El español no tiene dueño: es de todos los que lo hablamos.

¡Hola!

Note: Quite a few months have passed since I wrote on this blog. Changes in the way elementary school librarians are perceived in my district (and all over the States), a huge decrease in school funding, a new administration in our state, plus the fact that my librarian position, as well as many of my librarian friends’ were eliminated shifted my attention away from taking the time to write here. There is, however, plenty to share, and little by little I intend to do so, especially now that my position has been reinstated. 

El español no tiene dueño: es de todos los que lo hablamos.

Did you know that:

• Five hundred million people speak Spanish?
• Eleven Nobel Prizes in Literature have been given to Spanish-speaking authors, 5 Spaniards, and 6 from Latinoamerica?
• Spanish is the third most used language on the internet?
• It is the official language of twenty-one countries?
• It is estimated that by 2030, 7.5% of the world population will speak Spanish?

In 2009 the Instituto Cervantes began advocating for an international celebration of the Spanish language. The Saturday closest to the summer solstice was chosen as “El día E” (E Day), a day for all of us who speak Spanish, regardless of where we live, to celebrate the language we love.

In 2011, a website was created for El día E, along with a contest to find the most popular word in Spanish. Ten words out of all the nominations were selected and showcased on all the Instituto Cervantes websites on El día E. These words were: infinito, cachivache, tiquismiquis, magia, bullicio, alféizar, libélula, agua, fraternidad y paz. The winning word was Querétaro (the name of a Mexican state).    Famous Spanish speakers mentioned their favorite word (Isabel Allende, Antonio Skarmeta, Mario Vargas Llosa, Ana María Matute, Rosario Flores, Chayanne , Gael García Bernal, Juan Luis Guerra (among others). A Facebook page (search for ‘El día E: la "Fiesta de todos los que hablamos español"’) gathered enthusiasm and momentum for El día E, and also hosted photos of El Día E celebrations all over the world. One event, “The Lost Accents in Mexico”, asked participants to create cards with accents (or ‘tildes’), find signs that are missing accents, ask permission to add the accent, take before and after photographs, and share them on the Facebook page.

As I write I wonder… 

Why not use this in the classroom?

• Plan to celebrate El día E in 2012.

• Have students choose their favorite word in Spanish and advocate for it to become a winner or make a video about the search for favorite words.
• Combine old words and create new ones. Find old, archaic words, dust them and bring them back to life! This is exactly what students in Medellín, Colombia did. 1n 2007: they decided to “dust” old words and get them in use (See A crear, desempolvar y sentir las palabras). They also created new words out of a combination of old ones and also voted on their favorite word. The most favorite word among the students that year: chocolate.

How would you celebrate El día E ? Share your ideas.

El Pato y la Muerte

Published in 2007, El Pato y la Muerte  (published in English as Duck, Death, and the Tulip) happens to make it to my hands while visiting Chile in 2008. The character illustrations immediately take hold of my feelings.  I meet Duck, who is oblivious to Death; but I also  sympathize with  Death, whose words seem to make a lot of sense. I know Duck will probably die, but I do not want it to happen. "I've been around since the day you were born ... just in case" - tells Duck to Death. Suddenly I witness a surprising but brief relationship between  Duck and Death. I did not expect this or Death's reaction to the inevitable.

This is a book for everyone. Right now I admire it as a book for adults, especially those like me who have been affected by the death of our loved ones. But I also think it should be a book to read to children to prepare them for life and death. The cordial and friendly relationship between death and the duck, the casualness of their relationship, and the depth in their farewell to the pond, as well as their comments from the top of the tree, make this book one to think and ponder, and feel and absorb.  The illustrations, which focus mainly on the two characters, are remarkable.
 
Thank you for this work of genius, Wolf Ehrlbruch. 

 Several reviews on this book can be found in the editorial: Barbara Fiore. The translation in English can be found as: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/dec/19/wolf-erlbruch-children-picturebook-review or as Duck, Death, and the Tulip.

Good to know

Recently I was thinking about El pato y la muerte, a picture book I read while I was visiting Chile. I remembered how moved I was with the plot’s unfolding, and how I felt as the text and the illustrations wove into just the right package. I set it aside meaning to purchase it, but with everything we were doing forgot to buy it. A year later, as Amy and I prepared for a presentation at the Wisconsin Library Association conference, the title came up in our conversation making me recall how upset I was as I left Chile and forgot to buy the book.

A week ago I went online determined to find it: it is definitely one of those books. While looking for it, I found or Casa del libro , a bookstore in Spain which specializes selling books online. Having never ordered a book from a company out of the US, I was somehow reluctant to place the order, but the fact that the book was one I had to have convinced me to go ahead.

The ordering process was straightforward, pretty much like ordering from any online bookstore in the US. The shipping rate was more that I would have liked to pay, but in all fairness, considering the book came from another continent, I could not complain. Soon after placing the order I received a confirmation email and later another message about approximate times for receiving the package.

The book arrived fairly quickly, before the time they announced it would make it home. The packaging was excellent and the condition of the book superb. With an experience like this, I am definitely ordering from them again. 

Go ahead and drop us a line if you know of another online store like this. There are too many good books we need to get over to this side of the world!

Books and Links

Lately it seems to me that a good number of links about books in Spanish have come my way. The right thing to do is to share them with as many people as I can, with the hope that the excellent picture books that are being published in Spain and in South America can become easily available in our bookstores in the United States.

What follows is a list of links for all interested in looking at the variety of picture books being published outside of the United States.

Drop us a line if this has been helpful to you.


Book Trailers:

La maleta de la tía Clara

¡Qué tela más dispareja!

