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This year is the 15th anniversary for El día de los niños/El día de los libros! Happy birthday to this wonderful celebration of children and books from all linguistic and cultural backgrounds!

There are lots of celebrations going on and one I’m particularly excited about is the Pura Belpré Celebración at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans this June.  Organizers tell us that they’re going to celebrate it as a Quinceañera with a traditional promenade.  It’s going to be fabulous – we only hope we can sneak away from our booth long enough to participate!

For your collections, here are some Spanish and bilingual books to consider for your Día celebrations:

• Ada, Alma Flor and F. Isabel Campoy  ¡MUU, MOO!: Rimas de animales/Animal Nursery Rhymes. Illus. Vivi Escriva. 2010
• Ada, Alma Flor and F. Isabel Campoy TEN LITTLE PUPPIES/Diez Perritos.  Illus. Ulises Wensell. 2011
• Brown, Monica SIDE BY SIDE/Lado a lado.  Illus. Joe Cepeda. 2010
• Dorros, Arthur  MAMA AND ME.  Illus. Rudy Gutierrez. 2011
• Dorros, Arthur  RADIO MAN/Don radio. 1997 (paperback)
• Guy, Ginger Foglesong  BRAVO! Illus. Rene King Moreno. 2010
• Guy, Ginger Foglesong  MY GRANDMA/Mi abuelita.  Illus. Vivi Escriva. 2007
• Lacamara, Laura  FLOATING ON MAMA’S SONG/Flotando en la canción de mamá. Illus. Yuyi Morales. 2010
• Martinez, Rueben  ONCE UPON A TIME/Habia una vez: Traditional Latin American Tales/Cuentos tradicionales latinoamericanos.  Illus. Raul Colon. 2010
• Mora, Pat  BOOK FIESTA! Illus. Rafael Lopez.  2009
• Mora, Pat WIGGLING POCKETS/Los bolsillos saltarines.  Illus. Maribel Suarez. 2009
• Reiser, Lynn  Tortillas and Lullabies/Tortillas y cancioncitas. Illus. Corazones Valientes. 2008

This list is by no means exhaustive (many of these authors and illustrators are prolific with rich and beautiful books in their backlist), but hopefully it’ll help get you started.

And make sure to check out the Día website – there’s a wealth of information about hosting your own Día event, events going

Alicia Cruz has it all.  She lives in Miami, Florida and just got a prestigious internship.  Then she runs into Sarita, who's worried about her upcoming quinceanera.  What's a girl to do?  Alicia decides to help Sarita by putting together the 'perfect' quinceanera with the help of her amigas.  Amigas Fifteen Candles is a fast paced tale that shows the power of amigas can do just about anything. 

Author: Caren McCormack (on JOMB)
Illustrator: Martha Avilés (on JOMB)
Published: 2009 Marshall Cavendish (on JOMB)
ISBN: 0761454675

Chapters.ca Amazon.com

Earth toned preparations and pastel pomp treat us to a slightly slighted little sibling’s view of what seems like a very cool coming of age tradition.

Other books mentioned:

• The Lime Green Secret
• Jamela’s Dress
• The Fisherman and the Turtle

We’d love to hear your thoughts on a favourite children’s book. Leave a voice message on our JOMB listener hotline, +1-206-350-6487, so we can include your audio in our show.