Comments on: To Boost Reading Skills, Latino Children Need More Than Books They Identify With

By: Roberto

Roberto — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 12:01:43 +0000

I agree with Cecy that many Latino parents have taken a hands off approach in their child’s education.
1. Because they don’t understand the system and 2. They feel they are not qualified enough. Yes there are a multitude of areas that need to be touched on to educate anyone. Among those are sight words, phonics, picture to word recognition, etc and start introducing the reading format through oral stories.
These are just a few that lead a child to the joy and success of reading.

By: Jen Greyson

Jen Greyson — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 02:34:38 +0000

According to my boys’ teachers, one of the biggest contributors of whether or not boys grow up to be readers is whether they see their dads read. Luckily, my husband is an avid reader (when he’s not watching football!) and so far, reading is a favorite activity for my boys.

I’m a voracious reader, and some of my favorites are about short, petite, blonde, blue-eyed characters–quite the opposite of me. I agree with you, that I got invested in their journey and story because the authors were great storytellers.

By: Roxana A. Soto

Roxana A. Soto — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 20:05:09 +0000

Exactamente, Tracy! We definitely need more books with characters that just happen to be Latino/a (and from other ethnic backgrounds too). The main thing is that, like you said, they “just happen” to be Latino/a as opposed to forcing the issue just so more books have characters that reflect the Hispanic population.

Thanks for your comment!

By: Tracy López

Tracy López — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 04:31:40 +0000

Great response, Roxana.

Even though I seek out books about Salvadorans for my boys, (because books about Salvadorans are something of a rarity compared to all the books about Mexicans and Mexican-Americans), I’ll be the first to admit that like you, I was a book lover and I have always sought out books for myself that had characters who are very different from me – in fact, the more different, the better!

My thoughts on the original article are similar to yours – my boys don’t need to see someone that LOOKS like them in a story – and I feel like the publishing industry has done a good job of becoming more diverse over the years to reflect the population of the United States… I just want the publishing industry to continue publishing these stories, and to expand into publishing more books with characters that just happen to be Latino/a without it being ABOUT them being Latino/a, know what I mean?

By: Casey

Casey — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 01:25:50 +0000

Absolutely Roxana, I agree with you 100%! Making kids confident readers is not necessarily about seeing oneself reflected, it’s about skill and pride in accomplishment. We often talk about ethnic cultural differences, but very rarely do we extend our understanding of culture to social class, which is just as important if not more in understanding ourselves and others. This is especially true in the case of public schools here as many teachers come from a far different background than their students. Also, thanks for the link, it looks like they have a really good selection.

By: Roxana A. Soto

Roxana A. Soto — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:32:46 +0000

How interesting, Ellie! As I said to Rachel, I’m glad to hear the point of view of someone who deals with literacy all day long because, as you said, it all depends on your background.

I must say that your comment made me think about something else… Why do you think you can’t find books your students can relate to even in Mexico? And what exactly are you looking for?

Whenever I go there or to Peru, where I’m from, I spend a small fortune in books for my children written by local authors. My daughter loves these books because she find them fun and intriguing and although she can relate to some of the stories, it’s only because of the universal message they contain: it’s fun to be a kid, ways kids get in trouble, friends are good to each other, etc.

Would love to see what you think about that…

By: Roxana A. Soto

Roxana A. Soto — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:22:20 +0000

Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Rachel. I was hoping I would hear from teachers and others who have experience teaching kids how to read. I hadn’t thought about how reading something familiar could help a child when they’re just learning a new language. Truth is that the post was hard to write because there are so many different experiences out there and I’m sure each learning situation is different.

By: Roxana A. Soto

Roxana A. Soto — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:18:26 +0000

Agreed, Casey. Thanks for pointing it out. Besides the burden of having to have two or more jobs to help their family make ends meet, I know that for a lot of Latino parents, it is the school’s responsibility to teach their children how to read. Their kids’ education is not something they’re commonly involved in back in their home countries and so there’s a great disconnect in that sense too.

Again, what I was trying to point out is that if you want to teach a child to learn to love books, they don’t all have to make him feel identified or reflected in its characters.

In terms of where to get Spanish language literature, have you checked Let’s Read in Spanish: http://letsreadinspanish.com. I’ve been wanting to write a post about their services and your question just reminded me I still need to do that. Gracias!

By: Roxana A. Soto

Roxana A. Soto — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:10:04 +0000

Yes, Cecy! There are a lot of other issues that need to be taken into consideration when trying to figure out why so many Latino children are not reading. But as I said in the post, I doubt that no seeing themselves portrayed in the books available to them is the main one.

I know I’m writing from a place of privilege and maybe I should have been more clear, but the main message I was trying to convey is that we need to find a way for children — regardless of their background or heritage — to love reading even if the characters in the books they read don’t look anything like them…

By: Lisa ~ AutismWonderland

Lisa ~ AutismWonderland — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 18:50:46 +0000

Thank you for writing this article and sharing your thoughts.

I also grew up passionate about reading and books – way before I was able to see myself within the characters. Once I discovered that there were Latino writers and books – it only made me love reading even more!