Iguanas in the Snow and Other Winter Poems/Iguanas en la nieve y otros poemas de invierno is an absolute delight. Parents, do not be intimidated by the word poem in the title! What Francisco X. Alarcón gives us with this picture book is an introduction to image. The poems, short and simple, will teach your children to grow with an acute appetite for sensory details. This collection, like the others in its series, is very visual and while it explores much associated with winter it also touches on many important themes our children face each day such as identity, community and cultural awareness.
The illustrations, by Maya Christina Gonzalez, are vivid and play a large role in the overall joy that is found in this book. Gonzalez does an excellent job complimenting each poem and her artwork is colorful and alive.
Suited perfectly for children in grades 3-5, this book will help children begin to build their creative process using small detail. Because the poems are observations, young readers will be able to identify similar visual details during their own day-to-day experiences. While in nature, walking to school, or even while spending time with family at home, they may begin to notice detail in a new way, an important skill for all children. This book, and the others in this seasonal series provide an excellent tool for building sensory skills.
Furthermore, if your child is a young student of Spanish, this book is effective in isolating a few words at a time, so the Spanish does not become overwhelming. Because the poems are short, they can be broken up into daily lessons. It is a perfect and joyful book for any age to read.
–Jacey
For this book and the others in its series (Spring, Summer and Fall), click here. Get it in time for Christmas!
We wanted to share with you one of Jacey’s favorite poems from the book, perfect for the season! Happy Holidays!
Nochebuena Christmas Eve
me encanta I love
el sabroso the delicious
olor aroma
de tamales of tamales
cociéndose simmering
al vapor in their steam
toda mi familia my family
a mi alrededor all around me
cantando singing
las alegres the joyful
canciones de songs of
Las Posadas Las Posadas
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Many of you have probably heard of the Day of the Dead, celebrated in Mexico, and more and more in the United States, this time of year. It is a holiday for family and friends to gather and remember friends and family who have passed away. Not a somber event, the celebration includes cleaning the house, building an offering, or ofrenda, that includes candles, flowers, their favorite items while alive and other items to help them on their journey and visiting their graves. This holiday also coincides with the Catholic holidays of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.
Holidays like the Day of the Dead are celebrated throughout the world and in various cultures, where families come together to honor the dead. In Korea, for
example, a large feast is cooked. Fruit is placed on the table in odd numbers with the top of one cut off. Chopsticks are placed upright in a bowl of rice. The front door is left opened during the ceremony. These actions allow for the dead to enter and enjoy the food!
Many in the United States have embraced the Day of the Dead holiday. One town in Texas, for instance, held a shoebox ofrenda competition. There are free processions tonight in San Francisco and Oakland, etc. Check your local area for events!
For more information on ofrenda, check out: http://www.inside-mexico.com/ofrenda.htm and for information on the Day of the Dead holiday, visit http://www.dayofthedead.com/
In the meantime, enjoy the fall and upcoming holidays!
I also would like to use this holiday to highlight a bilingual book we carry at bububooks called: Celebrations / Celebraciones: Holidays of the United States of America and Mexico / Dias feriados de los Estados Unidos y Mexico. In it, author Nancy Tabor explains major holidays in the US and Mexico and how they are celebrated. Be sure to check it out!
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JacketFlap tags: children's books, bilingual books, Holidays/Celebrations, bilingual children, hispanic heritage month, bububooks, cultural identity, multiracial children, bilingual parents, bilingual spanish english books, bilingual children's books, bilingual authors, Nancy Tabor, bilingual homes, Latino Americans, activities for hispanic heritage month, Add a tag
Hispanic Heritage Month began this week. It originally began as a week long celebration in 1968 when Congress authorized President Lyndon B. Johnson to proclaim it. During this month, we celebrate the cultures and traditions of Americans who trace their roots to Spain, Mexico and Spanish-speaking countries of Central and South Americas and the Caribbean. Hispanic Heritage Month begins on Sept 15 because five Latin American countries gained independence from Spain on this day: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Also, Mexico celebrates its independence day on Sept. 16th, while Chile celebrates its on the 18th.
National Activities
You can use this month to celebrate Hispanic culture in America and to learn more about it. There is so much to do! For a list of events throughout the nation, be sure to check out http://www.hispanicheritagemonth.net/calendar.html.
