Welcome to First Book’s celebrity blog series. Each month we will be connecting with influential voices who share a belief in the power of literacy, and who have worked with First Book to curate a unique collection that inspires a love of reading and learning. All recommended books are available at deeply discounted prices on the First Book Marketplace to educators and programs serving children in need.
This month we hear from Peggy McCloud, Ed. D. the Deputy Vice President of Education and Workforce Development at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) on engaging Latino families and children in reading and learning.
Any student who has parents that understand the journey from preschool to college is better equipped to navigate the road to long-term student success. While parent engagement is critical to increasing educational attainment for all children, engaging Latino parents in their children’s schooling has typically been challenging – often for linguistic and cultural reasons.
The National Council of La Raza’s (NCLR) parent engagement program is designed to eliminate these challenges and create strong connections between schools, parents, and their children. A bilingual curriculum designed to be administered by school staff, the Padres Comprometidos program empowers Latino parents who haven’t typically been connected to their children’s school. Many of the parents the program reaches are low-income, Spanish-speaking, first and second generation immigrants. Through Padres Comprometidos, these parents gain a deeper understanding of what the journey to academic success will be like, and how they can play a role in preparing their children for higher education. Prior to participating in the program, not all parents expected their children to attend college. After the program, 100% of parents indicated that they expected their children to attend college.
Much of Padres Comprometidos success rests on the program’s ability to address language and culture as assets, rather than as obstacles to be overcome. This asset building strategy extends to NCLR’s partnership with First Book. Together, we’re working to ensure Latino children of all ages have access to books that are culturally and linguistically relevant, books they need to become enthusiastic readers inside and outside of the classroom. Click here to access the three parent engagement curricula developed by NCLR—tailored to parents of preschool, elementary and secondary school students.
Below you will find a few tips and titles that can help you engage families and get children – and their parents and caregivers – reading and learning.
1. Find ways to connect stories that parents know about to help them engage in reading and conversation with their children. This Mexican folktale can open that door:
La Llorona: http://www.fbmarketplace.org/weeping-woman-la-llorona-bilingual-english-spanish.html
2. Keep an English/Spanish dictionary handy to use when you have a parent visiting or to give away to a parent or caregiver who needs it. It will show them that you’re making an effort to engage in their language of comfort.
Webster’s Everyday Spanish-English Dictionary: http://www.fbmarketplace.org/websters-everyday-spanish-english-dictionary.html
3. Learn about the children you serve and their heritage, and identify books that will affirm them. This Pura Belpré award winner is actually about Pura Belpré, the first Latina (Puerto Rican) to head a public library system.
La Velita de los Cuentos: http://www.fbmarketplace.org/the-storytellers-candle-la-velita-de-los-cuentos.html
4. Share books that include some of the everyday experiences of the children and neighborhoods you serve, like this story highlighting the value of community and family.
Grandma and Me at the Flea: http://www.fbmarketplace.org/grandma-and-me-at-the-flea-los-meros-meros-remateros.html
5. Bilingual books provide family members and caregivers the opportunity to read the same books their children are reading, but in their language of comfort. Families will love reading about all the colors of the rainbow in English and Spanish.
My Colors My World: http://www.fbmarketplace.org/my-colors-my-world-mis-colores-mi-mundo.html
Sign up with First Book to access these and other great titles on the First Book Marketplace.
Peggy McCloud, Ed. D. is Deputy Vice President of Education and Workforce Development at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR).
The post 5 Tips to Engage Latino Families and Students appeared first on First Book Blog.
When we contacted NYRB, their response was that they didn't know of any latino children's books that should be on their list. That ignorance resulted in a white-washed list. By their definition, there are no latino classics in this category.
Comments by latino authors:
I don't write children's books, but some of the best I have come across are now published and distributed by Lee and Low Books. Many of our top-notch Latino/a writers have also written children's books. NYRB could probably take the time to do the research.
I do write children's books, I have written them for years for my sons and now for my grandchildren, but only now I am starting to self-publish those stories via Createspace (Amazon). I don't have the time to wait for the industry to embrace our diversity. When I tuck my little ones in bed, I want them to be proud of their Mexican heritage and who they are: beautiful bilingual and bicultural children.
