Have you ever wondered what famous writers were like when they were children? Award-winning author Georgina Lázaro did and decided to not only find out, but to write about it for all our children to know.
Cuándo los grandes eran pequeños is a collection of books in Spanish, pubished by Lectorum, which narrate the childhood of influential writers from all over Latin America and Spain. The series includes Federico Garcia Lorca, José Martí, Pablo Neruda and Julia de Burgos, among others.
Did you know that…?
- Jorge Luis Borges grew up bilingual. Both English and Spanish were spoken in his household since his paternal grandmother was English.
- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz learned how to read at the age of 3 and reading was her life-long passion.
- Pablo Neruda’s first poem was dedicated to his stepmother, who raised him since he was a baby after his mom died when he was 2 months old. He called her Mamadre.
The idea for this collection came out of Lázaro’s own curiosity.
“When I was a student and had to find information about an important figure, I was always left wondering about his childhood because the encyclopedias did not have that type information. When I noticed that my son had the same concern I started writing these stories for him (and a little for me, too),” explained Lázaro, who was recently awarded the 2010 Pura Belpré Author Honor Award for Federico Garcia Lorca, one of the books in this series. By the way, this marked the first time a book written in Spanish was awarded this distinguished recognition.
“Oddly enough I wrote in prose and I included painters, musicians and personalities of our history, on top of writers. But when we thought of publishing them I wrote them in verse and I’ve only written about writers, each from a different Spanish-speaking country,” she continued.
The fact that all the books are written in verse is probably one of the most impressive aspects. I love the flow of each story because when I read them, the verses make the stories sound like beautiful songs.
“A lot of people think it’s difficult, but poetry comes much easier to me, it’s more natural, than prose. Maybe because, as a child, my favorite stories to read where those in verse, such as El romance del señor don gato, La ratoncita presumida by Aquiles Nazoa, Los zapaticos de rosa by José Martí, Los peregrinitos by Federico García Lorca and A Margarita by Rubén Darío (who was my favorite) among others,” Lázaro revealed.
I have probably read all of the books in the collection to my daughter, but she still seems too young for them – although she really enjoys the rhythm created by the verses. Maybe they’ll all start making more sense as she gets older and actually starts reading some of the works of these amazing authors herself. In fact, someone recently recommended I check out Pablo Neruda para niños and many of you already know Los zapaticos de rosa by José Martí mentioned above by Lázaro. Maybe I’ll just start by introducing these and then we’ll come back to this inspiring biographies.
After all, Lázaro brings up a good point when she described how parents raising bilingual children can use these collection of books:
“I think my books will not only familiarize them with the beauty, the musicality, the magic of our language, but it will also put them in touch with our traditions and our culture.”
An avid reader herself, the process of researching the early lives of these important Spanish-speaking writers was, in a lot of ways, a time of discovery for Lázaro. When asked if she favors any of them in particular, it’s impossible for her to come up with a single name.
“Each of these books has a reason to be my favorite. Julia because she is Puerto Rican and portrays our Island and part of our history. Juana Inés because I found a great woman who was beyond her time whom I did not really know but for some of her writings. José because I knew some of his verses for children as a child and it was like reconnecting with a childhood friend; so close. Pablo because, although I knew him as an adult and had read almost all his work, when I studied his childhood and I read his poetry, I discovered the child he was in it; I was touched by the man child. Federico García Lorca because, as with José, when I researched him, I not only discovered his childhood but also mine. And Jorge Luis Borges because it was a discovery. I never would have dreamed that he had lived such a beautiful childhood and that so much of it is in his work.”
The last question I asked Lázaro had to do with her decision to become a writer, which interestingly enough, happened later, rather than early on, in her life. I found her answer absolutely inspiring.
“From childhood, I was a passionate reader (still am) and I wanted the same thing for my children because I think that books have contributed to my happiness. I started singing nanas (lullabies) to them, making up and reading stories to them until one day, I started to write for them. That’s why I always said that while I was trying to make my children enthusiastic readers, they made me a writer.”
If you’re anything like me and you love literature, I highly recommend you get your hands in this collection, which by the way, will grow by two in the near future. Lázaro has already finished writing about Gabriel García Márquez and Rubén Darío and as soon as they find illustrators (they have to be from the country of origin of the author’s themselves) for both of them, they’ll go to print. Can’t wait to find out about the childhoods of these other two giants of Spanish literature.
Georgina Lázaro was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she originally started as a school teacher. She started to write for and about her children and hasn’t stopped since. She is an accomplished children’s author and translator whose list of books include El flamboyán amarillo, ¡Ya llegan los reyes magos!, La niña y la estrella and El mejor es mi papá. She lives in Ponce and you can find out more about her books and the work she does to bring awareness about the importance of reading to children, teachers and parents alike by going to her own site.
The Giveaway
As part of ReadMe, one lucky reader will get the entire collection of Cuando los grandes eran pequeños. Just share with us how you think these books will help you to raise your bilingual children.
This giveaway ends at midnight EST on Tuesday, July 20, 2010. Entries/Comments that do not follow the submission guidelines will be invalid and automatically deleted. Sorry, just need to keep it fair. Good luck to all!
Not only do these books sound lovely and fascinating… what a help for raising a child to be bilingual and fully literate.
