Congratulations to the winner: Donna Hunt! Thanks for all who entered.
Growing up, I definitely remember celebrating El Día del Niño. I don’t particularly remember the date of this celebration, but that’s probably because it takes place on a different date in each of the Latin American countries I lived in as a child – Perú, México and Argentina. I do remember, however; that it was “our” day and everything revolved around us, just like when everything revolves around mami on Mother’s or papi on Father’s Day.
I hadn’t really paid too much attention to celebrating this day here in the States, but thanks to all the research associated with putting together this blog and the fact that Vanessa is now old enough to enjoy this type of celebration, I was thrilled when I found out about El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros – which turns 13 years old today and is the brainchild of award-winning bilingual children’s author, Pat Mora – not only because it celebrates a los niños, but also one of my favorite things in the whole world: LIBROS!
In Mora’s words, she created Día (as this celebration is known) in an effort to “link all children to books, languages and cultures.” This is how Mora, a native from El Paso, Texas, describes how the idea was born: “As a mom, I knew that children often ask, ‘Why do we have Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and not Children’s Day?’ As a reader, I wanted (and want) to foster ‘bookjoy.’ Ah-ha, I thought. What if we link a celebration of children with literacy, an issue central to the well-being of children.”
Let’s Celebrate!
Today, April 30th, is the culmination of a month long celebration of children and books sponsored mostly by public and school libraries, museums, community centers and bookstores around the country. I know that in Colorado, where I live, there have been a series of events throughout the state and that more than 400 libraries nationwide have posted their celebrations at Día’s official website. But even if you can’t find any events near you, the main idea behind Día is that we all encourage our children to read and our libraries to reflect this country’s diversity.
“When the idea for Día came to me from above in the spring of 1996, I had been writing first for adults and then for children, and I noticed that books by Latinos and about Latinos were not being published and supported as they should be given our demographics,” Mora said via email from her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, right before she left to participate in Día celebrations across the United States. “One in four children under five today in the U.S. is Latino, yet only 2% of the children’s books published are by or about Latinos.”
Mora, who was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, has written more than 25 books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction for adults and children – many of them bilingual.
“Iwrite bilingual books because I am bilingual. I have no memory of not speaking both languages. Lucky me,” she explained. “I want Latino children to be proud of their home or heritage language. Sadly, my publishers tell me that bilingual books don’t sell that well. In addition to buying these books, people who value languages need to speak to their schools, libraries and book stores about purchasing and promoting these books.”
So what else can we do to help change this? The simplest answer: READ, READ AND READ. I love the idea that Ana came up with to start a tradition to buy Camila a new Spanish-language book every year on this date, El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros. So I copied her idea and went and got none other than Pat Mora’s beautifully illustrated Book Fiesta! – her latest bilingual children’s book.
When I read the title to Vanessa, she got really excited and asked: “una fieta, ¿pa mi?” And I told her that indeed, it was a party for her because it was her day, El Día de los Niños! Both my daughter and I were enthralled by the intense colors that jump off the pages to convey a simple message: Reading is fun!
Vanessa’s favorite page, by far, is the one with the big picture of the moon because she has to flip the book on its side to be able to read what it says:
Y en nuestras camitas le leemos a la luna,
All About Books…
Book Fiesta is actually an expansion of the song Mora came up with a few years ago to celebrate Día. You can read the lyrics here. Another one of the great things about this book is that it includes a list of ideas for celebrating El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros, including:
Host a Book Fiesta with food, music and games – but make sure books are at the center of your celebration!
- give away books as party favors or gifts
- select one book as the party theme and decorate accordingly
- help children dress up as their favorite books or characters
- include storytellers and puppet shows whenever possible
- make your own books and/or bookmarks
“I encourage parents to read to their children from the time they are little and to make that time a special time,” explains Mora. “It’s also important that children see us reading and that we make visits to the library and book stores pleasant events.”
I know for a fact that this is great advice. When I think of mi papá, the image of him holding a book always comes to mind. I never understood how he managed to find time to read, but he did and it made him happy. I’m infinitely grateful to him for showing my siblings and I that reading is awesome! I guess Mora was lucky to have a parent who thought so, too.
“I love to read, one of the many gifts my dear mom gave me. It’s a huge pleasure to share what we love” she told me. “Also, I know that literacy is power and essential in our democracy.”
¡A leer!
The Giveaway
As a special gift to SpanglishBaby readers, Pat Mora is giving away one autographed copy of “Book Fiesta!” to one lucky visitor. ¡Gracias, Pat!
All you have to do is leave us a comment letting us know what you think about having a celebration like Día or what you do to celebrate books and reading with your children?