I blog about multicultural books because I believe it takes Latinos supporting Latinos to make these books visible; there are other bloggers doing the same. I beta-read for Latina/o authors because I want to help get them published. We all can do something. Currently, I have two Young Adult novels completed and am looking for an agent. I have one manuscript (protagonist is Mexican,17-year-old mother in prison) with Amazon's Breakthrough Novel competition. They had 10,000 entries, and whittled this to 2,000 (I made this round). On April 14th, Amazon will again cut 1500 entries. I'm hoping my YA novel makes the next round and that I can attract an agent.
Maria Victoria [above] is so right; it's difficult to continue to wait for "the industry" and the "literary gatekeepers," but it also takes funds to publish your own novel (approx. $2,000 to 5,000). I may take that route soon.
Lucha Corpi, Independent Writing and Editing ProfessionalI've written stories and poems for children, and a couple have been published in the Houghton Mifflin Spanish elementary series, for example, and other pubs. I've also written bilingual picture books--one published by Children's Book Press in S.F., now an imprint of Lee & Low's in NY, another by Arte Publico Press Piñata imprint.
When writing for a classroom series, you're given a list of rules/taboos as to what you can and cannot do or say, i.e. working in the fields OK, but you can't mention of La Migra or living conditions for children of migrant families, etc. After a while, I wasn't willing to write for hire when major publishers dictated what I could write or not about. I can control when and where I publish to make sure my books outlive me.
As a translator of stories for children, however, I had a chance to read English texts of world oral and literary traditions. I confirmed that in all the stories chosen for certain grades, there were common threads that made the stories "universal" and which I call the "human element," in general. We can't deny ourselves our rightful place in this universal culture. Perhaps in some honest and sincere way, a few major publishers want stories that can be sewn together into the larger tapestry of human experience. I don't find anything wrong with showing all the ways in which people from all cultures are simply human, whose literatures have many points of contact along those "universal" lines.
I also believe that as Chic@nos/Latin@s, we are part of a second universe--Mexico and Latin America, and of Latin@ culture. Each is unique in its own historical and cultural way, but socio-politically regarded as disposable once our use to White America is no longer important, desirable or necessary. Major publishers are not willing to publish literature that is "in their face," (about La migra, children of migrant families, etc.) that mirrors all the ways in which they have failed one of the culturally and linguistically richest and most diverse groups in the U.S.
Chicano/Latino publishers have been publishing that literature of resistance and protest, talking about taboo subjects to the extent they can. They have had to battle constantly to remain and help our literatures grow. However we may feel personally about them, we have to remember that theirs hasn't been a road paved with gold, either. So we need to support their efforts and buy their books directly from them instead of Amazon, etc. Most of the time, all we do is criticize them or tear them down, not realizing that when we don't buy their books, we are also hurting the same writers we're talking about here.
As a student of "classic" literature and the literary establishment throughout the ages, one last point about the word "classic" in literature or any of the arts. Ironically, the classics are those works, which were "popular" when their creators were alive, though they made no money from their popularity. They became "classics" when their creators had been dead at least 50 years.
I follow two rules: I do my job as a writer, and write, regardless of criticism or circumstance, and I make sure I publish with publishers who may not pay big bucks in royalty, but who will keep my books in print long after I depart this vale of literary tears. I buy and read books published by Chican@/Latin@ presses, and in general support writers and poets this way.
Who knows? One of these years, one of your poems or a story for children, or one of your books might become a classic. True that, if what I say is right, you won't be here any longer to enjoy the renown and the rewards and fruits of your labor.
It's not just the NYRB (with whom I have a long-standing peeve--since 1973 when it rejected my piece about Chicanos in favor of an Anglo piece about Chicanos by John Womack).
The real problem, however, is with the American Library Association and its annual awards for children's literature. Talk about a dearth! Armando's commentary should be a clarion call for American publishers.
Thanks to Arte Público for the children's books they've published.
Ideologically, we should not expect écrit oblige [great works] from myopic American publishers. Just as the history of the lion hunt will always favor the hunter until lions have their own historians, publishing will always favor the dominant group until Latinos have their own publishers. Hasta la victoria!
I gather we’re not getting too agitated about the NYRB list--Rudy has hit the main points in his response to Sara Kramer. My take is that we consider the context, a bastion of white privilege revisiting its own past, but largely unaware and painfully unconcerned with the present reality of millions of Chicanos and Latinos preparing to make our future. If any of us expect entities like the NYRB to empower us to advance in our art and yet maintain our integrity, that’s barking up the wrong ancestral tree.
