Last April we had a wonderful El día de los niños, El día de los libros/Children’s Day, Book Day celebration using Music as our theme. We presented a puppet show and invited the McKinley School Folklore Dancers and the Grupo Luz de Ande, all local residents, to perform. Everyone had a great time! Attached are pictures from the program.
Thanks to our guest blogger Tina Birkholz, Coordinator of Hispanic Family Services at the Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin, IL.
April is Poetry Month, but did you know that this is Young Peoples’ Poetry Week ? In honor of this week that celebrates all that poetry has to bring to children and teens, we asked poetry advocate, Sylvia Vardell, for a post.
I’d like to highlight the power of poetry for inviting kids into the music of language—the rhythm, rhyme, and sounds of words. Very young kids will love Fiesta Babies (Tricycle Press, 2010) by Carmen Tafolla, with bouncy folk art illustrations by Amy Córdova. A rhyming couplet begins each double-page spread, “Fiesta Babies sing along/ to Grandpa’s favorite mariachi song!” The babies parade, munch, sing, dance, celebrate, and nap in playful language that invites children to join in with motions and chanting.
Another great read aloud selection for children is ¡Muu, Moo! Rimas de animals/ Animal Nursery Rhymes (Rayo/HarperCollins, 2010) selected by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy. Here are 16 inviting story rhymes from several different Spanish speaking countries—classic folk rhymes plus new verses, all in Spanish and English accompanied by captivating watercolor illustrations by Viví Escriva.
For older kids, I have to plug Pat Mora’s own new work for teens, Dizzy in Your Eyes; Poems About Love (Knopf, 2010) an innovative anthology of nearly 50 poems about all kinds of love– of parents, friends, family, pets—acknowledging the depth of feeling in many relationships and at many stages of life and in many different poetic forms.
Thank you to our guest blogger Sylvia Vardell, Professor at Texas Woman’s University/ School of Library & Information Studies, and author of several books on literature and poetry. This month on her marvelous blog, Poetry for Children, she’s organized POETRY TAG, a unique celebration of poets, poetry and poetic connections.
It’s National Library Week! We salute Día’s national home, the Association of Library Service for Children (ALSC), a Division of the American Library Association.
Register Now for Complimentary Día Brochures!
Celebrate! Celebremos! Join colleagues across the country as libraries nationwide celebrate El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day). Held annually on April 30, Día promotes the importance of advocating literacy for every child, regardless of linguistic and cultural background. Through Día celebrations, libraries showcase their multicultural programs and services. While supplies last, ALSC is providing up to 100 complimentary bilingual brochures, with recommended book lists and tips on how to encourage children to read, to each library that registers its Día event at: www.ala.org/dia. The registry of events is searchable by state.
The Association of Library Service for Children (ALSC) has been Día’s national home since 2004. The division is proud to include Día as one of its four major initiatives, all programs devoted to promoting literacy and library use to children, families and caregivers. ALSC’s Public Awareness Committee, whose members are responsible for Día, is looking forward to the upcoming 15th anniversary celebration next year. Great plans are underway for the commemoration. This year’s theme for National Library Week is “Communities thrive @ your library” and we want to build a thriving Día community.
Please feel free to contact us at dia@ala.org.
Thanks to our guest blogger, Linda Mays, ALSC Program Officer.
April is packed with days and weeks honoring literature, literacy, libraries and young children and we’ll be mentioning them this week. Look for ways you can support Día’s goals when planning for these other events.
Today is D.E.A.R. Day — Drop Everything and Read! It seems only fitting that we would schedule a post from Multnomah County Library in Portland, Oregon.
Multnomah County Library staff shares bookjoy with this awesome double sided bilingual reading board.
During our Día de los Niños, Día de los Libros celebrations, as we share information about the importance of parents sharing books with their children and parents learn how to foster early literacy skills to prepare their children for learning to read, we are also planning on giving out this reading board to encourage families to read at home.
We are planning on having families make Miraculous Milagros magnets so that they can hang the board on their refrigerator.
This year we will be having Latino community leaders as “guest readers” who will read to the children and encourage families to share bookjoy by doing some of the activities listed on the board.
Click here to view a pdf of the bilingual reading board.
Thanks to our guest blogger, Ana Schmitt, Bilingual Outreach Specialist at Multnomah County Library and a Día Champion along with her LIBROS coworkers.
Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.
~ Hazel Rochman ~