Children’s Activities
Of course, with us being a children’s bookstore, we need to focus on activities for the kids! For that, we turn to our all-time favorite, ¡Colorín colorado! On this page, you can find fun activities for your kids, including word searches and crossword puzzles as well as other activity sheets focusing on words and language. Also, ¡Colorín colorado! has set up a link where you can send e-cards to your friends and families! Now, for the adults, this awesome website offers information, history, teaching materials, classroom activities, lesson plans and other resources and links for you to use. Be sure to bookmark that page!
Children’s Reading List
We at bububooks have also created a book list to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with your children.
Celebrations / Celebraciones: Holidays of the United States of America and Mexico / Dias feriados de los Estados Unidos y Mexico
Explore the ways Mexicans and Americans observe holidays throughout the year and learn how the common values and beliefs these countries share are reflected in their special days.
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Somo un arco iris / We are a Rainbow
“Are we as different as we might think? I say sol. You say sun. No matter how we say it, it is the same one.” Nancy Maria Grande Tabor, via a simple text and vivid art, establishes that children of two entirely different cultures are really quite similar. We Are a Rainbow helps young readers begin building the cultural bridges of common human understanding through simple comparisons of culture from breakfast foods to legends. Colorful cut-paper art and gentle language deliver this universal message eloquently.
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El gusto del mercado Mexicano / A Taste of the Mexican Market
Let’s visit a Mexican market!
Along the way you can compare, weigh, count, and learn about culture and customs. From bunches of hanging bananas and braids of garlic to pyramids of melon and baskets of sweet cheese, this Mexican market is full of fun and surprises.
Colorful cut-paper art sets the scene for a creative way to build new vocabulary for beginning readers of Spanish or English.
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Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems/ Jitomatesrisueños y otros poemas de primavera
From the imagination of poet Francisco X. Alarcón comes this playful and moving collection of twenty poems about spring in English and Spanish. Tomatoes laugh, chiles explode, and tortillas applaud the sun! With joy and tenderness, delight and sadness, Francisco’s poems honor the wonders of life and nature: welcoming the morning sun, remembering his grandmother’s songs, paying tribute to children working in the fields, and sharing his dream of a world filled with gardens. Artist Maya Christina Gonzalez invites us to experience the poems with her lively cast of characters—including a spirited grandmother, four vivacious children, and playful pets who tease and delight. Follow them from page to page as they bring the spring season to colorful life.
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Ve lo que dices / See What You Say
In this entertaining, bilingual exploration of language, children are introduced to a second language and get a glimpse of another culture. Ve lo que dices/See What You Say explores the ways two different cultures view their own languages through familiar idioms. Sometimes the words we use have a different meaning from what we say. For instance, if a person becomes hasty and does things out of order, in English we say he has put the cart before the horse. In Spanish he is starting to build the house at the roof. Although they mean the same thing, the literal sense of these phrases is quite different. In Ve lo que dices/See What You Say, these contrasting expressions become charming and vivid vignettes.
Nancy María Grande Tabor’s signature cut paper illustrations are remarkable in their three-dimensional quality and light-hearted presentation of some very off-the-wall phrases. Children and adults alike will have a great time guessing what idiom each illustration represents.
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Where Fireflies Dance / Ahí donde bailan las luciérnagas
In her first book for children, award-winning author Lucha Corpi remembers her childhood growing up in Jáltipan, Mexico, where the moon hung low and the fireflies flickered in the night air. In vivid and poetic detail, she recalls exploring with her brother the old haunted house of the legendary revolutionary Juan Sebastián, discovering the music that came from the jukebox at the local cantina, and getting caught by their mother for their mischievous adventures. Most of all, she remembers the ballads her father sang and the stories her grandmother told. In her stories, her grandmother passes on an important message about growing up—each person, like the revolutionary Juan Sebastián, has a destiny to follow.
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Flag Quiz
Click here to test your knowledge of flags throughout Latin America, provided by WTXL ABC 27 in Tallahassee, Fla. Bet you’ll beat Laura!
Fun Facts
For some interesting statistics on the Hispanic population in America, click here. Test your knowledge and learn more too!
Activities in Chicago
For events occurring throughout Hispanic Heritage Month in Chicago, check out ABC 7 Chicago’s The Ñ Beat with Theresa Gutierrez. Click here for more information.
Activities in South Georgia
Valdosta State University will host several events throughout month. See the list here–hope to see you there!