My son is 2 but I am starting a future-read-together library right now. I need this help as a non-native speaker. He will be going to school in English so we’ll need to read together in Spanish at home and it will be up to me to make sure he is exposed to the literature greats. This will also be for me the education I never had. These books seem like a really excellent place to start. I am putting them on the very top of my list and right below that I’m putting the other books mentioned in this post.
Then I am really going to finally get around to fully checking out the “Read Me” section of Spanglishbaby.
It’s decided. If I buy one book a week it will not be too expensive.
Thank you!
These sounds so wonderful! My oldest daughter loves learning about life in other countries! I think this is an important part in raising her bilingually! Thank you!
Oh, Ana, I really honestly love this series. And guess what? Truthfully, for myself as much as for my children. I didn’t grow up with my parents telling me about these great giants. I learned about them later in college. But I don’t know all of them. What a great way to learn and teach my children! I also find that biographies makes the learning so much more “real” for the kids. Thanks for sharing about this wonderful collection. This will go on my list for my local library recommendation of Spanish books.
OOOOOOOOOOO!! I love Georgina and this excellent series!
I am desesperada for this giveaway!
Les prometo que no one will appreciate it more than me! Writing in all its forms is such a gift. And teaching my children about our Latino role models is so very, very important for helping them to develop a positive image of themselves and a pride in their heritage. I look forward to the day that my children can read these books on their own (and until then, I will make sure the books are well loved). But I also don’t worry if they can understand everything yet, as simply hearing the beautiful language helps with training their ear and developing an appreciation for Español.
Mil besos, Roxana, for this fantastic opportunity!
First let me thank you for this giveaway. It’s fabulous, and somebody (I hope it’s me) will be very fortunate to receive these books.
I think these will benefit our family and my bilingual students as well. It is extremely important for bilingual children to know that they are part of something bigger than they are; they are part of a culture, where people, culture and traditions came before them, and will come after them. It is incumbent upon them to understand in order to become part of and pass along this very rich culture and to keep it alive. Finding one’s place in a bilingual culture means understanding where one fits in; and one can only understand by looking at others older than they are now and how they emerged and grew when they were younger.
These books would benefit my immediate family, of course. I would also love to read them and share them with my bilingual students in lessons and for their enjoyment in the classroom library
What a great post and an awesome giveaway!
Bravo!
I woul love to win this giveaway for my daughter (6 yo). There is nothing like reading a book to your child and seeing them engaged in the story and anxious to find out whats going to happen next!
Muchas gracias por esta oportunidad.
-Rachel
I have 132 bilingual children! My children attend a small dual immersion charter school with limited funding and these books would absolutely fulfill our mission of biliteracy and multilcultural proficiency both for students maintaining their home language and for those students learning Spanish as a second language. I am so excited about this collection of books!!
I love all the resources and personal stories on this website and will be sharing it with our parents…keep up the great work!
Susana
Principal
I would love to have these books! I fell in love with the Hispanic Culture mostly during High School when reading these very authors. I would love to start sharing them with my daughters from a young age and hope for them to fall in love with them as well.
I would love to have these books as I am passionate about my children being bilingual and yet I have a hard time finding good reading material. This would be perfect!!
Why are you so good to your readers? These are so wonderful. Not a day goes by that I don’t wonder if this bilingual thing is going to stick for life. I worry a lot about it but the thing that encourages me most is reading to my daughter. She has a real love for reading, books and a good story (seemingly the same thing but very different and so important for little ones). These books would be a wonderful start our homeschooling journey.
I think that this books will help me understand how to raise a child to be bilingual. My son will turn 3 in October and its hard when most of the my husband speaks to him in English and i try to speak to him in Spanish. ..My son loves to read books n i would love to read this books with him.. thank you!!
Oh this looks like something I’ll enjoy sooo much reading to the kids cause I’ll be interested more myself meanwhile they wont realize that they’ll be learning very important information!!
What a genius concept! Raising my children (5 and 3) I discovered that they always pay more attention when I tell them our own life and situations from stories of when I was a kid myself. They find amazing that mami was a little girl and actually the yongest sister of an inmigrant family in Venezuela.. My parents left Italy and arrived to Venezuela after the WWII. We were born there as bilingual kids. Many years later I decided to be an inmigrant too and had my kids in the US. With my husband, a journalist like me, we do our own little battles every day to raise our children bilingual and multicultural. Congratulation for this great collection!
Children love to hear about other children! Being bilingual is very beneficial in so many ways. My children are able to read in both English and Spanish and I feel that these books would be very interesting for my children AND my students! I have bilingual students whose parents speak very limited English. I am so excited to receive an impressive set of books to enhance my knowledge and that of my children!
As I read the article, my excitement grew as I recalled how I had read these authors’ works in college. I would love revisiting these authors through the perspective of their childhood and through the eyes of my children. How inspiring to dream and hope with my children about their futures, especially the adventures and opportunities afforded to them by becoming bilingual! As others have mentioned, any Spanish literature is a treasure to get our hands on as reading is a favorite way to spend time and develop language with my kids. It is encouraging to read the responses. It made me think that I would enjoy it if you posted the winners for 2 reasons. 1.) Because you are so generous with your giveaways I wait to purchase the items and a post would serve as a good reminder to go back to favorite items; and 2.) There is a sense of community building in reading the stories, questions and struggles of your other readers. I’d love to know who gets the books and cheer on their endeavors. ¡Muchisimas gracias para todo!