I grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, where the only place I heard Spanish was within the walls of my high school. And what’s more, I took French! Eventually, I learned Spanish in college and then as a student in Venezuela and Cuba.

While my first job out of college didn’t require Spanish at all, my second did. I worked at a nonprofit that partnered with public schools to provide literacy programs to elementary-aged kids. My students were almost all children of immigrants from Latin America. I saw firsthand how so many of our students were operating in bilingual, bicultural worlds. Kids translated for their parents, for one another, and their teachers. They did it with such ease, navigating between cultures and languages.

We were a literacy program, so naturally, I wanted to find books that resonated with my students’ experiences. I researched and came up with the usual suspects (“Too Many Tamales” anyone?) or nothing at all. Certainly not enough to fill afternoons every day. Over time, I started discovering new books here and there — but never had a great way to find them.

Fast forward to a little over a year ago. I was eight months pregnant and searching for a book to show my son what life would be like as a sibling. In this case, I wanted a book that showed a multiracial child, to reflect our own family. We couldn’t find the right book, until months later, when it was too late. It was out there, but incredibly hard to find.

When I searched on the typical sites, the substance was lacking, but there was no shortage of ads for hair care products. And while I do love Kinky Curly for my daughter’s hair, it wasn’t going to help explain big brotherhood to my son! So, my husband and I decided to solve our own problem and create Zoobean, a site that handpicks remarkable kids’ books and catalogs them in a way that makes sense to parents.

When we created our sets of tags, we did this with all kinds of kids in mind. Our own kids and their experience growing up in a multicultural family (and world). And also the other children we know and love, like the kids I worked closely with in my earlier career. How did that work? We made tags like “English and Spanish,” “multicultural,” “multi­ethnic backgrounds,” “Latino or Hispanic,” and many more. We are just getting started, and trying to make it possible for parents to find books about a wide variety of topics that also reflect their kids and families.

Geena Davis says about girls in media, “If you see it, you can be it.” I believe this completely, for all kids. That’s why it’s critical that we make it easy to find the books that reflect our own families and children. If they see it, they can be it. There is the problem of there not being enough representation of Latino kids in children’s books, which we hope to help improve longer term. Now, we have to make it easy to find the books that are out there and get them into the hands of families that want them most!

What are your favorite bilingual books? If we don’t have them in the catalog already, please recommend today!

Jordan Lloyd Bookey is Chief Mom at Zoobean, a site that curates and catalogs remarkable kids’ books, handpicked by parents. Before she decided to make the leap as an entrepreneur, Jordan served as Google’s Head of K-12 Education Outreach, where she was responsible for the company’s worldwide programs that expand access to technology and computer science kids. Jordan is originally from Des Moines, IA and now lives with her family in Washington, DC. You can usually find her at 1776 DC, working on Zoobean with her husband and Chief Dad, Felix, or exploring the city and trying to keep up with her children, Cassius and Florence.

For almost two years now, I’ve been taking Vanessa to a monthly Spanish children’s book club started by a bilingual mom I’m lucky to call my friend. While I’ll never get tired of raving about the benefits of joining a Spanish-speaking playgroup, once kids get a bit older and start school, it’s not as easy to participate in weekly meetups for the kids to be immersed in Spanish. Enter the idea of a Spanish children’s book club.

If your kids are already in school and you want a more structured way of exposing them to literacy skills in Spanish, a book club is the way to go. But how do you go about doing something like that? In my case, I got really lucky because my friend Sisi — who worked 16 years as a bilingual kindergarten teacher and is one of the original members of our Spanish-speaking playgroup — was the one who came up with the idea and took the lead. Truth is, though, that you don’t have to be a teacher to do something similar.

Here’s a look at how our book club is structured: Sisi starts by reading the book and interacting with the kids at all times by asking pertinent questions and making sure everyone understands new vocabulary. Once she’s done with the book, she goes through a series of reading comprehension questions regarding the characters, the setting, the problem, the solution, etc. to make sure every kid got the story. Then, there’s always some kind of activity or craft related to the theme of the book. Sometimes it involves food and the kids love that. Before we’re done, all kids get a copy of the book and a stamp in their “passport” so they can keep track of all the books they’ve read.

I highly recommend starting something similar for your bilingual kids and so I wanted to share some ideas on how to get started:

1. If you already belong to a Spanish-speaking playgroup, talk to the other moms to see if maybe one of them is interested and has the abilities to lead a book club for children. Maybe you can help organize all the little details, but someone else can be the “teacher.”

