Call to Action! Support an Author

Attention, Amigos:

Author José-Luis Orozco needs your help! His wonderful music CD (and book), "Diez Deditos", has been nominated for a Nickelodeon Parents' Picks Award in the Best Kids' Music CD category. In order to make it to the finals, we need as many votes as possible to support his nomination.

Diez Deditos was a Latin Baby Book Club Libro del Mes/Book of the Month back in March of 2009. To read the review, click here. You can also visit his web site for more information.

Orozco is the author of many books and CDs, including: Diez Deditos and Other Play Rhymes and Action Songs, Fiestas A Year of Latin American Songs and Celebrations, Navidad y Pancho Claus, and Arrullos: Lullabies in Spanish, but he has SO many more.

We need to get the most votes possible by Sunday, June 13. Corre la voz!!

Please go here to vote and share this with all of your friends and family.

Dichos de Mi Madre Makes an Hierloom Gift

A few months ago, Latin Baby received a lovely sample of a gift book by Victoria Killeen called Dichos de mi Madre. I thought it was beautiful and it brought to my mind some poignant memories of my 'buelita who was such a happy soul and always imparting her wisdom with a smile. And since we will be celebrating Grandparent’s Day this month, I decided to add the book to our "Gifts for Abuelita" section. This would be a wonderful heirloom gift that could be passed down in the family. In fact, I have decided that within the next couple of days, I will be adding a gift basket, too, (which will include this little book, an abuelita T-shirt and a mirror) for those of you looking for an extra-special gift for the abuelita in your life.

Here is an excerpt from a book review of Dichos de mi Madre that I did for the Latin Baby Book Club...

"Written completely in Spanish, the book is a collection of "sayings" or "dichos" that often are quoted to us by our mamás or our abuelitas. Some of the verses have English equivalents, such as "A caballo regalado no se le miran los dientes" which translates to "Never look a gift horse in the mouth" and "El amor es ciego" which means "Love is blind."
But some are uniquely original to Latin America such as "Gallo que no canta algo tiene en la garganta" which is one I distinctly remember my great-grandmother saying. It means "a rooster that doesn’t sing has something in his throat" – HA! And even better, "Échate en la cama y verás quién the ama" meaning "Throw yourself on the bed and you’ll see who loves you" gasp – MAMÁ!
I also like "Hombre casado, ni frito ni asado," which means "don’t bother with a married man, not even if he’s fried nor grilled."
There are SO MANY dichos in this book it is hard to pick out so few. I have to say that Victoria did a great job collecting them all. She is to be commended for all the effort that I am sure it took to remember and write them all down. She dedicates the book to her mother and is donating all the proceeds to charity in honor of her beloved mother.
Born and raised in Barranquilla, Colombia, Victoria completed her studies here in the States, and graduated with degrees in interior design and art history. After getting married, she moved to Atlanta where she and her husband became very involved in the arts community. They are founding members of the High Museum and Victoria has been on the board for many years. Thanks to her husband’s job, she has had the opportunity to travel to almost 100 countries which has made Victoria very aware of in the importance of culture and traditions and the pride that people take in theirs. She wrote Dichos as a way to celebrate both our Latino culture and our mothers who have taught them to us.
If you would like your copy of this wonderful little book, click here. Remember that it makes a wonderful regalito!"

Alma Flor Ada - Preserving our Childhood Culture

For some reason, the days are flying by much too quickly for me lately. I think I have too much on my plate and there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day for me to get it all done. My kids have been especially demanding lately and I am running all day long. I am smart enough to realize that this happens in spurts, so hopefully everything will settle soon. Until then, I hope you will pardon the lack of blogging!

Right, so that said, on to the topic of the day...

I am pleased to focus on my next favorite children's book author, Alma Flor Ada. We have carried her books in the past, and hopefully, I will do so again in the next month or two. I feel she is one of the best authors out there who is trying hard to preserve our Latino childhood traditions. She has several books that focus specifically on folktales and nursery rhymes, including Mamá Goose A Latino Nursery Treasury (my FAVORITE!) and ¡Pío Peep! Traditional Spanish Nursery Rhymes. Both come with English adaptations that are not literal translations, but do capture the essence of the rhymes very well.

All in all, Ms. Ada has been one of the biggest contributors to bilingual education. She has written over 200 books and is a master at retelling traditional folktales. Originally from Cuba, her first children's book (which was originally written for her daughter) became required reading for thousands of Peruvian school children, where she lived and taught as a high school teacher for many years.

Ms Ada has done a lot of traveling. She is an avid collector of folktales and nursery rhymes from all Spanish-speaking countries, and she is quick to retell these tales in books for children. She has more awards than I could possibly list here, but two that stand out are the Pura Belpré and the Christopher Award.

And, again, here is another author whose love of words and tradition was inspired by their grandmother (it never ceases to amaze me the influence that abuelitas have over thier grandchildren!) Ms Ada was taught to read before the age of three by her grandmother who would write the names of plants and flowers in the dirt with a stick.

If you would like to learn more about Alma Flor, or to see a complete list(!) of her books, you can visit her web site here.

As I mentioned, I hope to have a few of her books back in our store by summer, but in the mean time, if you'd like to purchase any of her books, you can do so through Del Sol Books - just click here.