Bilingual Nonfiction Book for Earth Day

This Monday, April 22 is el Día de la Tierra, Earth Day.  I recently discovered a book that would be wonderful for marking this holiday in bilingual storytime.  I Love Our Earth / Amo nuestra tierra by Bill Martin, Jr. is a rare find indeed.  It's simple and brief text is lovely in both languages and is short enough to be a perfect storytime choice.  This is sometimes difficult to find in bilingual nonfiction!  The book is illustrated with beautiful photos of real people and real landscapes from around the world.  It would be a nice choice for storytimes on colors and seasons as well.

Spanglish Baby has created a Pinterest pinboard of bilingual Earth Day ideas.  You can can find crafts and printables for celebrating el Día de la Tierra from Primera Escuela as well.

How are you celebrating Earth Day?  Please leave a comment to let us know how it goes if you share this book in your program, have other Earth Day ideas or want to suggest other bilingual nonfiction titles that work well in storytime!

Bilingual Book to Know: Tito Puente: Mambo King/Rey del Mambo

Tito Puente: Mambo King/Rey del Mambo has finally arrived!  I have been waiting for this book to come out since I first heard Brown and Lopez talk about it at the 2010 National Latino Literature Conference.  I have to say, it was worth the wait! This book is going to be so much fun to share with kids and incorporate into storytimes.  I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!  See my review from Mamiverse Books below and a book trailer narrated by Brown and Lopez.

Tito Puente: Mambo King/Rey del Mambo

Tito Puente: Mambo King/Rey del Mambo
By Monica Brown • Illustrated by Rafael López
Translated by Adriana Domínguez
Rayo/HarperCollins • 2013 • 32 pages
Hardcover ($17.99)
ISBN: 978-0061227837
Ages 4-8

Monica Brown and Rafael López (the duo behind the award-winning My Name is Celia: The Life of Celia Cruz/Me llamo Celia: La vida de Celia Cruz) have teamed up again to create an illustrated biography of one of America’s most important and beloved Latino musicians: Tito Puente, Mambo King/Rey del Mambo. This book captivates readers with its lively energy right from the cover, which portrays an enthusiastic Tito swept up in a whirlwind of music.

While some of Brown’s past biographies have been of a length and depth appropriate for older school-age children, this title focuses on Tito’s lifelong passion for music rather than on presenting extensive information about his life. This keeps the text fast-paced and age-appropriate for a younger pre-school audience, which will delight in Lopez’s imaginative full-spread illustrations. Mamis, teachers and librarians will be thrilled to see that this bilingual title is of appropriate length to share with younger children in both languages! Additionally, Brown’s incorporation of repeated onomatopoeia invites readers and listeners to join in, tapping or chanting out the “¡Tum Tica! ¡Tac Tic! ¡Tum Tic! ¡Tom Tom!” as Tito and his friends make joyful music together.

A photo and further factual information about Tito are provided at the end, as well as a musical notation for the repeated rhythm. Playful and vibrant in both text and illustration, this title successfully keeps the spirit of Tito Puente alive for a whole new generation.

—Reviewed by Katie Cunningham, Library Professional and Blogger, ¡Es Divertido Hablar Dos Idiomas! 

Celebramos César Chavez

Librarians and teachers working with elementary students have several wonderful picture books available to celebrate César Chavez Day, which is celebrated as a state holiday in California, Colorado and Texas on March 31.  César Chavez was an important Latino leader who, along with his partner Dolores Huerta, helped migrant farm workers organize to demand decent working conditions.  This movement and Chavez are associated with the rallying cry, "¡Sí, se puede!"  "Yes, we can!"

Here are some ideas of books, activities and more that can be used in the classroom or in library programs.

César, a 2006 Pura Belpré honor recipient for both text and illustration, presents the life and work of César Chavez in brief, English-language poems.  Written by Carmen Bernier-Grand and illustrated by David Diaz.

A Picture Book of Cesar Chavez by David and Michael Adler and illustrated by Marie Olofsdotter presents a biography appropriate in length and depth for younger elementary students.

Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez (also available in Spanish) is an excellent biography, and a recipient of the 2004  Pura Belpré illustration honor.  Written by Kathleen Krull and illustrated by Yuyi Morales.

César Chavez: The Struggle of Justice / La lucha por la historia presents a biography of César in a bilingual format.

Dolores Huerta: A Hero to Migrant Workers celebrates César's partner, who fought alongside him and was a fearless leader herself.

Perhaps my favorite, Side by Side: The Story of Dolores Huerta and César Chavez / Lado a lado: La historia de Dolores Huerta y César Chavez presents the story of each of these important leaders and their work together.

A biography of César Chavez followed by printables and other activities from Enchanted Learning.

Many resources, including booklists and video, for parents and teachers of migrant students from Colorín Colorado.

How will you celebrate the legacy of César Chavez?

Learn Bilingual Storytime with Katie! New Online Course

Hi everyone!  I am really excited to share with you that "Bilingual Storytime at Your Biblioteca," a new course I am teaching through Library Juice Academy is now open for registration!  Through this course I teach participants to design bilingual and culturally inclusive storytime programs, even when they do not speak Spanish.  The course features video demonstrations of bilingual songs, rhymes and stories, but like the one that I shared in Flannel Friday: Owls! Lechuzas! Búhos! I love teaching this class, so I hope to see many of you there!  The description and registration information is below.  Please share!  Also, please don't hesitate to be in touch if you have any questions.

If you'd like to learn a little more about me and my experience as it pertains to serving Latinos and Spanish-speakers, feel free to visit the Connected Communities website, or read this interview from Library Juice Academy.

Bilingual Storytime at Your Biblioteca

Instructor: Katie Cunningham
Dates: April 1-28, 2013
Credits: 1.5 CEUs
Price: $175

Description: This 4-week, online course teaches participants how to present bilingual storytimes (English/Spanish) for various ages, regardless of their own language skills. Video demonstrations, articles, online resources and course discussions direct students as they learn how to successfully deliver the various elements of bilingual storytimes, either on their own or with a bilingual community partner. Participants will discover new books, rhymes, songs, plans and resources that they can immediately put to use in their bilingual storytime programs.

Learning Objectives:

• Students will learn how to select and use the following components in bilingual storytime: books, songs, rhymes, fingerplays, and stories for telling aloud.
• Students will experiment with incorporating bilingual materials into their existing storytime programs.
• Students will select books and other materials they can use to increase inclusion of Latino culture and the Spanish language in their English storytime programs.
• Students will develop strategies for working with bilingual community partners to present and market bilingual storytime.
• Students will gain an increased understanding of the early literacy and school readiness needs of Latino children.
• Students will articulate how bilingual storytime supports the early literacy and school readiness needs of Latino children, and identify online resources for sharing early literacy and school readiness information with Spanish-speaking parents.
• Students will each develop two bilingual storytime plans.

Rhyme Time en Español

Serving on the 2013 Pura Belpré award committee was easily one of the greatest honors I have experienced thus far in my career.  However, now that my term is over and our winners were selected, I am thrilled to be able to blog about books again!

Yanitzia Canetti has been on my radar for a long time due to her excellent translation work.  I have always been particularly impressed by how well she maintains rhyme, making changes to literal content when necessary in order to preserve the context, rhythm and intention of the story.  Some examples include La llama llama rojo pijama, Cerdota grandota,and Cha-cha-cha en la selva.  So I am especially thrilled that she has recently published her own book of Spanish children's rhymes, Uno, Dos, Tres: My First Spanish Rhymes.

This title presents dozens of Spanish rhymes organized by topic, such as "Let's Travel / A pasear" and "Let's Play / A jugar."  The rhymes are all in Spanish, but the end pages in the back provides some explanation and English translation.  The title also contains a CD so you can hear the rhymes in addition to reading them.  I know for me this is always useful, as I like to use traditional rhymes in my storytime programs but did not grow up speaking Spanish, so I'm always looking to learn new rhymes that will resonate with the families I serve.  The rhymes aren't titled in the book, which makes their presentation at times a little unclear.  I also wish that the notes at the end included information about in which countries the various rhymes are common. Overall, however, this is an excellent title, a must-have for libraries and definitely one that any librarian offering Spanish/bilingual storytimes and/or serving Spanish-speaking families should know.