2. Keep in mind that for a Spanish book club to be successful it should be for a smaller group of kids who are a bit older and are already fluent in Spanish.

3. On that note, choose a book that you feel all kids will understand, but that hopefully will teach them new vocabulary words. The theme of the book should lend itself to fun activities and a lively discussion.

4. The club shouldn’t last more than 1 1/2 hours, including snack time and an activity that includes movement.

5. You can alternate who’ll be hosting the club every month to make it easier on everyone.

6. A fun way for kids to keep track of the books they’ve read is through a passport. Kids really enjoy the challenge of filling it up with stamps.

¡Buena suerte!

In my father’s grand tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving in April — or whenever else he felt like it — he and I didn’t celebrate my birthday in May. We did celebrate it with cake or maybe a family gathering. But I always got my big gift, the one I looked forward to all year, in July.

Back in the eighties there was only one place to find books in English in Costa Rica — where I grew up. It was called simply The Bookshop, and it was small, unassuming, and staffed by friendly English speakers. And every year, in July, they had a huge sale. My father would take my brother and me there for our “birthdays” and we would emerge, after what seemed like hours, with piles of books. Money was never an object, and I understand now how important it was to my father for us to have access to books in our minority language. It was the place that introduced me to Enid Blyton, Madeleine L’Engle, James Herriott, and countless other authors I remember fondly from my childhood.

I realize now that I had total control over what my boys read when they were smaller — and I always, always read to them in Spanish. Books I found in Costa Rica, Eric Carle and Dr. Seuss translated into Spanish, and my favorite, lots and lots of children’s poetry, some of which I remember my own mother reading to me when I was little. For quite a while, in fact, they were literally a captive audience — their cribs were crammed in a room so tiny that I could sit between them and read to them that way.

Once they were able to read on their own, though, that all changed. They simply did not want me to read to them out loud anymore, period. They were giddy with their ability to pick out books and read them themselves, without my help. For the most part, I’ve been letting them, and I spend their reading time with them while reading myself.

The books they choose, however, are almost invariably in English. While they read, they chitchat about what they’re reading and we talk about the books in Spanish. But I’ve recently realized two things when it comes to reading around here. One, even though we have shelves full of books, my boys can be pretty predictable and they read the same ones over and over. Two, they’re outgrowing their collection of books in Spanish and I haven’t done anything about it. 

So this spring, I’m taking action. I’m going to try to be merciless and get rid of the picture books they no longer want to read. I’ll also be more selective when it comes to book shopping — I won’t buy books just because they happen to be in Spanish, as I’ve done in the past. And, most importantly, my boys need to be involved, and it needs to be fun and exciting for them, as it was for me.

We’ve started to do some online shopping together, and although it’s not quite as fun as browsing in the bookstore, it’s working out really well. I can also target their narrow interests. For Primo, it’s snakes, sharks and math; for Secondo, it’s airplanes and trains. After a quick Google search the other day, Primo and I found a beautiful hardcover book, Serpientes y Reptiles. We ordered it together, and counted down the days until it would arrive together. Secondo and I just tracked down a book called Aviones Comerciales, which he is beyond excited about.

My sleepy toddler who listened raptly to the poems of Gabriela Mistral and Carmen Lyra has been replaced by a gangly first grader, who shoves his book in my face so that I can fully appreciate just how scary the picture of the black mamba is. But he’s reading, and he’s reading in Spanish, so I’ll take it.

{Photo by sean dreilinger}

After listening to a podcast of The Parent’s Journal with Bobbie Conner and her guest Tracey Wood (July 16, 2012), a children’s reading specialist, I realized I needed to stop dragging my pies and begin to investigate how to implicitly teach Sofía to read.  Yes, she’s only three-years-old, but really the reading process begins at birth (if not before) by constantly reading, rhyming, singing, reading, reading, and reading to our bebés.

There are also many studies that indicated that children, who learn to read and have strong literacy skills in their first language, will have success as they learn to read in their second language.  So as I began fostering my toddler, oops—preschooler (as of last week), in the amazing world of reading, it would be in español of course.

Even though I’m an educator, I don’t pretend to know how to teach Sofía to read or even begin with developing pre-reading skills, but with the help of my knack for research, I was able to compile and create some activities to do my part at home.  Here are the resources I have to share!

Abecedario Flashcards

I made Abecedario Cards en español for Sofía and me to read during breakfast.  This is especially helpful to me before my morning café has kicked in! You are welcome to print, laminate and cut the flashcards for your personal use!