If you want to increase your chances of winning you can get additional entries by doing any of the following:
1. Subscribe to our feed by email and leave us an extra comment letting us know you did so. Make sure to leave the comment using the same email you subscribed with. And please make sure you verify the subscription when you receive the email to do so.
2. Subscribe via RSS. Once you do, or if you’re already a subscriber, email us the “Secret Phrase” at the bottom of the post to: giveaways@spanglishbaby.com.
3. Blog or Tweet about this giveaway. Just make sure to send us the link in an additional comment below.
4. Email 5 friends and BCC us to: giveaways@spanglishbaby.com. Don’t worry-we’ll never share or collect anyone’s emails.
For the part that nobody likes, but we’ve gotta have, check out the Giveaway Rules.
This giveaway ends at midnight EST on Sunday, May 3rd 2009. Good luck to all!
Entries/Comments that do not follow the submission guidelines will be invalid and automatically deleted. Sorry, just need to keep it fair…
I just learned of this holiday recently. Since I teach Elementary school Spanish I have planned all these great activities that include both Bilingual and Spanish books. There are some great ideas that I plan on using from this site. Thanks!
Talya Martinez’s last blog post..Children’s books in Many Languages
I love the idea of Dia. My daughter would love to learn some words in spanish.
I was a bit overwhelmed this year in trying to figure out what to do to celebrate with my classes and kids at home, but having followed all the blogging here and at Latin Baby Book Club, I’ll definitely do better next year! At the very least, I can have a mini book-reading marathon at home with my own kids.
I love Dia! My kids already went to a wonderful celebration at a church put on by our library. It just makes reading the more exciting that everyone is getting together to celebrate books. Thanks for the giveaway!
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My 4 year old granddaughter is bi-lingual – thanks to her Mother from Eucador! We always buy English/Spanish books and talking toys. We’d love to add this book to her collection.
I think having a celebration like Dia would be a fun and great idea. Me and my daughter dress up like the characters in the books sometimes and act out the story. My daughter is learning some Spanish. We’d love to add this great book to her book collection.
I would love to teach Spanish to my girls. They already know 3 langs(spoken) and Spanish will be the 4th one. We generally make a play out of story and change characters.thanks
My sister just sent me this link to this wonderful website! I am so excited about all of the great information. I am excited to teach my 2 1/2 year old son Spanish.
I just shared this link with my fellow classmates in my online course, CHST 4990/EDCI 5870 Latinas/os in Education. Bilingual education was one of the topics of discussion. After teaching in public schools for 10 years in different states, it it great to see the shift in support for children to aquire more than one language.
Next year, I will host a “Dia” playdate for us to celebrate with friends. This book would help us kick off our event. What a great idea!
When my kids were very young, I told them that I would always buy them a book if they wanted it. Well because they got to choose the books, they have fallen in love with reading. My 6th grader reads at college level and my 3rd grader reads at high school level. The best part is that I do not have to ask them to read.
Celebramos leyendo de casa en casa, nos tomamos muchas fotos.
Les felicito tienen un hermoso blog!
Pat Mora es una de nuestras favoritas autoras.
Maria
Maria Arroyo’s last blog post..¡Feliz día del niño!
I have never heard of this before but think it’s a great idea.
our local church has a book celebration mverno@roadrunner.com
Ooops! I completely forgot that El Día de los Niños/Libros was today, this month sure flew by! Anyhow, I have decided to celebrate it a day late (since my kids are under 3-1/2, I don’t think they will notice=). We normally attend story time at the library on Fridays but tomorrow we plan to attend a bilingual story time at a different library for the first time. We also plan to barbeque for dinner, so I will also add some book activities for the kids.
Glenda’s last blog post..Lock & Key Activity
I love the idea. My youngest loves Spanish! This would be a lot of fun
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subscribed via RSS so off to e-mail you the secret phrase
Tati’s last blog post..El día de los libros and Giveaways!
Blogged about this giveaway here! http://wannajugarwithmigo.blogspot.com/2009/04/el-dia-de-los-libros-and-giveaways.html
I actually did it and then realized that it gets me an extra entry, too! Thanks, again!
Tati’s last blog post..El día de los libros and Giveaways!
We had a day of reading at home, but I hope next year we’ll be in a place where we can have a fiesta tambien.
By the way thanks for the blog. In my 6th year of raising bilingual kids its wonderful to be finding more resources…finally!
Maria
This is the first I’ve heard about this holiday but I think it’s wonderful! We love books in our home. I love everything about the Spanish language and my children are learning to love it also. Thanks!
Tara’s last blog post..Cheesy Volcano Meatballs
I blogged about this: http://www.curiousforlife.blogspot.com
Tara’s last blog post..Cheesy Volcano Meatballs
We celebrate by a book date (we take library trips often) where we go to Powell’s in Portland and they each get to pick out a book to buy and then we get ice-cream.
