From: Nina Lindsay <linds_na>
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 09:35:11 -0800 (PST)

On Sat, 18 Mar 2000 ALevine at Scholastic.com wrote:


This is an issue that seems obvious now that you mention it Arthur, but which had really never occurred to me. Another thought to throw into the mix. I do use both bilingual or Spanish-language only books in my storytimes, but I am more likely to use the former, especially for the regularly scheduled storytimes where anyone might show up. I read the English and the Spanish, page by page (alternating languages), which chops up the story, but lets everyone hear both languages. One book that works particularly well this way is "Hairs/Pelitos", a picture book version of a chapter from Sandra Cisneros' "House on Mango Street". Because her text is so lyrical, it reads kind of like a call and response song, each line in one language, then the other (I usually switch, throughout the book, which line I read first). I tend to use Spanish-language only picture books only when a bilingual class is visiting the library for a storytime. I do like it when publishers issue English and Spanish versions of a book simultaneously (or one soon after the other)-- for a public library branch that can afford it (and mine was a small one, but I was able to do it) it's nice to have multiple copies in both languages. Then, if I read one version or the other at storytime, I have it both languages to offer parents afterwards.

Nina Lindsay, Children's Librarian Oakland Public Library, CA linds_na at oaklandlibrary.org
Received on Mon 20 Mar 2000 11:35:11 AM CST