Interactive Abecedario Slide Show Game

Expanding on the flash card idea, I created a simple Interactive Slideshow Game of the Spanish Abecedario so that Sofía could at least actively participate while answering questions about letter sounds and the abecedario.   This allows her to press buttons on the computadora, making letters and pictures appear.  The Slideshow Game is monolingual español and does not include inglés.  Again, you are welcome to download it for your personal fun!

(Read more about how to use the Interactive Abecedario Slideshow Game.)

Bilingual Abecedario Letter and Sound Recognition Mat Game  

My Etsy store, Dos Manos Fun, sells a Bilingual Abecedario Letter and Sound Recognition Mat Game that I created.  Since the store is on vacation for a while, you can access the mat’s direcciones here.  Feel free to print out and laminate the game mats for your personal use.  Note that you will also need a complete set of abecedario letters (wooden, foam, or plastic, etc…) in order to play the game.

Español Alphabet Pocket Chart

There was one resource that I didn’t make myself because I really didn’t have the time or energy to do it!  So I invested $29.00 and purchased an Español Alphabet Pocket Chart made by Learning Resources.  We love it!  The quality is excelente and the possibilities for varied activities are superb!  If you are interested in purchasing your own Español Alphabet Pocket Chart, you can visit SpanglishBaby’s™ La Tiendita through Amazon.

(Read more on the Español Alphabet Pocket Chart.)

Resources from La Tiendita

For those of you with children just starting school, there are also three other useful tools available made by Learning Resources.  The syllable and blends pocket charts and the syllable big book seem promising for teaching beginning readers in español and are available through our SpanglishBaby™ La Tiendita!

(Read more on resources available in La Tiendita.)

YouTube Video Clips

A simple search on YouTube can also be beneficial in one’s plight to promoting reading in our niños.  One of my favoritos is El Jardín de Clarlilú: AEIOU from Disney junior.

Sight Words en Español

Tracey Wood recommended teaching our children sight words.  Although she was talking about in inglés, the same concept can of course be applied in Spanish also.  Scholastic makes a variety of resources such as a workbook to teach sight words en español and mini-books with sight words.  I downloaded them for the whopping price of 99¢ each!  Just another reason that Scholastic Rocks!

(Read more about Sight Words en Español.)

Although I’m not a Reading Specialist, I do feel comfortable engaging in research-based activities at home that will assist Sofía in developing good reading skills-and I hope my list will continue to grow as I explore más!   If you have any questions or have ideas of your own to add about how you strengthen reading with yourSpanglish Baby at home, please share them with all of us!

¡Feliz Reading!

Curling up with our bilingual niños and a good book can be one of the best daily routines we could have. It allows us to interact with our kids in an educational and fun way. Even better if we’re reading to them en español!

To celebrate the joy of reading and raising bilingual kids, we’ve joined forces with Mamiverse and their new channel Mamiverse Books to host an interactive Twitter party with great prizes!

The main goal of this Twitter party will be to share the benefits of raising bilingual children and tips on how to do it, and, of course, provide prizes of great books (including our Bilingual is Better!) for those attending. We encourage all of  you to join us on  Tuesday, October 16th at 9-10pm EST using the hashtag #MamiverseReads. And in case you are curious about the prizes, check them out bellow!

There will be  five winners who will each take one gift pack with 10 Books and 5 CD’s plus a copy of Bilingual is Better for a combined retail value of $155.65. Check out the tittles of the books below (links included):

• Tia Isa Quiere Un Carro
• My Havana: Memories of a Cuban Boyhood
• Ladder to the Moon
• Starfields
• The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind 
• Pedro and Margarita 5-pack
• Bilingual is Better

About Our Partners

Heritage Language is a publisher of bilingual children’s books. They also have an on line store where you can find the 5 Pedro and Margarita books, as well as handpicked books by other publishers and products for people who love Spanish.

Candlewick Press is a producer of children’s books who is committed to making the world a better place, not just through the books they publish but by their green initiatives and commitment to improving their local community.

Finding Spanish language picture books was a huge challenge when my chiquitos were chiquitos. The books I could find were often bad translations, and they were carísimos! I bought books in Mexico, but it was impossible to bring back enough. So, I translated stories as I read and searched endlessly for more.

This frustrating situation led me to explore picture books without words and I quickly came to appreciate the power of reading wordless picture books in Spanish. Even if you have access to children’s books in Spanish, wordless books provide a rich, interactive language experience. A 2011 Utah State University study found that these books promote more discussion than books with words and noted that “more complex language and interactions were present.” In other words, picture books without words are an excellent way to speak Spanish with your niños.

