December 30, 2010

Wishing You a Happy & Healthy 2011

“Does it snow in Santa Fe?” people often ask in disbelief. Perhaps because they associate the desert with cactus, sand and intense heat, they forget that Santa Fe is in the Rockies at 7,000 feet. These photos are of the 8 inches of snow that recently brought snow’s hush here.



We’ve posted the new video from my fall visit at the National Book Festival and have created a section on Amazon though I always also encourage readers to patronize their local independent book store.

I hope you’ve been finding the Día Nuggets helpful. We’ll be adding Nuggets now through April 2011 on both the website and blog (with links to a downloadable packet of all Nuggets) and welcome your ideas for our second Díapalooza that will occur throughout April.

Like many of you, I’ve been trying to bring order to my desk as the year ends. Am I failing! The stack of papers keeps growing—and growing. I did manage to begin my holiday baking and made bizcochitos, New Mexico’s anise-flavored state cookie. Anyone else out there have a state cookie?

My warm thanks to each of you who has visited this blog in 2010 and a particular thanks to all who are planning 15th Anniversary April Día Celebrations in your community. My hope is that you feel welcome at my web homes, the site and blog, and that you find your visits helpful.

Wishing you holiday bookjoy!

December 23, 2010

Happy Holidays!

May these days be joyful for you and yours!



Good Día news ...
Early this week, ALSC announced 15 winners of El día de los niños/El día del los libros mini-grants.  Intended as an expansion of Día, the mini-grants have been awarded to libraries that demonstrated a need to better address the diverse backgrounds within their communities. The mini-grants are part of ALSC’s Everyone Reads @ your library grant, generously funded by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.

It really makes me smile to think of those libraries putting these funds to good use. 

December 16, 2010

15 Día Nuggets: #4 Mora Award Winners & #5 Places to Celebrate Día

Today, we're posting two new Día Nuggets!  All available Nuggets are on Pat's website, and you can also download a Nugget packet.

If you visit this blog or my web site, you know that April 2011, we’re celebrating Día’s 15th Anniversary. My web team and I were so pleased at comments about our first Díapalooza last April that we’re having a second Díapalooza in 2011. To assist those of you planning Día celebrations at your schools, libraries, etc., we’re sharing 15 Día Nuggets, 15 lists of 15 items to assist you in your planning. During Díapalooza 2011, we’ll showcase the 15 Día Dynamos, 15 Mora Award winners and the 15 Día Nuggets, etc. Send us your I-días!

15 Día Nuggets for Día’s 15th Anniversary
Nugget #4 Mora Award Winners

1. 2010  The Arthur F. Turner Community Library, West Sacramento, CA
2. 2010  Pima County Public Library, Tucson, AZ
3. 2010  Santa Barbara Public Library System, Santa Barbara, CA
4. 2009  San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA
5. 2009  Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, Topeka, KS
6. 2008  Riverside County Library System, Riverside, CA
7. 2008  Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, Charlotte, NC
8. 2007  Broward County Library, Fort Lauderdale, FL
9. 2006  Kenton County Public Library, Covington, KY
10. 2005  REFORMA de Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
11. 2004  Providence Public Library, Providence, RI
12. 2003  Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, Corvallis, OR
13. 2002  Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR
14. 2001  El Paso Public Library, El Paso, TX
15. 2000  Austin Public Library, Austin, TX

15 Día Nuggets for Día’s 15th Anniversary
Nugget #5 Places to Celebrate Día

1. Libraries
2. Schools
3. Homes
4. Universities
5. Community centers
6. Museums
7. Bookstores
8. Faith centers
9. Childcare centers
10. Parks
11. Homeless shelters, soup kitchens
12. Hospitals and clinics
13. TV and radio stations, the Web
14. Housing complexes
15. The White House, Governors’ Mansions, Legislatures

December 9, 2010

15 Dia Nuggets: #3 Literacy-focused Programming Día I-días for Educators at libraries, schools, and universities

If you visit this blog or my web site, you know that April 2011, we’re celebrating Día’s 15th Anniversary. My web team and I were so pleased at comments about our first Díapalooza last April that we’re having a second Díapalooza in 2011. To assist those of you planning Día celebrations at your schools, libraries, etc., we’re sharing 15 Día Nuggets, 15 lists of 15 items to assist you in your planning. This list is the third Día Nugget. We’ll post the Nuggets on this blog periodically and archive them on my site as we do the Día Dynamos. During Díapalooza 2011, we’ll showcase the 15 Día Dynamos, 15 Mora Award winners and the 15 Día Nuggets, etc. Send us your I-días!

