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Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 to October 15, a period chosen because it bookends the independence days of five Central American nations (Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Costa Rica, Sept. 15), Mexico (Sept. 16) and Chile (Sept. 18), as well as Columbus Day/Dia de la Raza (Oct. 14 this year in the United States). In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we’ve rounded up five great books that celebrate Latino culture and history.

1. Gracias~Thanks by Pat Mora, illustrated by John Parra

In a series of poetic sentences, a young boy tells about some of the everyday things for which he is thankful in both English and Spanish.

2. Marisol McDonald Doesnt’ Match/Marisol McDonald no combina by Monica Brown, illustrated by Sara Palacios

A young Peruvian-Scottish-American girl tries to match but finds it’s much more fun to live outside the box.

3. The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos by Lucía González, illustrated by Lulu Delacre

Award-winners Lucía González and Lulu Delacre celebrate the magic of the public library and the remarkable efforts of New York City’s first Latina librarian, Pura Belpré.

4. Poems to Dream Together/Poemas para soñar juntos by Francisco X. Alarcón, illustrated by Paula S. Barragán

A bilingual collection of poetry that celebrates family, community, nature, and the positive power of dreams to shape our future.

5. Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Fifteen-year-old Odilia and her younger sisters embark on a journey to return a dead man to his family in Mexico, and must outwit monsters and witches to make it back home again in this YA fantasy that retells Homer’s The Odyssey.

Abigail Sawyer regularly reviews books for us here at PaperTigers, and she’s also, in her own words, “a lifelong library lover and an advocate for access to books for all”, so who better to write an article for us about “unconventional libraries” and the children’s books they have inspired. Abigail lives in San Francisco, California, USA, where her two children attend a language-immersion elementary school and are becoming bilingual in English and Mandarin: an experience that has informed her work on the blog for the film Speaking in Tongues. I know you’ll enjoy reading this as much as I have.

On Traveling Libraries and Heroic ‘Book People’: Inspiring children’s books about getting books to people in remote places and difficult circumstances

My sons and I paid our first-ever visit to a bookmobile over the summer.  For us it was a novelty.  We have shelves of books at home and live just 3 blocks from our local branch library, but the brightly colored bus had pulled up right near the playground we were visiting in another San Francisco neighborhood (whose branch library was under renovation), and it was simply too irresistible.  Inside, this library on wheels was cozy, comfortable, and loaded with more books than I would have thought possible.  I urged my boys to practice restraint and choose only one book each rather than compete to reach the limit of how many books one can take out of the San Francisco Public Library system (the answer is 50; we’ve done it at least once).

The bookmobiles provide a great service even in our densely populated city where branch libraries abound.  There are other mobile libraries, however, that take books to children who may live miles from even the nearest modern road; to children who live on remote islands, in the sparsely populated and frigid north, in temporary settlements in vast deserts, and in refugee camps.  The heroic individuals who manage these libraries on boats, burros, vans, and camels provide children and the others they serve with a window on the world and a path into their own imaginations that would otherwise be impossible.

Shortly after my own bookmobile experience, Jeanette Winter‘s Biblioburro (Beach Lane Books, 2010), a tribute to Colombian schoolteacher Luis Soriano, who delivers books to remote hillside villages across rural Colombia, arrived in my mailbox to be reviewed for Paper Tigers.  I loved this book, as I do most of Winter’s work, for its bright pictures and simple, straightforward storytelling. Another picture book, Waiting for the Bibiloburro by Monica Brown (Tricycle Press, 2011), tells the story of Soriano’s famous project from the perspective of one of the children it

(Click on event name for more information)

2011 PBBY-Salanga Prize Winner Announced~ Philippines

Dromkeen National Centre for Picture Book Art Exhibits~ Riddells Creek, Australia

Making Books Sing Presents a One-Woman Play Based on The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos by Lucía Gonzalez~ New York, NY, USA