We hope you’ve enjoyed this posting and are excited as we are to check out some of these events. Feel free to share more!
By: Neil Gaiman,
on 6/3/2007
Blog: Neil Gaiman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Death movie, Hay on Wye Guardian Festival, how to sidle properly, Add a tag
When last seen, our hero was putting down his computer and heading for the tent...
The tent was full. We explained to people that we couldn't technically show the whole film there yet (which I think was a good thing, given that it was a very hot tent and lots of people had small children and babies with them who would probably not have enjoyed a 2 hour film followed by a Q&A) and I showed about half-an-hour's worth of clips, and then did an audience Q&A -- excellently moderated by Paul Blezard -- that was enormously fun.
I'm now immortalised in The Guardian blog (not sure about the use of the word "sidled", which I always thought meant involved either walking sideways or at least looking like you ought to be, but Imogen's spot-on about the jet lag) (and I got off more lightly than Anne Fine did).
Then a signing and lots of interviews (the BBC Wales one should show up here), and onto the train back to London carrying a case of champagne, a "thank-you-for-coming" gift from the Hay festival. Given that I can't bring a case of champagne back into the US, nor can I drink a case of champagne between here and Tuesday morning, I'll need to figure out what to do with it.
Back to the London hotel on a train that got in late (you've been spared the saga of the Friday night journey down to Hay, on a train that also got in late which meant that we wound up eating in the staff tent as they closed for the night and then set off down windy narrow lanes hunting for a house that refused to be where our driver had been told it was). Holly went out to the pub with her boyfriend for a bit, while I, spoiled for choice on What to Do in the West End of London on a Saturday Night, communed with my jetlag and opted for a) a long bath, of the kind where you read the paper and it gets bubbles all over it and you don't care immediately followed by b) bed.
Slept for ten blessed hours. Am now more or less up and more or less human, although my hair looks like I had a long bath and then forgot to dry it before I went to sleep and is sticking out around my head like an Einstein fright-wig.
Today I will get to see an (almost) finished Stardust. Unless a couple of extra people show up, in which case I'll nobly give up my seat (it's not a big screening room).
Here's a TV spot -- having seen a lot of the TV spots last time I was in the UK, this isn't one I remember as being among my half-dozen favourites (I liked the ones that had Charlie Cox in them and looked like Stardust was a funny and exciting sort of romance with magic in it) but it's not one of the bad ones...
So the other day I caught this little rumor on Sci Fi Wire, saying you're getting ready to direct your own adaptation of Death: The High Cost of Living. (Said rumor here: http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=41698) I assumed at the time you'd be flooded with inquiries about it, and would post either a refutation or a sort of sly non-comment winkwink, but so far you haven't said anything. Can it be that no one's asked? I'd love to know!
- Rachel
Lots of people have asked, and as soon as I can say something a bit more definite I shall. For right now, I can probably say that Guillermo is still executive producing Death (as I mentioned here), I'll be directing, that it certainly appears to be on the way to happening, and that no, the actress who would be playing Didi has not been cast although I've met some of the possibles.
I have a dilemma. I am borrowing the Coraline audiobook from the library. I imported it to my computer to keep the discs safe while I listen. (My father borrows my computer and leaves my discs all over the room so they are hard to find.)
I know that I haven't paid for Coraline, and I should remove it from my computer when I return the discs to the library. But I'm very fond of Coraline, and I am going to buy it when I can- the book and the audiobook. (And the movie, when it's out.)
Would you mind if I kept Coraline on my computer until I buy it, or at least recieve it for some gift-giving occasion?
Thanks for making such a fantastic audiobook, by the way!
-Anna
I'm glad you liked it!
The last time I was asked something like this (similar, but not quite the same) was here --
... you know, Blogger is weird sometimes. The last paragraph of this post just vanished completely, without me doing anything to it. Grr.
Anyway, I pointed to http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2005/10/dublin-again-and-lots-of-other-things.html when I was asked a similar question.
I don't mind at all. The disks have to go back to the library because someone else may need them, but I can't see why you need to have the object in your possession in order to listen to it, whether it's an MP3 CD or an Audio CD version of the audio book -- you aren't stopping someone else from listening to it. Again, I'd rather that you didn't pass on your copy to anyone. And I'd like it if the US signed up for PLR. But listen away...
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