¿Cómo se hacen los libros?

Besos

Colores y más colores

Poemas de Caramelo

El poema que cayó a la mar

Tiempo para más cuentos (enfermedad de mamá)

Talk about previous book topic

Del norte al sur

Narrated stories:

¿A qué sabe la luna?

El lápiz amarillo

Books:

La cebra Camila

Orejas de mariposa

Other:

Tikitiklip: El Rey de papel

Places to purchase books in Spanish:

Olé tus libros


Editorial Pintar Pintar


Editorial El jinete azul


El zorro rojo


Tercer Concurso CJ Picture Book Festival Finalists

Must buy:

Versos que el viento arrastra

A community library gem

Centro Lector-Lo Barnechea, Chile

As Mayra and I prepared for a presentation about the group’s summer in Chile, studying with Chilean children’s author Cecilia Beuchat, I came across a library brochure from the municipality of Lo Barnechea. The library is named, Centro Lector. Their mission is to promote literacy and culture by providing the community access to the best quality books. When we visited, I immediately felt “at home” in the children’s library and started reading and taking notes on all the books I wanted to find for my school’s library to share with children here.

Now, I'm being reminded to make new discoveries browsing their catalog and website (http://www.centrolector.cl). Also, La Fundacíon Germán Sánchez Ruiperez de Salamanca and the International Center for Children’s Literature (http://www.fundaciongsr.es) in Spain has supported their efforts. Sifting through the myriad of websites to find reliable information on children’s books originally published in Spanish takes time. These two sites provide a good starting point.

Two must-read blogs

On this day where so many people in the US are out looking for good deals for Christmas gifts, I found two great deals and both of them were free!

As I opened my email this morning and read the latest from the barbarianos (revista Babar listserv), a post by Pepe Pelayo caught my eye(s): a new blog with an announcement of his latest book: Lucía Moñitos, corazón de melón. The blog's opening page includes a hilarious photo of Pelayo replicating the look of a statue of Quijote, plus links to all kinds of goodies, both for kids and adults. It's definitely worth visiting often. As I write this I am trying to find a way to purchase his latest Lucía Moñitos for our school library.

A second surprise awaited me while reading more posts by barbarianos. El cuarto de los cuentos, a blog by author Ana Tortosa, where we find her describing her latest book: "Daniela is an authentic feast for our senses and emotions; it presents us a child who can be imagined just how each of us does; Daniela is light, she is water, she is magic, Daniela is all play and pure emotion. Being next to Daniela and her dreams is to do so in any child's dreams, imagining like any child who changes color like chameleons; changes flavor like a multi-flavored ice cream. Daniela is the essence of the human being, is part of the four elements, metamorphoses as a mermaid, as a flower, as fruit. She goes from vast to miniscule because like any child, everything is important for Daniela, from a bread crumb to an enormous and prodigious animal. That is how Daniela is, and so much more. "



[Daniela es un auténtico festín para los sentidos y para las emociones porque nos presenta a una niña que puede ser tal y como nos la imaginemos nosotros, porque Daniela es luz, es agua, es magia; Daniela es puro juego y pura emoción. Acompañar a Daniela en sus sueños es hacerlo por los sueños de cualquier niño o niña que se imagina de una manera, después de otra; que cambia de color como los camaleones, que cambia de sabor como los helados de mil gustos. Daniela es la esencia del ser humano, forma parte de los cuatro elementos, se metamorfosea en sirena, en flor, en fruto. Va de lo grande a lo pequeño porque para ella, como para cualquier niño, todo es importante, desde una miga de pan a un animal enorme y prodigioso. Así es Daniela y mucho más.]





Other books by Ana Tortosa, such as De otra manera, are discussed in this blog, and each one seems as appealing as the next. De otra manera gets us to look at things in a different way: "The fears, the storms, nightmares, goodbyes, absences, could be perceived differently if they were looked in a different way. They can be overcome if one looks at them differently..." [Los miedos, las tormentas, las pesadillas, las despedidas, las ausencias... pueden tomarse de otra manera si se miran con otra luz.]

Un par de alas introduces us to a boy who thinks his grandmother is a fairy. [El pequeño narrador de Un par de alas tiene una certeza que nos explica con total seriedad y lógica: su abuela es un hada. Y él lo sabe porque nunca la encuentra en los sitios, porque le parece que se ríe cuando le pregunta, porque tiene indicios (a la abuela no le gustan los ruidos ni la sal) y porque encuentra, finalmente, la prueba que corrobora su certeza y que da nombre al libro.]

Check these two blogs out and, should you find a way to get these books available in the Unites States, let us know. I certainly would love to have them in our students' hands right away.

School Library Brochures in Spanish for Wisconsin

Go to http://dpi.wi.gov/imt/ to download brochures!
School Library Brochures Now Available in Spanish

Two of the popular brochures highlighting the importance and value school libraries—Your Child’s Library Media Center: What Parents Should Know and Measuring Up: Characteristics of Quality School Libraries—have been translated into Spanish and are now available upon request. Contact Nancy Anderson, School Library Media Consultant at 608-267-9287 or nancy.anderson@dpi.wi.gov to request copies of these brochures.

All documents relating to the Wisconsin study of school library programs-- Student Learning Through Wisconsin School Libraries—are posted on the Study Page:

* Executive Summary and Key Study Findings at bottom of Study Page
* Your Child's Library Media Center: What Parents Should Know (2007) (PDF Brochure)
* Measuring Up: Characteristics of Quality School Libraries (2007) (PDF Brochure)
* Powerful Partnerships: The School Library Media Specialist and You (2007)(PDF Brochure for Building and District Administrators)