SB Finds : Books + Libros

In 2007 Target, in partnership with The Heart of America Foundation, launched the Target School Library Makeover. The goal was, and still is, to help more children read proficiently by the end of third grade. So how exactly does Target help children accomplish this? The program helps revive school libraries across the country that are in need by providing them with a new surplus of books and technology that will surely get kids excited about reading. This year’s program willRead More ...

As soon as I put the Salsa para gatitos y perritos CD in our car’s CD player, my kids started swaying to the music. And who wouldn’t? This magical CD contains 15 songs that are alternatively sung in English and Spanish. The rhythms are catchy and the lyrics easy to memorize so that even little children like my 2-year-old can sing-along. I was so enthralled by the quality of the music of my pick for this month’s Scholastic Parent CircleRead More ...

Though we do our best to offer you easy access to Spanish and bilingual books, we all have to admit it’s still far more of a challenge to find good Latino-themed children’s literature than it is to find great Anglo-centric books. That’s why we love it when we see someone else participating in the search and producing great resources for Latinos and other ethnic groups. The same organization that brought us the Read Early, Read ALOUD! campaign has just releasedRead More ...

In the mood for besos y abrazos? Your day is here. Remember to celebrate el día de San Valentín (or Día del Amor y la Amistad) with all of your Valentines, young and old. It’s a good opportunity to discuss the proverbial ties that bind and the reason we are all making such great efforts to raise well-rounded, bilingual kids: ¡AMOR! Keep the love alive by starting a collection of LOVEly books like the ones below. Find them, along with tonsRead More ...

A gem, that’s how I describe the three books I got last week from Heritage Language – a husband and wife team who noticed the huge need for bilingual books to help both Spanish and English language learners and decided to create their own books with audio. First of all, the books are well-written both in English and in Spanish. The best part? The translations are not literal, which means that the Heritage Language folks totally get it. Translating wordRead More ...

Like any little girl her age, my 5-year-old daughter loves to draw. Like any little brother, my 2-year-old son loves to copy her. And so they can sit there for a nice long while surrounded by paper and crayons, markers, pens and pencils. She drawing and making up her own little books and him scribbling. I’m not a very artistic person, but I do love art. Although my husband doesn’t really draw, he’s been a photographer and videographer for moreRead More ...

Just in time for MLK day and following the Fall 2011 release of the new children’s book, Chocolate Me, I had the opportunity to participate in a bloggers’ panel with actor and author Taye Diggs. Diggs, along with childhood friend Shane Evans, created this autobiographical story about a black boy who feels out of place in a class full of white children. He is preoccupied with his looks until his mother reassures him by telling him that he has “cottonRead More ...

One of the best parts of raising bilingual and bicultural children is that from the get go they are exposed to more than just one culture. Plus, because both my husband and I have family outside the United States, my children have had the opportunity to travel and experience how people live in other countries. So I was intrigued when I saw a set of three books entitled Nuestra Comunidad Global (Our Global Community) on Scholastic’s Club Leo catalog and IRead More ...