Doha International Children’s Book Festival~ ongoing until Dec 2, Doha, Qatar

2010 Bologna Illustrators Exhibition~ ongoing until Dec 5, Nanao, Japan

Off the Page: Original Illustrations from NZ Picture Books~ ongoing until Dec 5, Ashburton, New Zealand

Guadalajara Book Fair~ ongoing until Dec 5, Guadalajara, Mexico

2011 Canadian Children’s Book Centre Awards~ submissions accepted until Dec 17, Canada

Scholastic Asian Book Award~ submissions accepted until Dec 31, Singapore

Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award 2011~ submissions accepted until Dec 31, Singapore

An Exquisite Vision: The Art of Lisbeth Zwerger~ ongoing until Jan 9, Hannover, Germany

Monsters and Miracles: A Journey through Jewish Picture Books~ ongoing until Jan 23, Amherst, MA, USA

Drawn in Brooklyn Exhibit of Original Picture Book Art by Brooklyn Illustrators~ ongoing until Jan 23, Brooklyn, NY, USA

National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature Presents From Houdini to Hugo: The Art of Brian Selznick~ ongoing until Jan 29, Abilene, TX, USA

Fins and Feathers: Original Children’s Book Illustrations from The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art~ ongoing until Jan 30, Raleigh, NC, USA

Summer Reading Club: Scare Up a Good Story~ ongoing until Jan 31, Australia

2011 Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award

Ever since reading in The Storyteller’s Candle that one of the stories Pura Belpré tells to the children at the library is about “a beautiful Spanish cockroach named Martina and a gallant little mouse, Ratoncito Pérez”, I have wanted to know that story! So I was delighted to get hold of it recently as one of the stories included in Señor Cat’s Romance: and Other Favorite Stories from Latin America (first published 1997, reissued by Scholastic, 2001), which I think is set to become a classic. It’s by the same author/illustrator team as The Storyteller’s Candle – Lucia Gonzalez and Lulu Delacre, so my expectations were high (The Storyteller’s Candle is one of our Spirit of PaperTigers bookset; read our interview with Lucia and view Lulu’s PaperTigers Gallery). I certainly wasn’t disappointed: it’s a joy… Although I have to say I didn’t get a look-in for a while because both Older Brother and Little Brother purloined it to read for themselves!

There are six stories in all, each one a delight for sharing with young children. “Martina the Little Cockroach” did not disappoint, though I was mightily relieved to realise that there was one extra page-turn to the story. “The Billy Goat and the Vegetable Garden” also has a connection with Pura Belpré since it is based on her retelling of the Puerto Rican version, included in her book The Tiger and the Rabbit and Other Tales. One of the many Latin American trickster tales about “How Uncle Rabbit Tricked Uncle Tiger” is also included. Then there’s a cheeky wee “Half-Chick” with only one wing and one leg – what a lovely story to weave around the everyday sight of a weather-vane; “Juan Bobo and the Three-Legged Pot”, one of many stories about this character, which translates as Foolish John – and maybe he’s not so foolish… And finally, at the end is the exuberant song abut the Señor Cat of the book’s title.

Lucia’s Foreward and Lulu’s Afterword both make clear the love that has gone into the creation of this vibrant book: but, in fact, that also comes through very clearly via the narration and illustrations themselves. The notes accompanying each story provide insight and connections with other story-telling traditions – and don’t miss the mouthwatering recipe for arroz con pollo Lulu has included in one of her goegeous illustrations!

A couple of weeks ago I posted the responses of some of the authors and illustrators of the books in our Spirit of PaperTigers‘ 2010 Book Set to the question, “If you were to pick a place anywhere in the world to send your book, where would it be and why?” – and what about the others, what did they say?

Lucia Gonzalez, author of The Storyteller’s Candle (Children’s Book Press, 2008):

I would like The Storyteller’s Candle to travel to Puerto Rico, to be in classrooms, libraries, and homes from the smallest town to the capital city San Juan. I want children in the island to know and be proud of the work of Pura Belpré, and to re-encounter the stories that belong to them.

and Lulu Delacre, the book’s illustrator:

I would like to send The Storyteller’s Candle to Tibetan schools for monks and nuns in Ladakh, India. Their lovely children have no libraries, and live off the generosity of others. They are taught English and the lesson that Pura Belpré imparts at the end of the book might be one they truly connect to.

