Reading Matters! Really!

By Christianne Meneses Jacobs

As an educator and reading specialist, I get to read a lot of research on reading and teaching children to read. I want to share some research findings that I believe are important to keep in mind as our young children grow up and become interested in books.

Some of the research findings are:

Children need to own their own books. They need to build a home library from the time they are little. Children like to feel proud of their books, and love to go back and reread their books whenever they like. This is important because it fosters reading for pleasure.

Children who read for fun, and enjoy reading new books and rereading old favorites do better in school than children who do not read books, and spend too much time with watching television and playing video games.

It is very important to allow children to choose books to read. Whether they are at home, at school or at the public library, children need to be given the freedom to choose books that interest them as this freedom of choice turns into a reading motivator.

Children that have demonstrated higher reading proficiency have acquired this skill from reading a variety of materials, including fiction, nonfiction, picture books and magazines, regardless of language.

As adults, we take reading for granted. But for young children, reading is a learned skill. Let’s guide our children in the right direction and turn them into book lovers.

Starr Readers Book Drive

It never fails to amaze me how just one person can make a difference. For the past four years, Texas native, Karen Furlong, has been collecting and donating books to nine libraries in Rio Grande City public schools. The city is located along the TX-Mexico border and within Starr County, which is considered to have one of the hightest poverty levels in the country.

Despite this year's economic struggle, it looks like she may end up with a record number of donations and $5,000 worth of books to deliver. Karen delivers a diversity of books - classics, popular fiction, etc. - and this year she'll be buying more culturally oriented stories like Jonah Winter's Frida and Elena's Serenade by Campbell Geeslin.

If you would like to send some money, gift cards (a Barnes and Noble store that she works with will give her the books at discount), or actual books, you have until the 4th of January. Then the next day, she and her mamá, Evangeline Rodriguez Marino, will make their now traditional drive down to Starr County to deliver their gifts in time for Día de los Reyes. Please mail donations/ checks, made out to Starr Readers, to 3125 Damascus Way, Dallas, Texas, 75234.

Isn't that wonderful? So many of these children will be lucky to get any presents at all. If you'd like to read the whole article about the Starr Readers Book Drive, click here.

Perhaps, dear Readers, next Christmas, we can help out and have a little on-line book drive to send to Karen? I'm sure we all have many books that we could share with all the niños of Starr County.

¡Feliz Navidad!

From all of us at the LBBC, Feliz Navidad!

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We wish you a happy week filled with love and laughter, familia y amigos.

Guji Guji by Chih-Yuan Chen

A few weeks ago, I got a package in the mail with books to review from Kane/Miller Book Publishers. The books I received are written completely in Spanish and I remember that some of you have asked for Spanish only children's book recommendations. These are certainly worth recommending!

Kane/Miller is a small, specialized and very independent book publishing company that carefully chooses it's publications from around the world. They work hard to find books that they feel enrich the lives of American children. Their web site is fantastic and you can look books up by the country in which they were originally published. They do offer many books in English as well.

My kids and I have been devouring them for the past week. Since it is very late, I'll feature only one here, but they are all super so I will have more to recommend in the coming weeks.

Our first choice would have to be Guji Guji by Chih-Yuan Chen. A beautiful story originally from Taiwan, it is somewhat similar to The Ugly Duckling, but it revolves around a little crocodile egg that accidentally falls into a duck's nest. The egg subsequently hatches and the little crocodile is joyful and happy to be a duck. The mama duck, of course, loves all of her little patitos equally, despite one's strange appearance and differences. Trouble arrives in the form of three bigger crocodiles who want Guji Guji to team up with them and trick his unsuspecting duck family into becoming the crocodiles' dinner. How does Guji Guji get out of this mess? You'll have to read the book to find out!

Here's a little sample of the text:

"Un patito de apariencia más bien inusual

salió del cascarón del cuarto huevo.

"Guji Guji", dijo, y ése fue su nombre."

Overall, the illustrations are a little dark compared to what we are used to, but they are no less attractive. They have a folk artsy sort of feel to them, and Guji is just really so adorable. Both you and your kids will fall in love with him. He such a happy little guy.

