Comments Contest

Everyone who comments this week on any Diapalooza post thus far will have a chance to win a signed copy of Pat's Book Fiesta! or posters from Tricycle Press featuring Día. It's easy to comment -- just click the word "comments" at the end of a post. We'd love to hear from you!

Many thanks  to HarperCollins and Tricycle Press for their support of Día and our Díapalooza.

New Book about Día from ALA Editions

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost fifteen years since Pat started talking about Dia. I still remember her telling me about her idea and my response that the Texas State Library would be happy to help promote this fabulous celebration. Why? Because linking books and children is important but it’s also fun! My staff and I put together a little booklet of ideas for librarians to use in developing a Dia celebration. I talked my artistic husband into creating a logo for the cover. That little booklet is still available on the Texas State Library and Archives website and has been shared with thousands of librarians and teachers. 

This year the American Library Association asked me to write a book about Dia to be published next year. The book will compile the history of the celebration, catalog some of the material that is available for people who are implementing community Dia programs, and celebrate the many wonderful ways that libraries and community organizations have been advocating for children and families and reading.

I’m looking forward to reading all of the entries on the Bookjoy Blog but also welcome input and material to be sent directly to me at larsonlibrary(at) yahoo(dot)com. Viva Dia! Let’s keep the celebration alive!

 

An Interview with Raphael López

Today we're featuring a reprise of an interview with Raphael López, the illustrator of Book Fiesta!, Pat's book about Día. The original interview was done in March 2009.

An interview with Rafael López

Rafael López illustrated Pat's book Yum! ¡Mmm! ¡Qué Rico! America's Sproutings. Pat feels very lucky that he has now illustrated two of her books. We love his bold graphic style, bursting with imagination and intense color. We asked him a few questions about his work.

Tell us how you got started as an artist. What drew you to painting?
I grew up in a household of 2 architect parents who loved art books. They were very supportive of my love of drawing from a very early age and through my school years I was lucky enough to have the support and mentorship of wonderful teachers that encourage me to continue with my dream.

Tell us how you got started as an artist. What drew you to painting?
Finding a style needs to come naturally. I see many young talented people looking and imitating the latest trends and styles and I remember going through the same temptations early in my career.
Style will never come when it is forced, it needs to happen naturally, needs to be the result of life experiences, travels, beliefs, the kinds of things that inspire you in everyday life such as music, food, color, texture, family, politics, etc. With the passage of time you look back and surprise yourself by discovering a consistency in a personal style or "feel" to your work.
Mexico continues to influence me, having a second home there, I am connected to its past, its color, music, its history and one of my favorites..."texture." I love old Mexican walls that show the years of wear, the many layers of paint that have been applied, they are like books that invite you to sit, observe and imagine.
continue reading ...

Did you know that the text for Book Fiesta began as a song? You can read about Día's First Song and Book Fiesta's history here.

Día in El Paso

Greetings from the El Paso Public Library! We are presently in the planning phase of our annual Día de los Niños / Día de los Libros celebration to be held Saturday, April 24, 2010 at Washington Park in Central El Paso, Texas. This year will mark our 14th anniversary and we are expecting to give away over 15,000 new books to area children and their families. Our theme for this year’s celebration is Rock & Read! And our special guest is Dora The Explorer!

Please join the El Paso Public Library in recognizing and celebrating Día de los Niños / Día de los Libros. We hope your library will host a Día celebration next year!

Read a full description and list of El Paso's 2010 festivities here. The photos below are from last year.

Book Giveaway

A Big Crowd

Thanks to our guest blogger, Martha A. Toscano, Literacy Coordinator at El Paso PL.

Literacy Quote of the Week

Each Sunday during Díapalooza we'll post a literacy quote in addition to our regular post.

“It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations--something that will help them make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out toward people whose lives are quite different from their own.”
                                     -- Katherine Paterson

Día Translations

Día is a celebration of ALL languages and ALL cultures. You can use these translations in your programing or find others to fit the languages and cultures of your community. We'd like to expand our list, so please add translations to the comments section or write to webcontact@patmora.com.

(My thanks to several members of ALSC for assistance with the translations.)

International Children’s Book Day

Since 1967, on or around Hans Christian Andersen's birthday, 2 April, International Children's Book Day (ICBD) is celebrated to inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children's books.
Each year a different National Section of IBBY has the opportunity to be the international sponsor of ICBD. It decides upon a theme and invites a prominent author from the host country to write a message to the children of the world and a well-known illustrator to design a poster. This year the theme from Spain is A book is waiting for you, find it! The author message is from Eliacer Cansino and the poster illustration is by Noemí Villamuza.  These materials are used in different ways to promote books and reading. Many IBBY Sections promote ICBD through the media and organize activities in schools and public libraries. Often ICBD is linked to celebrations around children's books and other special events that may include encounters with authors and illustrators, writing competitions or announcements of book awards.

