Professional Development Opportunities Children's Librarians Serving Latino Youth

April has two exciting professional development opportunities for those serving multicultural communities, both of which are particularly relevant if you work with Latino children and families.  The first is in northern Ohio at Kent State University on April 8th and 9th.  This is the 26th annual Virginia Hamilton Conference on Multicultural Literature for Youth, which is described as "a forum of multicultural themes and issues in literature for children and young adults."  Laurie Halse Anderson, Pam Muñoz Ryan and R. Gregory Christie will all be featured presenters discussing their work.  Breakout sessions include topics such as literature for young adults, literature from West Asia, exploring Latino culture in picture books and more.  I will be presenting a session on bilingual storytime at this conference too.  All of my handouts and my powerpoint from the presentation will be made available on this blog after the conference.  Registration is now open.

Another conference even more relevant to those serving Latino youth is the third annual Latino Children's Literature Conference: Connecting Cultures and Celebrating Cuentos in Tuscaloosa at the University of Alabama.  The dates are April 23rd and 24th.  Registration is also open for this event.  Featured keynote speakers are Dr. Monica Brown, Oralia Garza de Cortés, Rafael López, and Dr. Carmen Tafolla.  I am incredibly excited to be attending this conference for the first time this year!  There will be breakout sessions and poster presentations on Friday and Saturday, as well as a Noche de Cuentos community event Friday night at the Tuscaloosa Public Library.  I am really looking forward to meeting with and learning from authors, illustrators, researchers and other practitioners serving Latino families at this conference.

Planning to be at either event?  I hope to see you there!  Leave a comment to share any other upcoming professional development opportunities you know of that may be relevant to librarians serving multicultural communities.