Parents sometimes think of wordless picture books as being for very young children, but these books tell complicated, fascinating stories. If you have read wordless picture books, you know how the illustrations tell the whole story, rather than just supporting the text. Children follow what is happening by identifying characters, emotions, actions and consequences.

Reading a wordless picture book in Spanish, you can use language your child understands and she can help contar el cuento. It is important to take time to talk about the pictures, follow up on what your child says, make connections and ask questions. Reading this way is fun, and your chiquitos will get lots and lots of Spanish.

Suggestions for reading wordless picture books with Spanish learners

- If your child is beginning to learn Spanish, talk about the pictures using simple sentences. You do not have to explain the whole story in detail. She will understand what is happening from the pictures.

- Children learn from patterns and repetition. Repeat sentence structures and words throughout the story.

- Include dialog. Imagine what the characters might say.

 - Start by telling the story simply and add more detail when your child is familiar with the book.

- Expand on words your child knows by using synonyms.

- Encourage your child to help tell the story. Beginning learners can contribute a key word. With children who speak more Spanish, you can alternate pages. Many kids want to read the whole story once they are familiar with the book.

There are many beautiful picture books without words. Here is a printable list of some of my favorites, and your librarian will be happy to help you find others.

Wordless picture books can provide a rich Spanish language experience. However, wordless books by Latino authors/illustrators are hard to find, so the cultural dimension is usually missing. Fortunately, authentic Spanish language picture books are becoming more available, offering our niños both language and culture. Picture books without words are a wonderful way to supplement authentic literature and spend time speaking Spanish with your child.

Special thanks to Spanish Playground for providing this article. Visit their site for more activities to teach Spanish to kids.

Image source: Molly Darling

BabyCenter en Español has released the results of yet another survey. This particular survey was about fathers and how they interact with their children. Here is the data that caught my eye:

Actividades preferidas que los papás disfrutan hacer con sus niños:

• Jugar con él: 60%
• Dormir con él: 18%
• Bañarlo: 13%
• Leerle un cuento: 1%
• Otra cosa: 9%

Source: BabyCenter en Español

Do you see that? Favorite activities for fathers to do with their children and “Read him/her a story” received only 1% of the vote… That disturbs me and I’ll tell you why.

When my younger son, (now 10 years old), started preschool, I volunteered a lot in the classroom. One project I ended up taking over was the “reading bags” … Basically each child had a cloth tote bag and they would take home two or three books in the bag each week. I would rotate the books out, talk with the kids to see if they had read the books or had been read to, find out their interests so I could choose books they’d be more likely to read, etc.

My son’s classroom was at least 90% Latino, (mostly first generation American, with parents being recent immigrants from Mexico), and so a lot of interesting things came into play. First, most of the books I had available in the classroom were in English and the kids were telling me that their parents couldn’t read the books to them. I requested more Spanish language books and once I got those, some of the kids seemed to be getting read to more often, although some still did not. Some of the challenges we faced included parents who couldn’t read well (or at all) even in their native Spanish, parents who didn’t have time or were too tired to read, and parents who didn’t see reading with their child as a valuable activity because they weren’t raised with books.

A couple of these children weren’t even sure how to hold a book when they started the school year, (they would hold it upside down and/or backward, flip the pages the wrong direction, etc.) Once I pinpointed the children who were not being read to, I volunteered more time to not just rotate the books in the bags, but to stay and read one-on-one with those children. I came close to tears sometimes because the way they snuggled into my lap and looked forward to this time together made me realize how many kids out there are missing out on something that is so incredibly valuable and absolutely free.

The benefits of reading to your children from a young age have been proven, but if one isn’t raised in a book reading household, the chances that they’ll read to their children are significantly lower. This is a problem for the Latino community in particular because although the BabyCenter survey refers to fathers, the truth is that even Latina mothers are less likely to read to their children than Caucasian/Anglo mothers.

Getting kids hooked on reading at an early age is especially important for boys, who are less likely to read for leisure than girls.

Even if you weren’t raised in a reading household, you can change that for your kids – read to them regularly and some day they will read to their children regularly – It’s that simple. You can set future generations of your family on a new path with this one act, (and you may even come to love reading yourself if you don’t already.)

Other ways to encourage reading in the Latino community

• Next time you’re invited to the birthday party of a niece/nephew or friend’s child, why don’t you gift that child a book? I always try to do this and my husband, Carlos, says that culturally books are not seen as “a good gift” – If you worry it will be perceived that way, choose a gift pack that includes a toy along with the book.