Literacy-focused Programming Día I-días for Educators at libraries, schools, and universities
 1. Plan a reading carnival with book-focused games such as a book walk instead of a cakewalk, book bingo, and book cover matching.
2. Invite a professional storyteller to teach children how to tell their own stories.
3. Have children and families make and decorate their own books or journals.
4. Decorate school hallways with multicultural book covers, create special displays of bilingual and world language books from the school library’s collection, and ask classroom teachers to include read-alouds with multicultural themes in their classrooms.
5. Have a party to celebrate books. Children can exchange books as party gifts and play games about their favorite books.
6. Hold a book festival and parade and ask children to dress as characters from their favorite stories.
7. Plan bilingual/multilingual story hours featuring readers of various languages spoken in the community.
8. Include poetry in your celebration: invite a poetry slam champion to host a slam event or training; integrate a poetry reading with music; mount a photography and haiku exhibition; fly poetry kites.
9. Use technology: hold a book trailer video contest; schedule an author visit via Skype; plan an April geocaching event ( GPS treasure hunt) with book-related prizes.
10. Plan a creative presentation on Día as a kick-off for the 2011 summer reading theme “One World, Many Stories.”
11. Invite library users to “see the world through books.” Use a passport booklet that is stamped after visiting literacy stations throughout the library. Enter all completed passports in a drawing for free books.
12. Pair readers of different age levels for read-alouds: principals can read a favorite childhood book to elementary students; middle schoolers and teens can help with storytimes and schedule reading time at childcare centers.
13. Set up a photo contest with the theme of people reading.
14. Organize a book drive and deliver books during April as part of a Día celebration.
15. At middle schools, celebrate El día de los jovenes/El día de los libros, Young People's Day/Book Day, and have students plan and perform stories and original work at their own school or at an elementary school or library. Organize a Batchelder Awards (translated books first published in the US) book club.

December 2, 2010

This Month's Día Dynamo is Joseph Rodriguez

R. Joseph Rodriguez &
nephew Pete Ezekiel Rodriguez
About twenty years ago, when I was still living in El Paso, I received a letter from a boy in Houston asking if I would be his “poet friend.” The boy, Joseph Rodriguez, now my cherished friend, included his photo. The first ten Día Dynamos are librarians, most working in public libraries. With Joseph, I introduce other equally committed dynamos who don’t spend their days with library patrons. Joseph’s doctorate is in education, and he works at the University of Texas at Austin on improving teaching effectiveness. In the years I’ve had the pleasure to know Joseph, he has been a creative advocate for diversity and for literacy, for bookjoy. His passion and planning consistently inspire me. Gracias, Joseph, for your commitment to Día.



1. When and how did you become interested in sharing bookjoy?
RJR: In 2001, a group of community organizers and I got together to advance family literacy and promote college readiness. We founded the East End Education Project in Houston, Texas. We established “Bookjoy in the East End,” an annual program to celebrate the power and joy of languages, books, and storytelling. We established partnerships with the Children’s Museum of Houston, Houston Chronicle, Houston Community College, HoustonPBS Channel 8, and Houston Public Library, among others.

2. How did you first learn about Día and what has been your experience with Día?
RJR: I learned about Día in 1996, and since then I have worked with literacy teams and volunteers to adopt and promote Día. I have seen Día grow in the lives of children and families in places where I have lived: Gambier, Ohio; Willimantic, Connecticut; Houston and Austin, Texas.

3. What are your hopes for Día 2011, Día’s 15th Anniversary?
RJR: I hope that more organizations and schools adopt and promote Día—even on a daily basis—and recognize how relevant multiple literacies are to create and interpret meaning across world languages and human cultures. Literacy has been my passport to discover worlds beyond my own, and I want to share this experience and Día with more generations of readers and thinkers.

4. What helpful tip(s) do you have for those organizing a Día event for the first time?
RJR: My recommendation would be to adopt the practice of collaboration with organizations and businesses committed to linking families and children to books and diverse languages. Our Día work in many towns and cities across the country has been strengthened with people who recognize the benefits of literacy and multilingualism in the lives of readers of all ages, colors, and abilities.

5. What is your favorite example of Bookjoy as either a child or an adult?
RJR: A few years ago, I explained to an editor at the Houston Chronicle how our family would sit together in our living room to work on puzzles and board games or we would find our favorite reading spot in our house, including the front patio and backyard. Literacy happened everywhere and even in public spaces: riding on Houston’s MTA buses to the supermercado or neighborhood library or even while eating a raspa at the park. Words and ideas were alive—then and now. I am fascinated at how interconnected the word libre is to libro.

6. What are you reading now?
RJR: Every day, I read and reread to shape my thinking and creativity.

I just finished reading Pat Mora’s letters to teachers in ZING! Seven Creativity Practices for Educators and Students (2010). As an educator, I am motivated to practice my personal creativity with my students.

I am enjoying Evidence (2009), a volume of poems by Mary Oliver.

A native of Wisconsin recommended Rascal (1963) by Sterling North, and I am learning about a young boy’s adventures and how animals can become our best friends.

Since I was a young boy, I have been interested in the Statue of Liberty, which was originally named “Liberty Enlightening the World.” (Isn’t that a great name for a statue that also describes the power of literacy?) At a school book fair in Creedmoor, Texas, I found Lady Liberty: A Biography (2008) written by Doreen Rappaport and illustrated by Matt Tavares. The words and art capture the detail and history of this gift to the U.S. from the French.