Flannel Friday: Owls! Lechuzas! Búhos!

A while back, Leah Kulikowski shared a totally cute pattern for owls to go with the rhyme "Five Little Hoot Owls."  I also discovered the fingerplay "Wide-Eyed Owl" from Storytime Katie.  Today I am sharing my Spanish translations of each of these.

Cinco lechucitas

Cinco lechucitas sentadas en un árbol.
¡Una se fue volando! ¿Cuántas están quedando?

Cuatro lechucitas sentadas en un árbol.
¡Una se fue volando! ¿Cuántas están quedando?

Tres lechucitas sentadas en un árbol.
¡Una se fue volando! ¿Cuántas están quedando?

Dos lechucitas sentadas en un árbol.
¡Una se fue volando! ¿Cuántas están quedando?

Una lechucita sentada en árbol. 

¡Se fue volando! Ahora, ninguna está quedando.

Leah is so awesome that she has a pattern of her little owls on her blog already, so I'm going to link back to her instead of uploading my pieces as a PDF.  But I do have a video demonstration of this rhyme to share.  This video was produced by the Library of Virginia for my online course "Bilingual Storytime at Your Bilioteca."  The next session of this course is being offered by Library Juice Academy in April.

And finally, Wide-Eyed Owl.  For this rhyme, I like to use an owl puppet or a larger version of one of the owls above.

There’s a Wide-Eyed Owl / El búho con ojos grandes
There's a wide-eyed owl (circle your eyes with your hands)
With a pointed nose (make a beak with your fingers)
Two pointed ears (make ears with your fingers)
And claws for toes (wiggle your "claws")
He lives way up (point way up)
In the tree (way, way up)
And when he looks at you (point to children)
He flaps his wings (flap your wings)
And says, "Whoo! Whoo!" (keep flappin' till the owls come home)

Hay un buho con ojos grandes
Con una nariz puntiaguda
Dos orejitas
Y pezuñas afiladas como deditos
El vive arriba
Muy alto en el árbol
Y cuando les mira
El bate las alitas
Y dice, “Juuu, juuu."

Online Course: Connecting with Spanish-Speaking Communities

I am teaching a course on outreach to Latino and Spanish-speaking communities in March through Library Juice Academy.  The information is below.  This is a great class not only for youth services librarians, but also outreach librarians, adult services librarians, managers and even administrators who are working to make their libraries more inclusive of Latino and Spanish-speaking communities.  Please feel free to email me if you have any questions about the course: katie@connectedcommunitiesconsulting.com.

Connecting with Spanish-Speaking Communities

Description: A 4-week online course through which participants create an Outreach Plan designed to increase library use by and service to Spanish-speaking immigrant communities.  This course is designed to be most useful to organizations and staff serving communities of first-generation, Spanish-speaking immigrants and their families, particularly when organizations lack bilingual/bicultural staff.  Participants learn strategies, discover resources and develop confidence they can use to reach out to this underserved community and connect them with library services.  

Learning Objectives:

• Students will identify and select appropriately useful online and print resources available to libraries serving Latinos and Spanish-speakers.
• Students will generate strategies for building relationships between Latino community and the library, based on case studies and real-life examples of successful outreach.
• Students will identify specific barriers to library access experienced by Latino and Spanish-speaking communities and articulate specific outreach steps to remove access barriers.
• Students will apply the outreach process to their own specific organizations by identifying potential partner agencies and community leaders serving Spanish-speakers in their communities.
• Students will generate ideas for effectively marketing relevant library services to Latino and Spanish-speaking communities.
• Students incorporate this learning into the creation of an Outreach Plan for their organization.

Upcoming Session: March 1 – March 31 via Library Juice Academy.  Register at http://libraryjuiceacademy.com/032-spanish-speaking.php.   Cost is $175.