• Donate bilingual books to your local library and/or schools. Teachers love when people buy books for their classrooms through Scholastic.

• Tell people with young bilingual or Spanish-speaking children about Read Conmigo. It’s 100% free – Just sign up and a bilingual book is delivered to you each month in the mail.

• Support (with your money or time), programs in your community that teach illiterate adults how to read, (English or Spanish), as well as ESOL programs.

• Volunteer in the classroom – especially if you’re bilingual and can help meet a need not being met due to staff cuts and tight budgets. Teachers often love having their newsletter translated to Spanish so they have a better chance of keeping non-English-speaking parents informed. Ask your child’s teacher, or the local Elementary school how you can help.

• Get caught reading! Let your kids, nieces, nephews, neighborhood children, see you reading a book. If they admire you, this will affect their view of books and reading in a positive way.

• Other resources: Check out Mommy Maestra and this article by the author of Mommy Maestra, Monica Olivera, on Mamiverse: Improving Latino Children’s Literacy.

What do you think? Is the Latino community behind when it comes to teaching kids a love of books and reading? What are your experiences as a child and/or as a parent? Were you read to? Do you read to your kids?

Many Spanish-speaking parents hesitate to teach their children to read in their home language because they worry that this will make it more difficult for their children to learn to read in English. Nothing could be farther from the truth! In fact, the more children know about reading in their first language, the easier it will be for them to learn to read in English.

Thinking first about pre-readers, we know from years of research that there are certain foundational literacy skills that children need in order to be ready to learn to read. These skills include both print-related skills, such as knowing letter names and letter sounds, and sound-related skills, which come under the broad heading of phonological awareness. Early phonological awareness skills include, for example, being able to recognize words that rhyme or words that begin with the same sound. About twenty years ago, researchers began studying the relationship between these early foundational skills, developed in Spanish, and later reading achievement in English, and the results are clear. Strong print and phonological awareness skills in Spanish have consistently been found to be associated with successful later reading achievement, not only in Spanish, but also in English!

Parents can help prepare their children for learning to read in both languages by using Spanish to teach their children rhymes and songs, play word games, and share storybooks. Playing with words and rhymes develops phonological awareness, which prepares children for learning to “sound out” words when they begin to read. Interactive storybook read-alouds in Spanish expose children to the rich vocabulary of texts, vocabulary that they might not encounter in day-to-day spoken language. Read-alouds also help children develop early reading comprehension skills as they talk with parents about the events and concepts in the stories they are sharing. If parents call children’s attention to the print in the stories they are reading, they can also help children learn letter names, letter sounds, and print concepts, such as being able to point to the title of the book or knowing that text is read from top to bottom and from left to right. All of these skills prepare children for learning to read, both in Spanish and in English!

Once children actually begin reading, they can use what they know in one language to support their learning in the other. For example, a child who already knows how to read in Spanish already knows the concept of sounding out words to decode text. S/he has a distinct advantage over a child who is just learning that letters represent sounds, and sounds go together to make up words. In addition, a child who is a reader in Spanish already knows quite a few letter sounds in English because 12 of the letters (b, c, f, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, w, and y) make exactly the same sounds in the two languages! In addition, between 30% and 40% of all English words have Spanish cognates, or words that look similar and have the same meaning in the two languages. Parents can support their children’s English reading by helping them make connections like this between what they know in Spanish and what they are learning in English. They can also help by pointing out trouble spots, such as sounds that children will encounter in English that do not occur in Spanish (for example, sh).

Anyone who has ever taken a foreign language class, either in school or as an adult, has had the experience of applying established reading skills to a new language. Clearly, a child who begins studying French or German for the first time in eighth grade does not have to learn to read all over again. S/he simply has to learn how to apply what s/he already knows about reading to the unique rules of a new language. That is the same experience that children who can read in Spanish have when they begin learning to read in English. If they are beginning readers in both languages, they may not have as strong a reading foundation to call upon as the eighth grader in our example; however, having developed even elementary skills in Spanish reading will give them a boost as they learn to read in English. Not only has this fact been supported by research, it has also been borne out in classrooms across the U.S. For as Stephen Krashen stated so succinctly, “once you can read, you can read; reading ability transfers across languages.”