We as American writers of a certain perspectiva must move on, concern ourselves with writing for the present generation, but having in mind the needs of millions of Latino youth to come. I refer to the critical need for us as writers to provide literary sustenance for the Latino and Latina youth who have already become the majority of first to 12th grade populations in New Mexico (57%), California (51%), Texas (51%), with Arizona (43%), Nevada (40%), and Colorado (30%) not that far behind. The number of literary works written each year for Latino youth is dreadfully low, maybe 2 to 3 percent of children’s books published each year in the U.S.
One cause we can address directly: Latina and Latino writers, established and aspiring, should direct some of their time and talents to writing for young people. My focus as a newcomer to writing for young people is on middle and high school youth because I can craft stories for them of my own recollections. Others might have the insight and mental dexterity to fashion those delightful little tales that can help form the imaginations and identity of toddlers and early school children.
Which causes me to reflect on an important insight that I read in one of the letters to the editor that appeared on 3/23/14, after the NYRB published its 100 best list. The correspondent, who hailed from the Bronx, wrote that a “well-written book …should represent humanity, and readers should be able to find something of themselves in it – no matter the protagonists’ background or color.” A fine point, one that exemplifies the finest literary works anywhere.
However, this notion taken to its logical extreme suggests that all books could be about white Anglo Saxon men, and that would be okay as long as we others could find “something” of ourselves in the text. That’s exactly the attitude that led to the present “lack of diversity,” or to be explicit, the racism by omission in children’s literature.
What I’ve come to realize is that writing for children today is a political act. Taking the word, political, to its ancient Greek root, polis, which stood for the state, the confluence of people who together make up a society. It follows from the converse reality that teachers, librarians, scholars, and parents face: the absolute dearth of books written for and about Latino boys and girls in the U.S. Thus, limiting the presence of Latino and Latina children in books for school kids is a political act, driven by generations of discrimination, oppression and racism.
Final point: while we need more books for Latino youth, we need to set and uphold certain literary standards. Is anyone taking on the task of drafting a set of guidelines appropriate to writing aimed at Latino children, a gathering of Latino writers, educators and librarians with an understanding of the pedagogical, emotional and intellectual/creative needs for these ages? Such a document could be a useful guideline for all of us, even eye-opening for the gatekeepers over at the NYRB.
More salient comments, Lucha. To pick up on one of the things you said, about writing for posterity. When you consider, for example, that in Texas, my home state (no apologies), the school population in 2050 if not earlier will reach 9 million and 6 of those millions will be Latino, we have to think for the future: what we write today will impact millions of kids, and not just Chicanitos but any child from the standpoint of opening up a vision of the world that's multicultural and multicolorful. Adelante!
(Rendón is also the author of the young adult novel, Noldo and his magical scooter at the Battle of the Alamo, which was just named a finalist for an International Latino Book Award.)
Barbara Renaud Gonzalez informed us about her book, The boy made of lightning, the first interactive book on the life of Voting Rights pioneer Willie Velasquez, independently published by AALAS, 9/2013. Original narrative, art, music, sounds and written in Tex-Mex, with pop-ups and translation; it was nominated for a Tomas Rivera Prize.
Acevedo strikes again
Good Money Gone, a novel co-authored by Mario Acevedo, is a finalist in the International Book Awards. Also, Mario’s essay, "Love Between the Species", has just been published in Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror (L. Lamson, edit.), a rare and revealing look at the writing secrets of speculative genre masters.
Es todo, hoy,
RudyG
Last week in my post of NYRB's colorless list for U.S. kids, I described how NYRB's Children's Collection list of seventy books contains none by latinos. Should we expect something more intelligent from "the premier literary-intellectual magazine in the English language" in the U.S.?
Responding to that post, the NYRB sent the following message:"Our children's series (like our Classics series for adults) resurrects out-of-print works of interest and merit—and thus can't help but partially reproduce publishing sins of the past.
"We're only a small group of people and want to hear from a broader swath and really do rely on readers, booksellers, librarians, etc. If you have suggestions for previously published books of any sort we would very much like to hear them. You can send them to me.Sincerely,
Sara Kramer, New York Review of Books"
Ms. Kramer's offer isn't addressed only to me and La Bloga. It's a message to all readers, authors and publishers of latino children's lit. Send her your suggestions, maybe explaining why a book should be included, it's "credentials" and literary worth. If you're a publisher or author, decide whether you should send her a copy. [Her E-mail, below.]
