MCBD ReadYourWorld

The Mystic Princesses and the Whirlpool by P. J. LaRue #readyourworld, Multicultural Children’s Book Day Reviewer 2018

When the Children of Ares nearly kidnap Princess Harmonie in New York her brother Eros moves her to Hawaii, where she meets her new protectors the Mystic Princesses.

The Mystic Princesses and the Whirlpool by P. J. LaRue #readyourworldMy Review of The Mystic Princesses and the Whirlpool #readyourworld

The story unfolds in a metro station in New York where young brother Eros saves his sister Harmonie from being abducted by a group of tattooed teens. It is only now that Harmonie finds out about their well-kept family secret: they are the children of Ares and Aphrodite and, like all of their other brothers and sisters (whom they’ve never met yet), have special powers. But unlike their bad-tempered, angry siblings, Eros and Harmonie are, respectively, the god of love and the goddess of peace.

To keep his sister safe, Eros decides to secretly send her to Hawaii to live with princess Coral, daughter of King Neptune, in an underwater castle.

Here comes my favourite part of the story when we discover that, in Hawaii, Princess Coral and her three friends are “Mystic Princesses”: they have special powers over earth, wind, air and water. The princesses are happy to look over Harmonie and together they practice their special powers. They have wonderful adventures like riding on dolphins, sliding down rainbows as well as fighting a bullying shark!

Download your own bookmark

Princess Coral has powers over the sea and can help her friends breathe under water. Princess Janna can control the land and its animals and therefore turn herself and her friends into flowers. Princess Catie has powers over air and can make rainbow slides as well as turn herself and her friends into birds. Princess Breanna has powers over fire and can turn her friends into candlelight and create fireballs as a weapon. Together, the girls feel strong and ready to protect one another as well as Harmonie from the malevolent Children of Ares.

Of course, the Mystic Princesses do get to use their emerging powers in a real battle as they defend Harmonie from the Children of Ares – and this scene was another one of my favourite parts of the story.

You can only wonder what’s next for the Mystic Princesses.

This book reminded me of The Powerpuff Girls and of the Legends of Olympus as it deals with young girls with superpowers and such mythological characters as Ares, god of war, Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, Neptune, king of the sea and even Mother Nature.

So much to learn for your girls

By reading The Mystic Princesses and the Whirlpool the girls will learn that they are stronger if they stay united; they learn the importance of practice that over-confidence has its own undesired consequences as well as the importance of not keeping a secret that can save someone’s life. And most of all they learn the importance of look after each other and the environment. The Mystic Princesses are lovely role models for young (girl) readers especially when they decide to talk through their differences as opposed to arguing.

Thank you, P.J. LaRue for sharing your story with me. I wish you every success.

I received an eBook copy of this book from the Author.

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.

GIVEAWAYS! Scoot over to the MCBD blog and there is a dozen diverse book giveaway going on. FUN-NESS!

Current Sponsors:  MCBD 2018 is honored to have some amazing Sponsors on board.

2018 MCBD Medallion Sponsors

HONORARY: Children’s Book Council, Junior Library Guild

PLATINUM:Scholastic Book Clubs

GOLD:Audrey Press, Candlewick Press, Loving Lion Books, Second Story Press, Star Bright Books, Worldwide Buddies

SILVER:Capstone Publishing, Author Charlotte Riggle, Child’s Play USA, KidLit TV, Pack-n-Go Girls, Plum Street Press

BRONZE: Barefoot Books, Carole P. Roman, Charlesbridge Publishing, Dr. Crystal BoweGokul! World, Green Kids Club, Gwen Jackson, Jacqueline Woodson, Juan J. Guerra, Language Lizard, Lee & Low Books, RhymeTime Storybooks, Sanya Whittaker Gragg, TimTimTom Books, WaterBrook & Multnomah, Wisdom Tales Press

2018 Author Sponsors

Honorary Author Sponsors: Author/Illustrator Aram Kim and Author/Illustrator Juana Medina