Celebrate International Children's Book Day with a trip to the library. Select books from USBBY's Outstanding International Books list found on their website.

Thanks to our guest blogger, Doris Gebel with USBBY.

Díapalooza is Here!

Welcome to our first Díapalooza! We hope you enjoy a month of Día posts--ideas, visuals, inspiration and contests. Today, we're introducing my visual history of our first 15 years of growing reading families and of daily working together across the country to link all children to books, languages and cultures.

Click here to see all the illustrations of the Día Visual History.

Thank you for joining our virtual Día community. We hope you'll visit often and add your thoughts and ideas to the commments section.

Kudos

From a recent press release: "REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, an affiliate of the American Library Association, announces Oralia Garza de Cortés and Susana Hinojosa as the 2010 Arnulfo D. Trejo Librarians of the Year (LOTY). The award is named in honor of Dr. Arnulfo D. Trejo, the founder and first president of REFORMA and is made possible by the generous financial support of the Trejo Foster Foundation for Hispanic Library Education." Both Garza de Cortés and Hinojosa have long and distinguished careers in service to libraries. For more information please see the REFORMA website.

We also have news from REFORMA's Southeast chapter that we want to share. The winners of the first Sara Howrey El día de los niños/El día de los libros Mini-Grant are the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library of Charlotte, North Carolina, and the Thomas B. Norton Public Library of Gulf Shores, Alabama. Charlotte Mecklenburg's theme for this year is Día as "Diversity in Action" and the Norton Library will be holding it's first Día celebration.

Congratulations to all the winners! 

Women's History Month

March, National Women’s History Month, is a grand time to think of the brave and bold women nationally, internationally, and in our own lives. I think of the women who now lead countries and who serve in national and state government positions in the U.S. In a celebrity culture, I think of the usually unknown female musicians, scientists, dancers, painters, women working at non-profits and all the educators investing in the next generation. I think of the unsung women who prepare meals at hospitals and schools, who care for children, the elderly, the dying. I also think of you and me working to make this a better world, each in our own way, and how we draw strength from the determination of a Frida Kahlo, an Eleanor Roosevelt and the poet Lucille Clifton who died recently. How they lift our spirits!

I wrote A LIBRARY FOR JUANA: THE WORLD OF SOR JUANA INÉS to bring attention to Mexico’s most famous woman poet, a prodigy I didn’t hear about until I was an adult. I wrote MARIA PAINTS THE HILL to bring attention to Maria Hesch, a self-taught Santa Fe artist inspired by Grandma Moses, and I wrote DOÑA FLOR: A TALL TALE ABOUT A GIANT WOMAN WITH A GREAT BIG HEART to create a tall tale about an immense yet gentle bilingual woman who spoke all animal languages, “even rattler.”

Together, may we help young women to believe in their potential and to invest in themselves.

      

Announcements

There's still time to register for the National Celebration of Latino Children’s Literature Conference, Connecting Cultures and Celebrating Cuentos, at the University of Alabama April 23 and 24. Nationally-recognized Latino children’s literature expert Oralia Garza de Cortés, award-winning Latina author Monica Brown, and award-winning illustrator Rafael López are all keynote speakers. There'll be breakout sessions, research posters, talks by authors and illustrators, and book signings.

The Reading Tub and others in the Kidlitosphere are winding down the annual blog tour for literacy, Share a Story - Shape a Future. The encouraging and enthusiastic posts offer a huge collection of ideas and thoughts about engaging children and teens as readers and building a community of literacy advocates.

Logo created by Elizabeth Dulemba

Doesn’t a night of storytelling sound like a grand family literacy program? REFORMA is planning such March festivities for Noche de Cuentos. The press release from REFORMA reads:

“The National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking is launching Noche de Cuentos 2010, a family literacy focus program generously supported by the American Library Association as part of ALA President Camila Alire’s Family Literacy Focus Initiative. Noche de Cuentos will be celebrated March 20-27, 2010 in conjunction with World Storytelling Day, observed during the spring equinox on March 20.

REFORMA invites families from Latino communities across the United States to join the global community in the celebration of World Storytelling Day and gather at their libraries to share stories, songs and experiences from their families, their communities, or their countries.

“REFORMA believes that storytelling and the oral traditions are key in the transmission and preservation of culture, as well as a significant tool in developing literacy skills,” says Loida Garcia-Febo, President of REFORMA. The mission of Noche de Cuentos is to promote and preserve the art of storytelling within our Latino communities in the US. “Our language and our stories bind us together, they make us stronger,” says Garcia-Febo.”

In writing about her presidential initiative, Camila Alire noted in the November issue of American Libraries, “The plans [to develop family literacy projects and programs that can be replicated by libraries] are in the spirit of ALA’s Association of Library Service to Children’s El día de los Niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day), the family literacy program founded by Pat Mora in collaboration with the ALA affiliate REFORMA.” How wonderful to see Día’s influence spreading!

Yuri Morales created this amazing poster!