Pat Celebrates Día in Galveston TX

Pat Mora
I hope that you are enjoying all the Díapalooza posts as much as I am. Although I cherish the Santa Fe quiet to do my writing, I derive great energy from visiting exciting literacy and literature events. On April 3, I was in Galveston for the Rosenberg Library’s first Día celebration. Congratulations to Children’s Librarian Karen Stanley and to the staff and local teachers who helped create a day that included a treasure hunt in the library (to acquaint children and families with the different departments), a book give-away, flower making, and piñatas. Children had been given raffle tickets for every book they read in preparation for my visit, and those whose names were drawn joined me for a delicious catered lunch.
At the end of my morning presentation, thanks to the work of some dedicated teachers, the audience and I enjoyed hearing a Mexican children’s song and watching some girls dressed like the girls in the book about my mom, THE RAINBOW TULIP.
The children at this Día event received Summer Reading Club T-shirts too. Remember that Día is a great kick-off to Summer Reading and provides an opportunity for librarians at public libraries to work to collaborate with school librarians and teachers.

April: Together promote Día celebrations as an annual tradition at home, school, and the public library.
May: Together collaborate to encourage pleasure reading during May and to re-enforce the importance of Summer Reading Clubs.
June: Together insure that all children understand the when, what, and how of Summer Reading Clubs.

Our country needs reading families. Thanks to each of you who shares bookjoy and who is part of Día’s National Family.

Book Giveaway
Pat and Karen Stanley

Elgin IL celebrates Día

Pat Mora

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.

Poetry, Por Favor!

Pat Mora

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.

New Día Dynamos

Pat Mora

Although we seldom see one another, Bobbie is my key problem solver with my site, blog, e-newsletter, endless lists. Much of this work is directly and indirectly connected to Día, of course. I named her a Dynamo because she is an enthusiastic, tireless Día supporter. Working with her partner Laurina, now a Día Angel, she proposed the creative idea for having the first Díapalooza on my blog in 2010 and continues to donate time to Día work. Gracias, Bobbie!

Read my interview with Bobbie & Laurina:

How did you first learn about Día?
Laurina: I was working on a Spanish language focus group for a publisher client, which led me to information about the 2004 Mora Award winners and in learning about the winners, I also learned about Día.
Bobbie: I heard Pat speak at a conference, and I was simply dazzled by her and by Día.

What has been your experience with Día?
Even though we’ve spent a lot of time on Día projects, we haven’t yet had the pleasure of attending an official Día event…as you can imagine, we’re quite busy in April! This year, though, we had the honor of having an April 30th Día dinner in Santa Fe with Pat herself!

You creatively suggested the first Díapalooza for 2010 to Pat. What gave you that idea?
We do some of our best brainstorming in the car while on road trips. In February we were talking about Día, thinking about various things bloggers do to publicize themselves and wondering how to make a big splash about Día this year. Bobbie had the idea of doing something on the blog EVERY DAY in April, and Laurina quickly supplied the catchy name.

What ideas do you have for Día 2011 and what are your hopes for the 15th Anniversary celebration?
We’d like to build on the success of our first Díapalooza. We’d like to see Día become more established as a literacy initiative and especially would like to see more schools participate. We hope that the anniversary will spur further involvement from sponsors, publishers and libraries.

What are you each reading now?
Bobbie: Bobbie: I just finished Linger, a YA fantasy by Maggie Stiefvater. I loved fantasy as a child and as a teen and I have never outgrown it!
Laurina: I often read more than one book at once – my two current ones are an Irish mysteryLake of Sorrows, by Erin Hart and Tell Us We’re Home, YA fiction by Marina Budhos.

What is a favorite bookjoy memory for each of you?
Bobbie: When we first met, of course we spent time talking about our favorite children’s books. Laurina described her “lost favorite,” a book she’d loved as a child but no longer remembered the title of, but it rang no bells for me. Very soon after, a friend of mine gave me a wonderful old children’s book which I ADORED and immediately sent to Laurina to read…you guessed it! It was the “lost favorite”: A Spell is Cast, by Eleanor Cameron.