If you'd like to purchase your own copy of Guji Guji, or check out the Kane/Miller web site, click here.

Giveaway Winners

¡Híjole! Sorry for taking so long to get this up. My days are getting shorter the closer to Christmas we get!

At anyrate, I have just pulled out the Magic Salsa bowl once again, but this time I had to pick the winners myself since all mis chiquis are already in bed asleep (I hope.) I almost forgot that I was picking TWO winners this time and had to go back and draw another name and take another picture.

And the winners are... Tricia & Keen!

Congratulations! If you guys will please email me (admin@ latinbabyusa.com) with a mailing address, I'll try to get these out this week. Maybe you'll get them in time to read to your littles on Noche Buena.

Thank you all so much for playing, and for those of you whose name I didn't draw, I hope you will continue to participate in future giveaways. All of us at the LBBC really appreciate your interest. And we know there are tons of you out there who are not commenting. Our site stats and email subscriptions have given you away! Maybe next time you'll leave us a comment and enter to win our next giveaway?

Gift Sets that Inspire the Imagination

For those of you interested in purchasing un regalito that promotes a love of literacy, be sure to check out Latin Baby's gift sets. We currently have one gift set left for little boys that contains a Feliz Navidad sweatshirt (available in sizes 2T, 4T, and 6T), one copy of The Best Mariachi in the World, one copy of Cowboy Jose, and it comes with a free plush.

If you would like a custom gift basket, just email me directly for special pricing. In addition, blog readers may receive additional savings with 10% off their total purchase by using the discount code: BC10309101.

All purchases must be made by December 19th for guaranteed Christmas delivery.

The Latino Book and Family Festival is This Weekend!

From Mi Cielito Lindo...

"I never seem to be at the right place at the right time to catch the Latino Book and Family Festival (though I am often at the right place at the wrong time!) But maybe if you are in the Houston area this coming weekend, December 13 & 14, you could catch the festival at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Originally scheduled for October, the festival had to be rescheduled due to Hurricane Ike.

Co-hosted by Nuestra Palabra: Latinos Writers Having Their Say, the Latino Book and Family Festival is the largest book fair in Texas, and the fastest growing book fair in the country. Over 30 Latino authors will be in attendance, many of whom will be leading workshops, including America’s first best-selling Mexican American author Victor Villaseñor, the author of Rain of Gold, Burro Genius and Thirteen Senses as well as Gustavo Arelleno, who pens the nationally syndicated column Ask A Mexican, and Stephanie Griest Elizondo, author of 100 Places Every Woman Should Go.

The festival itself is a weekend event that promotes literacy, culture and education in a fun environment for the whole family. I have wanted to attend the book fair for ages, so if any of you go, I hope you will tell me how much fun you have!

Admission is free.

For more information, click here."

Holiday Favorites & A GIVEAWAY!

With Christmas right around the corner, I thought I would highlight a few books that celebrate the season. There are so many bilingual holiday books for kids out there that it was hard to narrow it down, so I just picked the first few that either the LBBC carries or has been given to review, or some from our family library.

We have already described our Libro del Mes, The Night of Las Posadas, and along the same lines, I found on my family's bookshelf, The Legend of the Poinsettia, also by Tomie dePaola. It is the retelling of the Mexican legend surrounding its native flower. In dePaola's version, a young girl named Lucida is upset over the fact that she has nothing to offer the baby Jesus during her town's Christmas procession. Her mother has taken ill and she and her siblings have been left in the care of a family friend. Too embarassed to enter the church empty handed, Lucida is encouraged by una viejita to give whatever she can. The only thing Lucida can find are the weeds along side the road, which she picks before entering the church to make her offering. The resulting milagro surrounding her simple gift ends the story on a meaningful note. A lovely story for children ages 2 to 6. You can purchase your copy here.

For younger children, Uno, Dos, Tres, Posada! Let's Celebrate Christmas by Virginia Kroll is a simple bilingual counting book....

