Scholastic has launched a wonderful reading campaign, and many free resources are offered at their site here.



In the meantime, here is a video with an interview about my work and the creation of my poster for this project.

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The New York Public Library unveiled their 100 Top Children’s Books of the Last 100 Years, and guess who made the list! I'll give you a clue, a very old woman and a very thin skeleton.
Three more Pura Belpre titles include Gary Soto's Chato's Kitchen, Illustrated by Susan Guevara, Lucia Gonzalez for The Bossy Gallito/El Gallo de Bodas, Illustrated by Lulu Delacre and Pam Munoz-Ryan's Esperanza Rising.

Find the complete list here

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Brought to you by:Noodle.org

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As I am preparing to go live, make my books, and be carried away by more creative projects in Mexico, I have started to say my good-byes to many of the  people that had been the pillars of my life her in the United States. Earlier this week, my critique group and I had a party to celebrate the great years we have shared together creating children's books.
Jim Averbeck, Maria Van Lieshout, Lynn Hazen, Karen Ehrhardt, Gianna Marino, and I  have been  the Revisionaries since 1997. We met during a Berkeley extension class for learning how to write children's books. When the course ended, about twenty of us agreed to continue meeting so that we could read and work together in our stories; out goal was to be able to write publishable works. By the third meeting only a handful of us remained.
To this day, we are six, and for nearly 16 years we have met two times at month to read, critic, revise, and create children's books. Together we have gone though births and rising children, heartbreaks and new beginnings, we have learned and we have taught, we have published and received prize and  awards for our works.
At our party this week I had my son take some pictures of us. Here is an slide show of a handful of them.

Together We Are The Revisionaries from Yuyi Morales on Vimeo.

I am for even and ever in love with my Revisionaries.

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A few weeks ago, when we had the Niño book release party, the lucha mask making activity was a blast. One teacher told me that she thought she could have their annual school play based in my book if she could have access to the mask templates I had created. So, by her request I have made the masks' printout (featuring the faces of every character in the book ) available for downloading here. I have also started a Pinterest board with all Niño Wrestles the World images and links that explore in more depth themes such as lucha libre and the origen of the out-of-this-world characters of the book.
Finally here is the main page with all Niño things.
I hope you enjoy them.

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When earlier last month Lee & Low Books  posted this question in their blog, "Why Hasn’t the Number of Multicultural Books Increased In Eighteen Years?" many responses began circulating that touched everything from how we feel about white authors and illustrators writing books about people of other races, and about the role (and the criteria to select winners) of ethic book awards such as the Coretta Scott King Award or the Pura Belpre or the Asian Pacific American Book Award and many others, as well as about the need for books  that represent other cultures while still been fun rather than focusing on historical periods of a people, and much more. Roger Sutton posted his two own answers--as he describe them--one only semi-facetious and one perhaps semi-impolitic. I hope that most everybody could be part of this conversation.
As we continue talking about multicultural book, the publishing industry, and the demands of the readers continues, I only hope that 1) We can move into creating significant lasting changes, and 2) that we do it while still honoring what award committees, publishers, librarians, booksellers, and even authors and illustrators have been doing to this day to have a more diverse and inclusive children's literature.

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There has been such a great welcoming to Niño Wrestles the World, and while we get ready for the book party this weekend, here are a few posting about the book:

The Horn Book included Niño into this article about the blend between imagination and reality in picture books.

Julie Danielson, the author of the 7-IMP blog made a nicely detailed review of Niño, and later featured some thumbnails, sketches, and other bits of the process of making the images for Niño.

Here is the Kirkus review
And here a starred review at Publishers Weekly


I hope you enjoy these.

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It has been a busy, busy season with many changes, and much growth. But for now it is time to celebrate!
This Sunday we will have a book party for my newest book,  Niño Wrestles the World, at the tiniest and most wonderful book store in San Francisco, Luna's Press, hosted by my dear friend and poet Jorge Argueta.
Here the poster invitations, both in Eglish and Spanish.
Hope you come!