Katie Smith Milway, author of One Hen (Kids Can Press, 2008):

If I could send One Hen anywhere in the world right now, it would be to Haiti, in Creole, to inspire children there to play an entrepreneurial role in rebuilding their nation. Happily, a Haitian Creole edition of the book is due out in 2010 through publisher EducaVision.

and Eugenie Fernandes, the book’s illustrator:

One Hen is already at the White House, so… after that I would like to send it… everywhere!, because it’s a book that connects us all.

Guo Yue and Clare Farrow, authors of Little Leap Forward: A Boy in Beijing (Barefoot Books, 2008):

Little Leap Forward is about the lives of children who are growing up in a very poor, overcrowded society, in which food is rationed and there are no toys (beyond what they can make themselves) – a closed society in which freedom, knowledge and creativity are suppressed, and the people they love are about to be taken away from them. It is also a story about the irrepressible power of friendship, love and the imagination, even in the face of hardship and revolution.

So if we could send the book to children in areas of need in the world, it would be to any country where people are not free to express themselves, where families are divided, and children suffer from hunger, fear and poverty. In

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It is my pleasure to introduce you to award-winning children's author, storyteller and librarian Lucia Gonzalez. Her classic Cuban folk tale, The Bossy Gallito, was awarded the Pura Belpre Children's Literature Honor Medal by the American Library Association, and selected for New York's Top 20 All Time Favorite Children's Books by the New York Times "Great Children's Read." Her second book, Senor Cat's Romance, a collection of popular folk tales from Latin America, also received immediate recognition. Her latest children's book, The Storyteller's Candle, is dedicated to Pura Belpre, New York City's first Latina librarian.

Thanks for being my guest today, Lucia. Tell us, when did you begin writing for children?

First, I was a storyteller and children’s librarian. As part of my job in the library I told many of the stories that were told to me while I was growing up in Cuba but that I could not find in books. While telling those stories I wrote some of them and sent them to Scholastic. They loved them and published my first two stories in an anthology, From Sea to Shining Sea: A Treasury of American Folklore and Folksongs, edited by Amy Cohn. This was in 1993.

Which one of your books was published first? Would you share with us how the publishing process was?

For me the publishing process has been a great gift from life. Among the stories I submitted to Scholastic in 1993, was one about a bossy little rooster on the way to the wedding of his uncle the parrot. The editor loved that story so much that she asked me if I wouldn't mind publishing it as a stand-alone picture book, illustrated by Lulu Delacre. Imagine my surprise. I wrote the story in Spanish and English, keeping the rhythm and internal music of the Spanish version in the English retelling. The book became The Bossy Gallito, published in 1994 by Scholastic.

Tell us about your latest book,The Storyteller's Candle, which, as I understand it, is a homeage to Pura Belpre, New York City's first Latina librarian. What compelled you to based one of your stories on her?

Yes, I wrote The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos dedicated to the memory of Pura Belpré, a devoted and talented librarian, author, and storyteller who was also a community activist and a visionary pioneer in providing library outreach services to immigrant families and who understood the importance of honoring the immigrants' languages and preserving their stories. I was also inspired by New York Public Library's storytelling tradition.

Would you describe your creative process when writing a children's picture book?

As a storyteller, I tell before I write. The audience is my first editor. I follow my instincts and my firm conviction that the books I write are needed. I do a lot of research, immersing my self in the culture, or the subject of the story so that I can capture its spirit and I can write a story that is faithful to it.

What makes an excellent picture book?

The most important elements are honest language and authentic voice in telling the story.

Wearing your librarian's hat, would you tell us what type of children's stories are the most popular with kids right now? Has the children's book market changed a lot during the last decade?

Children like series. They like the continuity of series. The Harry Potter books had a lot to