MCBD 2019 Book Review: Beato Goes To Japan

Beato Goes To Japan

written by Sucheta Rawal, illustrated by Alexandra Abagiu and Oana Vaida

Disclosure: I received a free copy from Sucheta Rawal, Author Sponsor of Multicultural Children’s Book Day (MCBD).

As luck would have it, author Sucheta Rawal visited South Africa at the beginning of this year, so I had my review copy hand-delivered! How special and such a pleasure to meet Sucheta and her husband!

Beato Goes To Japan is the fourth book in this wonderful series about a curious cat who explores different countries.

The stories are all based on Sucheta’s travels and feature local people she has actually met during her travels, like little Kazumi in this picture book about Japan.

Beato arrives in Tokyo, the largest and busiest city in the world, where he first meets Kazumi, a young Japanese girl. Kazumi offers to show Beato around the country, and together they visit beautiful cherry blossom flower gardens, a school, a restaurant, a temple, and many other exciting places.

During his travels, Beato learns calligraphy, dances with robots, meets sumo wrestlers and sleeps in a capsule hotel.

On over thirty pages, readers learn many interesting facts about Japan, its people and its culture.

My girls both being huge Sushi lovers, their favourite page was the one about typical Japanese foods. They were also intrigued by the tanuki, a Japanese racoon dog that likes to play tricks by dressing like a human.

The dynamic digital illustrations and the fun, fact-filled text make Beato Goes To Japan very appealing to Pre- as well as Elementary School children. My 2-year-old and my 5-year-old both loved it and it is currently our favourite bedtime read!

More in the “Beato Goes To” series:

My review of Beato Goes To Japan is part of Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2019.

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2019 (1/25/19) is in its 6th 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 homes 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 2019 is honored to have the following Medallion Sponsors on board:

*View our 2019 Medallion Sponsors here:https://wp.me/P5tVud-

*View our 2019 MCBD Author Sponsors here: https://wp.me/P5tVud-2eN

Medallion Level Sponsors:

Honorary: Children’s Book Council, The Junior Library Guild, TheConsciousKid.org

Super Platinum: Make A Way Media

GOLD: Bharat Babies, Candlewick Press, Chickasaw Press, Juan Guerra and The Little Doctor / El doctorcito</a, KidLitTV , Lerner Publishing Group , Plum Street Press

SILVER: Capstone Publishing, Carole P. Roman, Author Charlotte Riggle, Huda Essa, The Pack-n-Go Girls

BRONZE: Charlesbridge Publishing, Judy Dodge Cummings, Author Gwen Jackson, Kitaab World, Language Lizard – Bilingual & Multicultural Resources in 50+ Languages, Lee & Low Books, Miranda Paul and Baptiste Paul,Redfin, Author Gayle H. Swift, T.A. Debonis-Monkey King’s Daughter, TimTimTom Books, Lin Thomas, Sleeping Bear Press Dow Phumiruk, Vivian Kirkfield

MCBD 2019 is honored to have the following Author Sponsors on board:

Honorary: Julie Flett, Mehrdokht Amini,Author Janet Balletta, Author Kathleen Burkinshaw, Author Josh Funk, Chitra Soundar, One Globe Kids – Friendship Stories, Sociosights Press and Almost a Minyan, Karen Leggett, Author Eugenia Chu, CultureGroove Books, Phelicia Lang and Me On The Page, L.L. Walters, Author Sarah Stevenson, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, Hayley Barrett, Sonia Panigrah, Author Carolyn Wilhelm, Alva Sachs and Dancing Dreidels, Author Susan Bernardo, Milind Makwana and A Day in the Life of a Hindu Kid, Tara Williams, Veronica Appleton, Author Crystal Bowe, Dr. Claudia May, Author/Illustrator Aram Kim, Author Sandra L. Richards, Erin Dealey, Author Sanya Whittaker Gragg, Author Elsa Takaoka, Evelyn Sanchez-Toledo, Anita Badhwar, Author Sylvia Liu, Feyi Fay Adventures, Author Ann Morris, Author Jacqueline Jules, CeCe & Roxy Books, Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace, LEUYEN PHAM, Padma Venkatraman, Patricia Newman and Lightswitch Learning, Shoumi Sen, Valerie Williams-Sanchez and Valorena Publishing, Traci Sorell, Shereen Rahming,Blythe Stanfel, Christina Matula, Julie Rubini, Paula Chase, Erin Twamley, Afsaneh Moradian, Lori DeMonia, Claudia Schwam,Terri Birnbaum/ RealGirls Revolution, Soulful Sydney, Queen Girls Publications, LLC

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.

Co-Hosts and Global Co-Hosts: A Crafty Arab, Agatha Rodi Books, All Done Monkey, Barefoot Mommy, Biracial Bookworms, Books My Kids Read, Crafty Moms Share, Colours of Us, Discovering the World Through My Son’s Eyes, Descendant of Poseidon Reads, Educators Spin on it, Growing Book by Book, Here Wee Read, Joy Sun Bear/ Shearin Lee, Jump Into a Book, Imagination Soup,Jenny Ward’s Class, Kid World Citizen, Kristi’s Book Nook, The Logonauts, Mama Smiles, Miss Panda Chinese, Multicultural Kid Blogs, Raising Race Conscious Children, Shoumi Sen, Spanish Playground

TWITTER PARTY Sponsored by Make A Way Media:

MCBD’s super-popular (and crazy-fun) annual @McChildsBookDay Twitter Party will be held 1/25/19 at 9:00pm.E.S.T. TONS of prizes and book bundles will be given away during the party ( a prize every 5 minutes!). GO HERE for more details

FREE RESOURCES From MCBD:

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/

Don’t forget to connect with us on social media! Look for/use our official hashtag #ReadYourWorld!