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 This was such a busy and fruitful year that I had very few opportunities to write about it. Here a brief look back at what made it wonderful:

The Mexican sun in the mornings

Yotopia, its people, and the best frozen yogurt in town

Mi sisters

Tamarindo with lemon at the park in Xalapa

My brother (and the painting of his house)

Xico, where I will live some day

The publication of Gerogia in Hawaii

The last of Soli's days

Embroidering venaditos

Miguel, Sita, and my Bay Area family

El Son and zapateado in my garden

Fogo and SF Carnaval!

Kelly

Luna

Kelly's graduation

Kelly's wisdom teeth extraction

Nest in unexpected places in my garden

Participating in America the Beautiful book

the arrival of Tigerand mojo

Alex

Visitors I love

Making Frida

Painting venadito

Becoming a citizen

Painting Jose's face for Dia de los Muertos celebration

planning tattoos

Getting my tattoo inked

My tattoo oulined

Voting (with my son Kelly) for the first time in our lives

Painting Frida

Making papel picado

Selfportrait

PBS testimonial and strangers telling me they have seen me.

Planning Kelly's tattoo

Inked tattoo

Mojo, who never left

Tim and I

Us

May new jouneys welcome all of us. My path takes me now back to Mexico where I will live part-time huging my family, making my books, and helping Kelly to forge his own path. Much love for everybody

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Candlewick Press is celebrating its 20th anniversary and to add to the festivities they asked many authors, illustrators, book makers, and book lovers to tell about their love for picture books in videos. These videos are part of a year-long celebration and are being posted one per day.

When I began thinking about the video I would made I was highly inspired. Picture books are very important to me because they changed the course of my life, and they gave me direction as an immigrant in this country and a as creator in this world. I wanted to make something special! So, how could I tell about my love for picture books? To me the best way is always through storytelling and, of course, pictures.

With the help of my Friend Miguelito Martinez , whose talent for music measures to his talent for love and friendship, here is the video I created to celebrate:



Author and illustrator Yuyi Morales tells her story of falling in love with picture books from Candlewick Press on Vimeo.

I hope you all like it.

P.S. Yes, those are my real pen drawings from when I was about four years old.

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Last year PBS came to my house to film a testimonial about the influence of public television in my life. This is what they have released just recently:

Hermosa Gente.

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Thank YOU for the conversation

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8 ways to join the World Book and Copyright day celebration (recommended by the UNESCO):

1. Download books published over 100 years ago on Kindle, they’re free.
2. Share your passion for an author and offer his book to people around you.
3. Take this opportunity to discover something new from what you're used to read.
4. Leave a book on a park bench or a metro seat with a note saying “Happy Book and Copyright Day!”
5. Find out how to send your old books to schools and libraries in countries facing a post-disaster situation.
6. Educate yourself on books pirating: respect for copyright encourages the dissemination of knowledge and rewards their creators and publishers.
7. Never throw away your books, get involved in local community or online book swapping and donation campaigns and initiatives.
8. Plan local reading events in schools and libraries and encourage famous guest readers to get involved.

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I regularly visit bookstores looking for the new published books; among those I also look for those written or illustrated by or about Latinos. Unfortunately, these are not usually easy come about; unless you know the specific titles to look for, these books might not even be found in the stores at all.

So, when the time for the ALA children's book awards comes, while I might have my favorites to win awards such as the Caldecott, I find it difficult to have an opinion of the strongest contenders to win the Pura Belpre Medal.
(From the Pura Belpre Award site: "The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented annually to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.")

However, not been able to find these books easily, doesn't stop me from becoming the fan of some I have managed to find during the year. And so, this time, these three are my favorites for the 2012 Pura Belpre illustrator Award Winner:


Waiting for Biblio Burro, written by Monica Brown, and illustrated by John Parra

John has an illustration style that feels nostalgic and earthy, that seems filled with memories and colors from the past. I have always loved everyone of his books. This one is not an exception. Here is John's site.



The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred, written by Samanthat R. Vamos, and illustrated by Rafael Lopez.


About a year ago, in one of my trips to Mexico, I was able to visit Rafael at his studio in San Miguel de Allende, and see some of his work in progress for a book about Tito Puente. Rafael never ceases to amaze me with his work.

4 Comments on Books by Latinos: predicting the Pura Belpre, last added: 1/24/2012