My Bilingual School Library Contest

April 30th is the 15th anniversary of Children's Books Day/El Dia de los ninos (or simply Dia) At School Library Journal, I came across a great contest in honor of Dia.

Spanglishbaby has announced My Bilingual School Library Contest

"While our children are not yet school-aged, we’re aware of the huge need dual language elementary schools, schools with ELL programs and those that teach Spanish to their students at the elementary level have in terms of reading material in Spanish (or bilingual). We’ve heard from many teachers in these schools that they have such small budgets that they end up bringing their own bilingual or Spanish books to share with their students. We believe so strongly in the importance of literacy when raising bilingual children that we decided to help change this by stocking one bilingual school’s library with as many books as we could get.

To that end, we’ve joined forces with some of the major bilingual/Spanish publishing houses we’ve been working with in the last two years and they’ve graciously agreed to donate a total of $500 worth of books to ONE very lucky bilingual school library"

Accepting entries until May 8

Children's Book Day/ El Dia de los ninos

On April 30th Children's Book Day/ El Dia de los ninos is celerbrated. It advocates literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds, and connecting all children to books, languages, and cultures. It was started in 1996 by children's author Pat Mora. - Colorin Colorado, to find out more

In honor of El Dia de los ninos Freda Mosquera recommends a few Latino picture books that were published in 2010 over at the School Library Journal. It's always feels good to have read more than half of the books on a list. It feels even better when to have loved the books read.

One of the recommended titles is Floating on Mama's Song by Laura Lacamara.


Lacamara has a great new post up at Latin Baby Book Club. How My Hair Suffered in Translation from Cuban Latina to Suburban American

I love the Latin Baby Book Club blog, its a great place to find out about Latino picture books. Yesterday, Monica one of the contributors blogged about a new release. Celebrating Cuentos: Promoting Latino Children's Literature and Literacy in Classrooms and Libraries edited by Jamie Campbell Naidoo.

A few new picture books for 2011.






Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People by Monica Brown, illus. by Julie Paschkis. Its recieved a starred Kirkus review

Abuelos by Pat Mora, illus. by Ameila Lau Carling. This is the only paperback new release but its by Pat Mora and since she started Dia its making the list.

Ladder to the Moon by Maya Soetoro Ng, illus by Yuyi Morales. A great preview Two starred reviews, Booklist and Publisher Weekly

The Cazuela that the farm Maiden Stirred by Samantha R. Vamos illus by Rafael Lopez. It's recieved two starred reviews. Kirkus and School Library Journal

Diego Rivera: His World and Ours by Duncan Tonatiuh. The author's first book Dear Primo was released last year. It recieved four honors,inculding a Pura Belpre honor.

Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown illus. by John Parra