Author Janet Balletta, Author Susan BernardoAuthor Carmen Bernier-Grand, Author Tasheba Berry-McLaren and Space2Launch, Bollywood Groove Books, Author Anne BroylesAuthor Kathleen Burkinshaw, Author Eugenia Chu, Author Lesa Cline-Ransome, Author Medeia Cohan and Shade 7 Publishing, Desi Babies, Author Dani Dixon and Tumble Creek Press, Author Judy Dodge Cummings, Author D.G. Driver, Author Nicole Fenner and Sister Girl Publishing, Debbi Michiko Florence, Author Josh Funk, Author Maria Gianferrari, Author Daphnie Glenn, Globe Smart Kids, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, Author Quentin Holmes, Author Esther Iverem, Jennifer Joseph: Alphabet Oddities, Author Kizzie Jones, Author Faith L Justice , Author P.J. LaRue and MysticPrincesses.com, Author Karen Leggett Abouraya, Author Sylvia Liu, Author Sherri Maret, Author Melissa Martin Ph.D., Author Lesli Mitchell, Pinky Mukhi and We Are One, Author Miranda Paul, Author Carlotta Penn, Real Dads Read, Greg Ransom, Author Sandra L. Richards, RealMVPKids Author Andrea Scott, Alva Sachs and Three Wishes Publishing, Shelly Bean the Sports QueenAuthor Sarah Stevenson, Author Gayle H. Swift Author Elsa Takaoka, Author Christine Taylor-Butler, Nicholette Thomas and  MFL Publishing  Author Andrea Y. Wang, Author Jane Whittingham  Author Natasha Yim

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 HERE.

Twitter PARTY, 27January, 9EST
Twitter PARTY, 27January, 9EST

***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.

If you want to participate in the Twitter Party and possibly win a book bundleRSVP to the Twitter Party HERE.

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/

Ideas from Supporters on how to Celebrate Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2018!

Read Your World-FREE the week of January 26th-30th
Read Your World-FREE the week of January 26th-30th

The Read Your World: A Guide to Multicultural Children’s Books for Parents and Educators ebook created by the MCBD team and many of our book reviewers and supports will be FREE the week of January 26th-30th

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.

Our mission is to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these of books into classrooms and libraries. (http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/)

Children’s reading and play advocates Valarie Budayr from Jump Into a Book and Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom have teamed up to create an ambitious (and much needed) national event and non-profit initiative, and we reached a lot of eyeballs in just three days (day before, day of event, and day after).

Celebrate with us on January 28th!

Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.

What is a Multicultural Book?

Multicultural Children’s Book Day: What is a Multicultural Book?

“During Multicultural Children’s Book Day, we would like to focus on bringing attention to all of the amazing children’s books available that celebrate diversity. In order to stay true to the mission of this event, co-creators Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen have created a definition for “multicultural books” as it applies to this event so that children can “find themselves” within the pages of the books they read.

Multicultural Children’s books are:

  • Books that contain characters of color, as well as characters that represent a minority point of view.
  • Books that share ideas, stories, and information about cultures, race, religion, language, and traditions.
  • Books that embrace our world, and offer children new ways to connect to a diverse and richer world.”

    Mission & History

    “Our mission is to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these of books into classrooms and libraries.

    Children’s reading and play advocates Valarie Budayr from Jump Into a Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom have teamed up to create an ambitious — and much needed —  national event.  On January 27th five years ago, 2014 Jump into a Book and PragmaticMom presented their very first Multicultural Children’s Book Day as a way of celebrating diversity in children’s books. The results and support overwhelming as authors, publishers, parents, teachers, bloggers and librarians joined forces to offer up an online event designed to shine the spotlight on diversity in children’s literature.

    The inaugural year in 2014 was a huge success. Thanks to four major sponsors, over seventy children’s book review bloggers, and thousands of readers, Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2014 achieved their goal of shining the spotlight on all of the amazing multicultural children’s books available to our young readers, teachers, librarians and parents worldwide.

    Another proud moment came when, during MCCBD 2015, this multi-national event achieved 18.2 million social shares in three days from January 26-28th. Other notable achievements connected to this event are the addition of over a dozen CoHosts, the initiative’s non-profit status and 200 participating bloggers.

    Our total social media shares for three days of our 2017 event (day before, day of and day after Multicultural Children’s Book Day) were an astounding 3.6 BILLION!

    (Information courtesy (http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/))

    You might also be interested in:

  • The Elephant and the Sheep, follow link to Amazon
    The Elephant and the Sheep, follow link to Amazon

    The Lion and the Dog
    The Lion and the Dog, follow link to Amazon
The Cheetah and the Dog, follow link to Amazon
The Cheetah and the Dog, follow link to Amazon

Here’s How To Get Boys To Read In 5 Easy Steps

Celebrating Diversity in Children’s Fiction

The 5 Lessons I Learned From Madiba

Why We Need A (New) Generation Of Readers in South Africa