Meredith Rogen’s last blog post..The Hysterectomy Chronicles
We pick out books to read and after we’re done, we decide whether we want to make pictures about the story or have some food items from the country we just read about. Thank you for the contest!
I’m a subscriber!
I took my two granddaughters to a wonderful celebration at a church where there were stories, they made little books and there were lots of giveaways. They came home with several new books. I took a suitcase full of books to share with them and read all my Spanish books to them while I visited.
I blogged about this giveaway.
http://teachinggenerations.blogspot.com/
Gingerannbeck’s last blog post..Day of the Child and Book Giveaways
I subscribed.
Gingerannbeck’s last blog post..Day of the Child and Book Giveaways
I blogged about your giveaway.
http://teachinggenerations.blogspot.com/
Gingerannbeck’s last blog post..Day of the Child and Book Giveaways
I believe books are the key to knowledge and would never deny buying my kids a book. other toys are a different story
I’m commited to reading to my son for 20 mins every day. I try to pick fun books…
I love the idea of having a celebration like Día! I have both Spanglish and Non-Spanglish Grandchildren, who could all benefit from this celebration! Thanks for introducing me to this book; and, thanks for the amazing giveaway!
I am in my final year of grad school to become a librarian so books are very close to my heart. I read to my daughter every night so I can share my love of books with her. I love the idea of a bilingual book and I would love to share this with her.
i think this is a great idea
My children and I use reading as our last family activity of every day. The kids LOVE picking out stories to read! This bilingual book would be perfect, in that we are trying to teach our bi-racial children more about their hispanic side!
Hola! I love love love this website and this idea of DIA. I am SUPER interested in winning this autographed book for my 21 month old daughter Carolina! We have celebrated books since I was pregnant by reading to her while she was in my belly. Every night, my husband or I read a few books to her. If they are too advanced, we talk about the pictures and she loves to ask questions and talk about what she sees. This book seems like it has lovely and exciting pictures to talk about! She gets very excited when we get her a new book. I feel that by being enthusiastic when reading to her..she will develop an enthusiasm about reading. So far..this seems to be working!
Blanca Pedroza
Great idea, I like it!
I teach kindergarten. Any reason to celebrate books is great.
Thanks!
mj.coward[at]gmail.com
My son’s elementary school here in Michigan just had their annual “Authors in April” visit. I looooooove the idea of combining a celebration of books and reading with a celebration of languages and cultures. Awesome idea!
diane’s last blog post..Bilingual Picture Book Giveaway at SpanglishBaby.com
Blogged you here: http://foreignlanguagefun.com/2009/05/bilingual-picture-book-giveaway-at-spanglishbabycom/
diane’s last blog post..Bilingual Picture Book Giveaway at SpanglishBaby.com
I am a librarian and we have a special table set up with multicultural books to encourage children to learn Spanish (and other languages). There are so many great books out there that make it fun and interesting for kids to learn.
I hadn’t heard about this beautiful celebration before. And thank you for posting ideas for hosting a Book Fiesta. In my new role as a children’s church leader, my heart got excited about the idea of hosting one for my “kids.”
Jessica’s last blog post..Keeping the Spanish Alive!
I think having a dia for the kids is a great idea. I think every day they should know how special they are and how much they’re loved but sometimes it’s nice to do something extra special.
My kids are both VORACIOUS readers. We go to the library several times per wk and a trip to Borders is their favorite outing. We read at bedtime EVERY night. It was interesting to reading about the dia!
I like the idea of buying a new Spanish-language book every year on this date, El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros. Excellent way to celebrate the day!
Janelle @ Brimful Curiosities’s last blog post..The Note II: Taking a Chance on Love – DVD Review
We read every single day and I love to extend the books into other activities like baking,crafts, and games.
I subscribed to your RSS feed.
we read every day, if not several times a day, love the idea of a book fiesta day or time…great idea!
I celebrate daily the joy of reading with my son. We read every day in English and Spanish. Would love to get this book for him.
mercsmercado at yahoo dot com
I treat every night as a celebration by reading. Reading is so important for the development of a child!
I think this sounds like an awesome idea! My daughter is from Guatemala so I’m always on the lookout for English/Spanish books. What a great way to celebrate her heritage.
Thanks for the opportunity,
Beth
I think having a celebration like Dia is cool.
We read books every night together before bed. We would love to read some bilingual books to our daughter
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i liked anas idea of reading and sharing:) Thank you for sponsoring this awesome giveaway and 4 the entry:)
I celebrate books and reading by giving books as birthday and Christmas presents.