The LéaLA Spanish book fair is returning on May 17th through 19th to the Los Angeles Convention Center for the third year in a row! We have been attending since the first year it came to LA and are more and more excited every year it comes back. It’s been great to see the success of this book fair and how much it grows each year. It truly shows that we, Angelenos and Latinos, love to read en Español and literacy matters a great deal to us.

This free, three day cultural event  will feature 100 publishers showcased in 200 booths which means plenty of opportunities to stock up on libros en español ! Whats great about LéaLA is that there are plenty of book presentations, workshops, and theatrical events for kids to keep them excited about learning and practicing Spanish. It’s also a great opportunity to connect with other Spanish-speaking families and have plenty of fun en español.

You can head out next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to this FREE cultural event and the Los Angeles Convention Center. For a printable version of the 2013 program click here.

In the meantime we’d like to share a few of the many highlights we are looking forward to this year at LéaLa:

• En español se oye más bonito – a workshop for parents and children all about reading en español and how fun it is!
• La calaca tilica y flaca – a Day of the Dead themed workshop where kids get to create a special craft to take home.
• Los muralistas- a workshop for kids where they learn about famous Latino muralists and kids get to create their own works of art.
• José-Luis Orozco – For our musical and dancing needs José-Luis Orozco will be present all three days.
• The many book presentations throughout the weekend including: La Casita, Trencitas, and La vuelta al mundo en cinco cuentos among many more!

We strongly encourage you to attend this wonderful event! I’ll be there with my family for the third year in a row for sure! You can also follow LéaLA on Twitter and Facebook.

I´ve been looking forward to this weekend for months now because I get to satisfy my craving for the Spanish-language books that are so hard to find here! How? Thanks to the second annual LéaLA Spanish-language book fair in Los Angeles!

Last year I attended the first one with my girl and was in awe of the amount of books, lectures, activities and more that were happening all in celebration of the Spanish language. I became giddy when I saw some of the publishers I could only find in Mexico and even more when I ran into amazing educational and reading programs for kids in Spanish.

I´ve been told this year the LéaLA organizers have added three times more space for exhibits, sessions and a larger kids zone, and publishers are bringing much more stock since most of them ran out last year.

What this all means for you is to make sure you don´t miss out and do everything you can to head out this Friday, Saturday and/or Sunday to the Los Angeles Convention Center for this FREE event and be one more person there in support of promoting the Spanish language.

I have to share their mission so you can see just how much we identify with LéaLA:

This event seeks to encourage reading, promote Spanish-language books and foster recognition of the Latino population, their culture and customs.

¡Exacto!

Check out the LéaLA site for more info on all the author readings, singings, panels, exhibitors, concerts and so much more happening all three days. Here´s what we´re looking forward to:

• Singing along with my girl and José-Luis Orozco - one of our favorite bilingual kids musician and author – at 1pm on either Saturday or Sunday.
• Being in the audience of one of the many Spanish language plays for kids, like one called Un tutú buy apretado
• Mingling with other bilingual kids and their parents during the many cuenta cuentos or story time hours.
• Meeting up with some of our favorite publishers of books for bilingual kids, like the husband and wife team behind Heritage Language books.
• Aimlessly browsing the myriad of Spanish language books in the exhibit halls and letting the ones that are meant to be mine come to my hands. Over 180 publishing houses from all over Latina America!
• ¡Música! Of course, if LéaLA is a celebration of the Spanish language and Latino culture, we need some music! And these acts performing at the Nokia Theatre are huge: Gloria Trevi on Friday, Los Tigres del Norte on Saturday and Calle 13 with Illya Kuryaki on Sunday. You must purchase tickets for the concerts, but they are so worth it, don´t you think?!

I´ll be there on Saturday by myself, and then on Sunday con la familia. If you happen to go, shoot me a tweet or a comment so I can say ¡Hola!

Follow LéaLA on Twitter and Facebook

Disclosure: We are working in partnership with Latina Bloggers Connect to promote the fabulous event and have been compensated for the sponsorship. Love it when our sponsors are such a perfect match!