CCBC-Net Archives
CCBC Americas Discussion Outcomes
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 22:24:24 -0600
Teachers in all levels of public school, including high school; school library media specialists; university librarians; and other adults interested in Latino literature gathered for three and a half hours on March 16 to discuss ten books with Latino themes or topics.
This CCBC book discussion was conducted in partnership with the Madison Metropolitan School District. Julie Kline, national coordinator of the actual annual Americas Awards came from UW-Milwaukee to be with us that evening.
The books on the discussion list were published during 1998 for children and young adults. According to discussion participants that evening, the outstanding books are:
THE WINNER:
"Barrio: Jose's Neighborhood" written and illustrated with photographs by George Ancona (Harcourt Brace, 1998) 48 pages. (hardcover edition in English; paperback editions in Spanish and in English)
Nine-year-old Jose Luis feels very much at home in el barrio, his neighborhood in San Francisco's Mission District. On his daily walks between his house and Cesar Chavez Elementary School, he passes brightly colored murals that tell the history of his people, both in his parent's native country, Mexico, and in Jose's country, the United States. In the neighborhood, his culture is frequently celebrated with community fiestas and in school he learns not only about his own heritage, but about those of his African American and Asian American classmates. George Ancona documents Jose's life in el barrio over the course of several months, and he does so with a concise text and with studnning color photographss that bring the neighborhood to life. (Ages 5)
HONOR BOOKS:
1) "Mama and Papa Have a Store" written and illustrated by Amelia Lau Carling (Dial, 1998) 32 pages
This distinctive autobiographical picture book features a Chinese immigrant family living in Guatemala City. Told from the point of view of their youngest daughter, Amelia, the story centers on all the activity in and around the family's busy store on a typical day. Aspects of the family's Chinese heritage are interwoven with cultural details relating to their new home in Guatemala. The brightly colored Chinces thread the family sells, for example, is popular with Mayan weavers, who take a bus from their village far away to shop in the Chinese store. Carling's detailed watercolor paintings give a good sense of life on a bustling city street in Central America, as well of the specifics of little Amelia's family life. (Ages 4-8)
2) "From the Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems = Del Ombligo de la Luna y Otros Poemas de Verano" written by Francisco Alarcon and illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez (Children's Book Press, 1998) 32 pages
The second bilingual picture book collection of Alarcon's original poems published for children is brimming with summer sights, summer sounds, and summer memories. The shorter poems in the collection are startling for their clarity and sense of perfection as they describe a summer-related feeling, aspect of nature, or memory in as few as eight words. The slightly longer poems sing with the cadence of personal story as they chronicle experiences specific to a child of Mexican heritage, but they are no less accessible than the shorter poems to any child who has ever loved language, or who has attached meaning to specific people and places. This Spanish/Elglish collection, like Alacon's earlier
"Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems," is illustrated with Maya Christina Gonzalez's celebratory paintings that reflect a child's joy in nature and family. (Ages 7)
The brief comments above are excerpted from "CCBC Choices 1998."
All typos here are mine. My apologies for not knowing an e-mail way of inserting diacritical markings into words requiring them.
See the section of "CCBC Choices 1998" titled "Observations about Publishing in 1998" for a brief discussion of Latino literature in general. Although there were more than ten books about Latino themes and topics published last year, the overall number was astonishingly small.
...Ginny
Received on Wed 31 Mar 1999 10:24:24 PM CST
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 22:24:24 -0600
Teachers in all levels of public school, including high school; school library media specialists; university librarians; and other adults interested in Latino literature gathered for three and a half hours on March 16 to discuss ten books with Latino themes or topics.
This CCBC book discussion was conducted in partnership with the Madison Metropolitan School District. Julie Kline, national coordinator of the actual annual Americas Awards came from UW-Milwaukee to be with us that evening.
The books on the discussion list were published during 1998 for children and young adults. According to discussion participants that evening, the outstanding books are:
THE WINNER:
"Barrio: Jose's Neighborhood" written and illustrated with photographs by George Ancona (Harcourt Brace, 1998) 48 pages. (hardcover edition in English; paperback editions in Spanish and in English)
Nine-year-old Jose Luis feels very much at home in el barrio, his neighborhood in San Francisco's Mission District. On his daily walks between his house and Cesar Chavez Elementary School, he passes brightly colored murals that tell the history of his people, both in his parent's native country, Mexico, and in Jose's country, the United States. In the neighborhood, his culture is frequently celebrated with community fiestas and in school he learns not only about his own heritage, but about those of his African American and Asian American classmates. George Ancona documents Jose's life in el barrio over the course of several months, and he does so with a concise text and with studnning color photographss that bring the neighborhood to life. (Ages 5)
HONOR BOOKS:
1) "Mama and Papa Have a Store" written and illustrated by Amelia Lau Carling (Dial, 1998) 32 pages
This distinctive autobiographical picture book features a Chinese immigrant family living in Guatemala City. Told from the point of view of their youngest daughter, Amelia, the story centers on all the activity in and around the family's busy store on a typical day. Aspects of the family's Chinese heritage are interwoven with cultural details relating to their new home in Guatemala. The brightly colored Chinces thread the family sells, for example, is popular with Mayan weavers, who take a bus from their village far away to shop in the Chinese store. Carling's detailed watercolor paintings give a good sense of life on a bustling city street in Central America, as well of the specifics of little Amelia's family life. (Ages 4-8)
2) "From the Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems = Del Ombligo de la Luna y Otros Poemas de Verano" written by Francisco Alarcon and illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez (Children's Book Press, 1998) 32 pages
The second bilingual picture book collection of Alarcon's original poems published for children is brimming with summer sights, summer sounds, and summer memories. The shorter poems in the collection are startling for their clarity and sense of perfection as they describe a summer-related feeling, aspect of nature, or memory in as few as eight words. The slightly longer poems sing with the cadence of personal story as they chronicle experiences specific to a child of Mexican heritage, but they are no less accessible than the shorter poems to any child who has ever loved language, or who has attached meaning to specific people and places. This Spanish/Elglish collection, like Alacon's earlier
"Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems," is illustrated with Maya Christina Gonzalez's celebratory paintings that reflect a child's joy in nature and family. (Ages 7)
The brief comments above are excerpted from "CCBC Choices 1998."
All typos here are mine. My apologies for not knowing an e-mail way of inserting diacritical markings into words requiring them.
See the section of "CCBC Choices 1998" titled "Observations about Publishing in 1998" for a brief discussion of Latino literature in general. Although there were more than ten books about Latino themes and topics published last year, the overall number was astonishingly small.
...Ginny
Received on Wed 31 Mar 1999 10:24:24 PM CST