Karen L. Ford , Ph.D., is a Research Scientist in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, where her work focuses on second-language literacy development and literacy development in Spanish. Her research interests include early predictors of reading achievement among English language learners, readability in Spanish text, and the relationship between language development and literacy development in a second language. Currently, Dr. Ford is co-investigator on a large-scale grant, funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, to develop valid and reliable early literacy assessments in Spanish. She is also research consultant to Colorín Colorado, a Spanish-English website for parents and teachers of Spanish-speaking English language learners.

DON’T FORGET TO ENTER OUR CELEBRATING BILINGUAL READERS CONTEST FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN OVER $300 WORTH OF BILINGUAL/SPANISH BOOKS AND A KINDLE FIRE!

This is our fourth year celebrating El Día de los Niños/El Día de los libros which happens on or around April 30 around the entire country. In honor of this very special day — because what could be better than celebrating kids and books, right? — we have put together a full week of reading related posts geared specifically towards bilingual children as well as an AMAZING giveaway that will allow one family to build its own bilingual home library for their kids!

We believe wholeheartedly in the power of reading when raising bilingual children, but we also know how frustrating it can be to find quality bilingual and Spanish books in the United States. From experience, I do have to say the offerings have gotten much better since my daughter was born almost six years ago and if you’ve been with us for a while you know that we’ve shared all those finds with you either through our ReadMe series or, more recently, in our Books & Libros category.

Another one of the worries we’ve all shared in this blog is how to go about teaching our bilingual children how to read in Spanish. Or even whether we should do this or not. As you may remember, I worried about this quite a bit before Vanessa entered Kinder as I was told by many that she should learn to read in her mother tongue, which I consider to be Spanish. I ended up not doing anything about it and once Vanessa learned how to read in English at school, she basically just came home and started transferring those skills into Spanish. But how does that actually happen? We hope to give you the answers this week.

We’ll also have some posts related to libraries and how to put them to good use as well as ideas to keep in mind when creating your own home bilingual library. Oh, and just like I promised, I also plan on sharing that list of suggestions I got from the librarian at the dual language immersion school I went to back in Peru when I was a child.

We’ve worked very hard to put together this week Celebrating Bilingual Readers and we can’t wait to share all of it with you… especially the AMAZING prize we’ll be giving away to one lucky family!

THE GIVEAWAY

Entering this giveaway is super easy! All you have to do is go to our Facebook page and upload a photo of your child’s favorite bilingual or Spanish book by May 6, 2012. Make sure you upload the picture via the contest app and NOT directly on the wall since that violates Facebook promotion guidelines. Go to this link here to land directly on the contest wall.

The winning family will be chosen at random (1 Grand prize winner) and this is what they’ll win to start their own bilingual children’s library at home:

• $50 worth of books from Heritage Language
• $50 worth of books from Bilingual Readers
• $50 worth of books from Lectura Books
• $20 worth of books from Little Pim
• Over $80 worth of books and Audio CDs from Pacific Learning
• Over $30 worth of bilingual educational games from Ingenio
• A BRAND NEW KINDLE FIRE!

 
We’ll also select three more winners to receive a copy of our book, Bilingual is Better, to be published on September 4, but now available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Enter the Celebrating Bilingual Readers Contest HERE and click on the suggested Tweet below to share the news with your friends!

SpanglishBaby giveaway $300 in bilingual books & a Kindle Fire! Upload pic of ur #BilingualKids fave book. Details: http://bit.ly/I3kTRy 

¡Buena suerte! 

For those of us who live in year-round warmth (i.e. here in Florida), springtime means the HEAT has arrived. For many of you, though, it means the snow is melting and the sun has decided to appear. No doubt, that’s something to celebrate!

Keep your kids busy during Spring Break — or spend some of that lazy beach time — reading a selection of topics from this list of primavera-themed books. Entertain them with Clifford’s aventuras or use the weather transition to teach them about the rhythm of the seasons.

La Primavera (Cuatro Estaciones) by Nuria Roca

Llegó la Primavera by Taro Gomi

Jitomates Resueños y Otros Poemas de Primavera by Francisco X. Alarcon

Clifford y la limpieza de primavera by Norman Bridwell

La Primavera by Sian Smith

Actividades para no aburrirse: otoño, invierno, primavera y verano by Jesús Villanueva Vázquez del Rey

Veamos la Primavera/Let’s Look at Spring by Sarah L. Schuette

¿Cuándo llegará la primavera? by Catherine Walters

Experimentos para cada día de la primavera by Anita Van Saan

As always, enjoy being able to conduct storytime en dos idiomas. For more great bilingual books, including suggestions for reading about the upcoming Pascua holiday, see La Tiendita.