However, that's not the complete answer to whether the NYRB Children's Collection should add latino (and other) books to its list.
Here's some definitions of "Classic": 1. a. Belonging to the highest rank or class; b. Serving as the established model or standard; c. Having lasting significance or worth; enduring.
So, your ideas about books meeting this criteria should be sent to NYRB.
BUT, secondary definitions of "Classic" include: 2. a. Adhering or conforming to established standards and principles; b. Of a well-known type; typical; 3. Of or characteristic of the literature, art, and culture of ancient Greece and Rome.
Books by and about latinos might not conform to "established standards and principles," depending on how mainstream-oriented (think, exclusionary) such standards are applied. How well known by mainstream readers does a latino book need to be? Additionally, there are few latino books related to ancient Greece and Rome.
European colonialists who inherited the Greek-Roman traditions were responsible for the destruction of all American libraries in the 16th Century, the reason no archives of children's stories survive to be translated into English, so as to become classics. That damage is irrevocable. Other "sins" can be corrected.
Consequently, latino books originally written in Spanish, as well as bilingual editions, could qualify. Books originally published in the 60s and 70s qualify, like two on the NYRB list: He Was There from the Day We Moved in(1968) and The Glassblower’s Children (1973), for instance.
However, Ms. Kramer of NYRB stated that they can't help "partially reproducing publishing sins of the past." Why not? If they're recognized as "publishing sins," why would an intellectual body aspiring to the caliber of NYRB voluntarily go along with promulgating those sins?
She further elaborates that NYRB "resurrects out-of-print works of interest and merit." That means latino books not out of print yet would not qualify for the list, since NYRB may not pick up the publishing rights. In that case, latino children's books that continue to be reprinted because of their popularity can't expect acquisition by NYRB. I believe that puts certain latino books between the proverbial rock and hard place on meeting such criteria.
Here's the E-mail for addressing to Sara Kramer, New York Review of Books: webATnybooks*com
I haven't attempted a comprehensive evaluation of problems with NYRB's methodology in determining children's classics. I welcome opinions and viewpoints of others to be posted here as they come in. If you submit books, book ideas or posts directed to NYRB about this, please CC me so that I can reference them or reprint with your permission.
Authors, agents and publishers involved with latino children's books are definitely encouraged to elaborate further--or correct--my points. The invitation is also still open to NRB for their additional response.
Gracias, y es todo, hoy,
Rudy Ch. Garcia
Melinda Palacio
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| Are we experiencing a Golden Age in Latino Literature? |
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| In Cuba, kids clamored to pose for a photo with me in front of Fusto's art studio. |
In my own experience, I can say that it wasn't until college when I read my first Latina author, Sandra Cisneros. She was the one token voice that one of my professors at UC Berkeley had assigned. With the recent 25th anniversary edition of House on Mango Street, it's safe to say that generations of readers around the world have grown up reading her. However, while there are more Latino and Latina authors being published by small and larger houses, many self-published, we could do better.
The gold is not raining down on Latino authors. Only a handful of us have the name recognition and off-the-chart sales such as Sandra Cisneros and Junot Diaz. I will be the first to raise my hand high and hope to be anointed by the holy literary spirit and simply write without having to make marketing my work a companion occupation to writing.
This year, my first novel,
Ocotillo Dreams, has garnered two awards. I am extremely grateful and fortunate that fellow Bloguero
Daniel Olivasnominated me for the prestigious PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature.
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| Melinda Palacio and Daniel Olivas at the PEN Oakland Awards Ceremony |
I have learned much from my numerous attempts to follow in the footsteps of Olivas, one of the hardest working writers I know (and he is a lawyer by day). Olivas taught me that if I wanted more of my stories, poetry, and books accepted for publication, I needed to read books in my field and become an expert in my market. An important lesson in reading. Through his book reviews with the El Paso Times and the
Los Angeles Review of Books, Olivas also promotes the work of other Latino writers.
The fact that he has published six books with respectable small presses should mean that agents and publishers knock on his door constantly and that he his bombarded with requests to visit schools and universities and could honor such requests because he could quit being a public defender and live off of his royalties. A personal Golden Age, but not one that brings the type of gold that a best seller brings or a book featured in the New York Times or on NPR's Fresh Air.
