2015 Youth Media Awards, Belated Congratulations and a Giveaway!

Obviously, I am the worst blogger ever. I blame it on being in hibernation mode. In case you get your news strictly from this blog (dude, what's wrong with you), the 2015 winners of the Pura Belpré Award were announced on February 2 in Chicago at the Youth Media Awards. If you weren't able to attend and want to live the excitement of the ceremony, you can watch the webcast. This is pretty sweet. Despite living in Chicago, I wasn't able to attend so it was nice to still be able to watch it live. You can scream for joy and curse in disappointment in the privacy of your own home.

Big felicidades to the winners and honorees!

Marjorie Agosín - Pura Belpré Author Award for I Lived on Butterfly Hill
Juan Felipe Herrera - Author Honor for Portraits of Hispanic American Heroes
Yuyi Morales - Pura Belpré Illustrator Award for Viva Frida
Susan Guevara - Illustrator Honor for Little Roja Riding Hood
John Parra - Illustrator Honor for Green is a Chili Pepper
Duncan Tonatiuh - Illustrator Honor for Separate is Never Equal: Silvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation

An additional congratulatory shout out to Pat Mora who was awarded the May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture, to Isabel Quintero who won the Morris Award for Gabi, A Girl in Pieces and to Yuyi Morales who won a Caldecott Honor for Viva Frida. 

This was probably the most diverse year to date at the awards, right? Give yourselves a pat on the back! This was definitely a result, in part, of the more open and honest discussions that have been taking place in public forums. The hope is that talking about uncomfortable topics will lead to accountability and change. Lots more to say about awards and dissatisfied grumblings, but I'll save that for another entry.

Speaking of awards, Isabel Quintero and Duncan Tonatiuh were also honored with the Tomás Rivera Book Award (among numerous other awards) for Gabi, A Girl in Pieces and Separate is Never Equal. Right on!

In case you missed it, the Cooperative Children's Book Center released their annual report, Children's Books By and About People of Color Published in the United States. This year they are planning to publishing title lists as well, a really great addition to this already useful and important resource. I'm looking forward to the release of the list of books by / about Latinos.

Last thing for now, I'm doing the We Need Diverse Books resolution and pledged to read at least 25 diverse books this year. I'm documenting this year's reading on my tumblr page if you're interested in seeing what I'm reading. Take the challenge!

To get you started with your challenge, I'm doing a giveaway! I have one copy of Claudia Guadalupe Martinez's Pig Park up for grabs. Just leave a comment on this post. Recommend a diverse book to read in 2015 if you feel inclined. Drawing will take place next Thursday, March 5. If you enter, please include your email address or be on the look out for drawing results so I don't have to hunt you down to send your book if you win.

We Need Diverse Books

The cool kids over at We Need Diverse Books are running a fundraising campaign on indiegogo. They are planning to use the money raised to fund a variety of initiatives focused on providing kids of all ages greater access to diverse books. The planned projects include developing educational kits, bringing diverse authors to schools and starting a kidlit diversity festival. All of this sounds awesome, and I cannot wait to see what starts to roll out in the coming months. They're offering a bunch of sweet perks too if you need some instant gratification.

If you believe it's important that the books our kids have access to reflect the diversity of our world (and who doesn't), please consider backing this important campaign. 

Review: Pig Park

I confess. I'm a glutton. This book had me at the cover. That image of a delicious marranito? I can imagine the moist cake-like center, the smell of molasses. I love this cover. I want to eat this cover. 

Between those yummy covers is an equally delicious book. Pig Park (Cinco Puntos Press, 2014) is Claudia Guadalupe Martinez's second novel following her 2011 debut, The Smell of Old Lady Perfume, also published by Cinco Puntos. Masi Burciaga's Chicago neighborhood has become a virtual ghost town since the American Lard Company packed up and moved its business overseas. The lard company was such a central part of the area's economy and livelihood that the neighborhood park got the name Pig Park because of it. When Jorge Peregrino, the one person in the neighborhood who seems to still be doing well for himself, comes to the people of Pig Park with what sounds like a far-out idea to keep the neighborhood alive--building a pyramid that will attract tourist--Masi and her friend jump on board to help. Masi figures even if they can't save the neighborhood she can at least spend her last summer outdoors hanging out with her friends instead of working in the stifling heat of her family's bakery. 

I admit, at first I was like huh? Wait, what's going on here? How is no one skeptical of this pyramid idea? What are you Pig Park people doing?! But everything falls into place as you read your way through Masi's story. As the plan unfolds the reader can't help asking a number of timely and relevant questions. What causes neighborhoods to decline? How can declining neighborhoods be revitalized? What happens to local economies when large companies move overseas? Early in the novel the story of "The Devil and Daniel Webster" is referenced, and the novel tackles that age-old question of how far, how much, what exactly would you do for something that matters to you? The Pig Park residents are faced with two significant issues. How far are they willing to go to save their home, and how important is it to maintain the cultural integrity of their neighborhood?

But it's not all about the struggle to revive a neighborhood. An attractive and mysterious young college student blows into town to help the residents with their revitalization plans, and Masi can't help being drawn to him. On the home front, Masi struggles to understand the growing tension in the relationship between her parents. This storyline ties in nicely with the neighborhood revitalization plot as it also addresses the importance of being able to change and evolve in order to survive.

This would be a great book to tie in with social studies units on neighborhood studies, learning about how outsourcing affects cities, and community activism. I love Claudia's use of simile and especially enjoyed the very detailed scene in which a few of the teens make capirotada. Mmm mmm. 

One Book, One Barrio!

La Casa Azul Bookstore in NYC is hosting the first ever One Book, One Barrio reading campaign! The 2013 Pura Belpré Award honor book The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano by Sonia Manzano has been selected as the first book to be read as part of the campaign.  If you are in the New York City area, there are a number of upcoming events you can attend. If you aren't, how about finding a copy of the book in your local library or independent bookstore and reading it in solidarity? Here's a good opportunity to check on how diverse these resources are in your area and to encourage them to promote and support more diverse offerings. The campaign goes through the fall, so if you're a teacher or librarian perhaps consider a unit, program or book discussion focusing on the book.

#WeNeedDiverseBooks

Did you hear about the #WeNeedDiverseBooks compaign happening through Saturday? Check it out over on Facebook! Why do you think we need more diverse books?

#WeNeedDiverseBooks because no one should be half way through college before they recognize their lives and experiences in a book. Also, because more diverse books means less copies of The Help to diversify your collection. Um, exactly how many copies of The Help do we need in our library?