by Adriana Dominguez<\/p>\n
I want to first thank ALSC for inviting me to join this blog; I am very honored and happy to know that they recognize Rayo children\u2019s efforts to better serve our children by providing them with meaningful Latino and Spanish language literature. I am also glad to have made so many supportive friends in the library community. Each and every one of my chats with librarians across the country has provided me with a great deal of insight, and always, a sense of purpose. I look forward to chatting with you some more in person at conferences and elsewhere, and to receiving your comments and ideas on this blog. Also, a disclaimer: This is my first blog, ever, so please bear with me!<\/p>\n
\u00a0I chose to write my first blog now because it is my favorite season: award season! A time when authors and editors rejoice in the fruit of the labors, and when inevitably, we are met with some surprises! And this year was no exception, was it? The Caldecott given to a novel, and the Pura Belpr\u00e9 to a work of poetry! Will wonders never cease? Editors across the country are scratching their heads, wondering what this all means, if it signals a new trend, or if librarians are making a conscious effort to reward quality and novelty, which would not be altogether surprising; what are awards for, if not to reward excellence in craft, and originality? I am happy with this year\u2019s award results. Publisher\u2019s Weekly called THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET \u201ca masterpiece,\u201d\u009d and I, for one agree. The book is stunning; both visually and in terms of narrative. It does not underestimate young reader\u2019s imaginations and reclaims a rightful place for books in this age of multimedia.<\/p>\n
THE POET SLAVE OF CUBA\u2019s wonderful use of verse will hopefully revive a genre that continues to be problematic for teachers, librarians, and publishers. Poetry? Who would think poetry would garner this much interest today? Poets across the nation celebrate! Librarians will continue to support you, and that means that children across the country will have an opportunity to recite your beautiful words!<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
On a more personal note, I was thrilled to learn that Monica Brown\u2019s latest book also received a prize; the Pura Belpr\u00e9 Honor for illustration. Ra\u00ed\u00bal Col\u00ed\u00b3n\u2019s images once again graced the pages of a children\u2019s book to help make yet another lucky author\u2019s words come alive. The personal nature of this award, for me, has to do with the fact that I too have now had the chance to work with the wonderfully talented Ms. Brown. Rayo will publish her first book with HarperCollins Children\u2019s Books in winter of 2009: PEL\u00ed\u2030, KING OF SOCCER\/PEL\u00ed\u2030, EL REY DEL F\u00ed\u0161TBOL, a biography of the soccer great, to add to Monica\u2019s stunningly beautiful collection of picture book biographies, thanks to the dynamic and colorful illustrations of Rudy Guti\u00e9rrez. Keep an eye out for that one, my fellow bloggers, I promise it won\u2019t disappoint!<\/p>\n
I have also been very fortunate this past year to work with other amazingly talented award-winning authors and illustrators, such as Pat Mora, Rafael L\u00ed\u00b3pez, and Joe Cepeda. I want you to know about what Rayo has coming up, and I want you to tell your fellow librarians, and your friends, because for me, managing Rayo is truly a labor of love. I remember arriving in the US when I was 12 years old and rushing to learn English as quickly as I could so that I could get my hands on some of the wonderful literature written in that language. But I also never stopped reading in Spanish.<\/p>\n
Today, I feel extremely fortunate to be bilingual, and bicultural, and my mission at Rayo, as I see it, is to pass on this wonderful gift to a new generation of bilingual and bicultural Latino children. Please join us, and join me! The next generation deserves nothing less than the best! And again, please don\u2019t hesitate to send me your comments and ideas; tell me about the wonderful authors and illustrators I should know about. What you like, and what you don\u2019t like. What you see working in your libraries, and what most definitely does not. I am all ears.<\/p>\n
\u2018Til next time ALSC!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Adriana Dominguez I want to first thank ALSC for inviting me to join this blog; I am very honored and happy to know that they recognize Rayo children\u2019s efforts to better serve our children by providing them with meaningful Latino and Spanish language literature. I am also glad to have made so many supportive friends in the library community. Each and every one of my chats with librarians across the country has provided me with a great deal of insight, and always, a sense of purpose. I look forward to chatting with you some more in person at conferences and elsewhere, and to receiving your comments and ideas on this blog. Also, a disclaimer: This is my first blog, ever, so please bear with me! \u00a0I chose to write my first blog now because it is my favorite season: award season! A time when authors and editors rejoice in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[22,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-literature","category-awards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}