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| UCSC student, Gabriela, was thankful to finally recognize herself in the works of Juan Felipe Herrera, Javier O. Huerta and Melinda Palacio. |
I don't have a day job, but I try to stretch my honorarium dollars to visit as many schools and venues as possible because of the readers who thank me for my words, thank me for visiting their school, thank me for sharing my stories. A golden year? I am grateful to be included in the discussion of authors and poets and their writing. My books have not made those coveted holiday must-read list or garnered best-seller status. However, it is certainly a Golden Age when Juan Felipe Herrera is named California Poet Laureate, and he endorses my new poetry book,
How Fire Is a Story, Waiting. The march continues and when I am feeling as if I am the only one who hears the tree falling in the forest, I will heed the advice of Juan Felipe Herrera and run into a piñata.
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| Juan Felipe Herrera contemplates explaining the joys of running into a piñata to UCSC students last week. |
Presented by Teri Lesesne, Rosemary Chance, and Janie Flores, and featuring amazing, award-winning authors Benjamin Alire Sáenz and Margarita Engle, this session explored the importance of books and authors that feature Latinos/Hispanics/Chicanos (there was a small discussion of labeling and its drawbacks) and their ability to allow Latino teens to see themselves in the literature made available to them.
Benjamin Sáenz spoke about the fact that he was firstly a poet and a writer for adults until he was asked by a publisher to consider writing for children and then young adults. And aren’t we glad he said yes. Mr. Sáenz read passages from his books Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood and Last Night I Sang to the Monster that related to the fact that adults so often fail to really see teens, and that teens in turn look to each other to be seen and understood. And on the subject of becoming an author, he shared his philosophy that “we become writers by discipline and desire” and that talent is not just a gift that some writers have, but something that they have to work for. His next book, coming out in 2012, is called Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and will feature a gay, Latino romance set in the 1960s.
Margarita Engle spoke about her Cuban-American heritage and how that informs her passion as a botanist and as an author. She spoke about the sense of loss she felt at travel restrictions that were in place between the US and Cuba for 30+ years that prevented her from seeing her maternal extended family there. She also shared her reasons for writing novels in verse. Aside from being great reads for reluctant readers, or any teen who is looking for a quick read, poetry and metaphor is the language of Cuba. Engle shared that for a country that has lived under censorship in many iterations, and whose people have learned to express truth in indirect ways, poetry is a natural form of communication. Her next book, coming out March 2011, is Hurricane Dancers. It is historical fiction centered around Cuba again, and features the first Caribbean pirate.
The beauty in listening to both authors was hearing how their own identities play so strongly into the Latino characters that they create and the settings they choose, yet knowing the universal nature of the experiences their characters have. While Latinos will certainly, and wonderfully, see their lives reflected in these books, non-Latinos will as well.
Any student who has parents that understand the journey from preschool to college is better equipped to navigate the road to long-term student success. While parent engagement is critical to increasing educational attainment for all children, engaging Latino parents in their children’s schooling has typically been challenging – often for linguistic and cultural reasons.
1. Find ways to connect stories that parents know about to help them engage in reading and conversation with their children. This Mexican folktale can open that door:
2. Keep an English/Spanish dictionary handy to use when you have a parent visiting or to give away to a parent or caregiver who needs it. It will show them that you’re making an effort to engage in their language of comfort.
3. Learn about the children you serve and their heritage, and identify books that will affirm them. This Pura Belpré award winner is actually about Pura Belpré, the first Latina (Puerto Rican) to head a public library system.
4. Share books that include some of the everyday experiences of the children and neighborhoods you serve, like this story highlighting the value of community and family.
5. Bilingual books provide family members and caregivers the opportunity to read the same books their children are reading, but in their language of comfort. Families will love reading about all the colors of the rainbow in English and Spanish.
Melinda, I was very proud of you as you accepted your PEN Oakland award. Onward!
Melinda, congrats on your well-deserved awards! (I love your new poetry book, too.) Your comments here about the lack of wider acceptance and recognition of our many excellent Latina/o authors out there today, like Daniel Olivas, Reyna Grande, and yourself, is a huge omission that needs to be remedied very soon. It's not just political adjustments that need to be made to our new demographics. It's EDUCATIONAL and LITERARY adjustments that need to occur--for the sake of all society.