"I say cinco and you say five.

Let's light los faroles

before our guests arrive."

It centers around the posada tradition and takes the reader from the preparations to the end of the posada celebration. You can find the book for sale here.

And lastly, are any of you familiar with the story of the gingerbread man? Baked by a little old lady, the gingerbread man escapes and runs away to be chased by people and animals repeatedly shouting, "you can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!" Annoying little bugger. I was always glad when he got caught and gobbled up by the fox in the end.

Anyhoo, there is a Hispanic version out called Runaway Radish/El Rábano que Escapó by Janice Levy. With full text in both English and Spanish, this version centers around the Night of the Radishes, an annual festival held in Oaxaca a few night before Christmas. In it there is a huge contest that features figures carved from radishes. Most of the sculptures represent scenes from the nativity or of the history and culture of Oaxacans. A pretty neat concept, I have to say! So naturally, Runaway Radish is about (surprise!) a radish that escapes his master sculptor and creates havoc throughout the town as he tries to get away, shouting,

"Gentes y lugares voy a visitar.

Aléjate de mí, ¡no me vas a tallar!"

And because we have not had a giveaway this month yet, AND as our way at the LBBC of saying "¡Feliz Navidad!" we are offering not one, but two lucky winners a copy of this book. All you have to do is leave a comment by this coming Sunday night, and I will announce the winners on Monday.

Good luck and Feliz Navidad to you all!

Un ABC Animal

OK, here's the struggle: When you're bilingual, but don't use your second language on some days for more than telling the 5-year-old to get her zapatos on, you are likely to stumble a little when you're reading a new book.

Case in point, I pulled out a book I bought last year, Un ABC Animal, because Maria is more ready for it now than she was then. The problema: Mami isn't sure what a nutria is and she had to think hard about the word "golosinas'' and how best to explain "te clavará el colmillo'' to the child.

The book, by Ana Galán, is lovely. The illustrations are pretty and funny, and there's a lively poem for each letter -- which of course, includes ch, ll, ñ.

Here's the B:

"Ballena, ¿te bañas sola? Báñate bien con jabón. Sácale brillo a tu cola. ¡Qué bella que te quedó!

Maria asked me to translate each poem as I read it and I faked a few words. Oh yes, I did. But, I made a mental note to find my dictionary like apuradamente. (I already know a nutria is an otter.)

So, there's the beauty of it. I'm learning right alongside la niña.

Recessionista note:

I got Un ABC Animal last year via Sort Floor Books, which has amazing deals on books and very inexpensive shipping. You can find Spanish books via this search and perhaps by doing some title searches. They don't have the easiest way to find books and there are no descriptions, so you'll have to look at another book site to read about the title. It's worth the time though. I got great books for the holidays there last year, including some Cuban cookbooks.

Make Reading Part of the Holidays!

The holidays are upon us! This is a great time of year to think about special celebrations, family traditions, classic stories, and holiday fun. Colorin Colorado offers a number of articles, resources, and booklists that can enrich your holiday celebrations.

If you're looking for fun holiday activities, for example, check out these parent articles:

• Learning That's Hands-On Holiday Fun for Preschool Children (also available in Spanish)
• Creating Learning Traditions (also available in Spanish)

If you'd like to make reading part of your gift-giving activities, take a look at the following resources:

• The Gift of Reading (also available in Spanish)
• Libros de Navidad (a Spanish-language Christmas booklist)
• Review of IGUANA Spanish-language Magazine for children (review also available in Spanish)

One particularly special holiday book is The Storyteller's Candle, a lovely bilingual holiday story written by Lucia Gonzalez and illustrated by Lulu Delacre.

Reading Rockets also offers these holiday children's book suggestions, which are listed by age:

• Books as Gifts 2008 Booklist
• Ten Books for the Holiday Season

Finally, for the parents of children with special needs, take a look at this article from another of our sister sites, LD OnLine, about helping children with social and behavioral problems have a happy holiday season.

Happy holidays and happy reading from Colorin Colorado and all of our sister websites!