New Multicultural Book Site Combines Reading and Global Understanding, Also Offers Free Books!

Feb. 10, 2012 - PRLog -- Books are a wonderful way to encourage reading and literacy and they are also valuable tools for learning about culture, teaching tolerance and sharing positive inclusive values.  A new website – My Favorite Multicultural Books – offers parents, teachers, homeschoolers and caregivers a great place to connect with a variety of books that can take a child around the world. Although focused on early reading and elementary levels books, the site also includes many picks for older or teen readers as well.   Additionally, the site is often visited by ESL (English Second Language) classes and students to find books that can help them with their mastery of the English language.

Created by a multicultural educator and musician named DARIA (Daria Marmaluk-Hajioannou), she comments: “As I traveled the globe, I met so many teachers who loved to share both music and books to teach about culture.  I wanted to create a resource-rich spot for people to explore their own origins or cultures from across the globe.”  When the site first opened, it contained dozens of books read and reviewed by DARIA, but now includes reviews by other parents, teachers, bloggers and librarians, especially those with a direct knowledge of certain subjects such as adoption or special needs children.  

In addition to book reviews, My Favorite Multicultural Books also has a “free book bin”.  Anyone can visit the book bin and claim a title in exchange for spreading the word about the site.  This can be done through a tweet on Twitter, an e-mail to friends or a Facebook entry.  Books here range from great ESL picks to Spanish language selections to inspirational books for young readers such as Heroes Of The Holocaust, True Stories of Rescues By Teens.

My Favorite Multicultural Books can be found at: http://favoritemulticulturalbooks.com. The Free Book Section is located at: http://favoritemulticulturalbooks.com/?page_id=100. For more information on this site or DARIA’s other multicultural resources, contact dariamusic@yahoo.com.