Book Fiesta!: Celebrate Children's Day/Book Day - Celebremos El dia de los ninos/El dia de los libros

Ages 1 and Up. This picture book is from Pat Mora, founder of the literacy initiative El dia de los ninos/El dia de los libros; Children’s Day/Book Day. The text is very simple and bilingual in English and Spanish telling about all the different places and ways we can read. At the end, there is a

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letter from the author describing what El dia de los ninos is. The illustrations in the book are by Rafael Lopez and they are gorgeous. Each two page spread is a full illustration done in the Mexican mural style with bright, rich colors. I recommend this book to any picture book collection for the illustrations alone, but it is particularly recommended to libraries that celebrate El dia on April 30.

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Book Fiesta, written by Pat Mora and illustrated by Rafael Lopez won the 2010 Pura Belpre Award. The fun-filled imaginative illustrations inside serve as a representation of the adventurous and whimsical experience a story can hold for it’s reader. Taking their audience on a journey Mora and

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Lopez describe how many different kinds of books there are as well as the different people who read them. Narrated in both English and Spanish, the story portrays reading as a fun interactive activity for children of all ethnic backgrounds. By including the library as a source to retrieve exciting books and illustrating it as fun place to go, the book can also be encouraging for kids to get involved in their local facility, to spend time there and discover new things.
This book can prove helpful to librarians and teachers alike, especially in areas with a large Spanish speaking population. Since the author includes both the English and Spanish version of the story, reading aloud might serve as a helpful tool to break down language barriers or introduce a second language to children.

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I really enjoyed this book. It was written in both English and Spanish and the illustrations depict children from all over the world enjoying books. Also, a letter from the author is included in the back to encourage organizations and institutions to celebrate Dia de los Ninos/Dia de los Libros on

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April 30th.

This book could be used in conjunction with Dia de los Ninos/Dia de los Libros celebrated on April 30th each year. It could be included with a parade where children dress as their favorite characters from books or to kick off a summer reading program.

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The text of this completely bilingual book is very simple, basically listing all the different places children read. However, the illustrations are so enchanting that they enhance the storyline greatly, making the work seem richer.

The author provides suggestions on how to host a Book Fiesta and

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different activities to plan in relation to the day. Some of her ideas include having students dress up as their favorite character from a book. One idea for elementary schools could to be to host a book buddy day (many schools do book buddies already). But to celebrate Book Fiesta day, all the grades could be paired up with a book buddy on that day. The older children could read to the younger and then visa versa. Then the two buddies could make a book page together, recording and illustrating their favorite parts of the stories. These could be hung in the halls or in the library as part of the celebration.

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Personal Response:

A fun English-to-Spanish book promoting reading and bilingualism.

"We read riding an elephant, or sailing with a whale. We read in a long submarine, or floating in a hot air balloon." (Spanish Translation): "Leemos montados en un elefante, o navegando con una ballena. Leemos en un

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submarino largo, o paseando en un globo enorme."

Curricular or Programming Connections:

Bilingual lesson to be read aloud or in curriculum for language course.

Plot Summary:

A fantastical story of different adventures taken by children as they read books around the world.

Illustrations:

Received the Pura Belpré Award for its illustrations

Theme(s):

Bilingualism, Promote Reading, Adventures and Exploration.

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This book would be good for teaching ELLs because it offers text in both English and Spanish. They could work on their comprehension by having both their first language to refer to when they do not understand. It is about something special in their culture.

This book includes ideas about how to celebrate Pat Mora's Children's Day/Book Day both at school or at home. The illustrations and text show children having fun with books. This book has very positive messages about reading!

The art of the story is just like the title says, it is very festive. The colors are wild and fun fitting the text of the story. The art work is also in the style of Latin America. The Lopez also did a good job of showing different children from all over the world in each illustration he makes. The

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art follows the story, where each pictures goes right with that part of the text. This style and story is good for younger kids and kids starting English or Spanish.

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Colorful story about April 30, Children's Book Day.

The title of this book is very fitting and perfectly describes what resides inside. The Latin styled illustrations are captivating as the style is vibrant and fun. The colors overlap in a manner that creates new shapes and alternating colors that provide more potential for all the different colors

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to "pop". The patterned textures used in the illustrations also provide complementary details throughout the story. This book relates mostly to those children who are bi-lingual and multicultural. The illustrations that assists the texts suggest that each book can potentially take readers on a type of exhilarating adventure. In addition to Latino culture, this book also portrays traces of other types of cultural, which I feel is important for Children to have expose to.

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The book is in honor of books and Children's Day. This can be a book for any age. It shows the appreciation of reading. The pictures are creative and the words on the book are all over the pages. It mentions where, who and how you can read. This was a really neat and cute book.

This book is full of color and has simple concepts which are easy for younger students to understand. I like how the illustrations show people of all ages reading.

A bright and beautifully illustrated bilingual picturbook just for kids. The kids in the story are celebrating the many types of books they read on how they read them.

This book is about celebrating children's day by reading. The book emphasizes that children of all nationalities are reading in many languages too. What's great about this book is that it is bilingual! For each English sentence, there is a Spanish sentence right near it. This is a great way to show

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understanding and to embrace different languages and cultures.

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This book celebrates what reading can do for children, the places it can take you, and how you can stretch your imagination. The illustrations of this book are fantastic- very bright and colorful which make the book very fun to read. IT's an easy read, but the illustrations make it worth while for

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any age.

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This book discusses the holiday that is celebrated in Mexico known as The Day of the Children. It is a bilingual text that introduces the Mexican tradition. In the book, they celebrate Children's Day by showing the students reading together no matter where they are at...whether it be by train, by

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plane, or by car. Each page is written in English and Spanish depicting the major aspects of celebration for this holiday.

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Cute pictures with a fun story. language is bilingual with both languages interspersed throughout.

This would be a good book to read the the beginning of the school year, on the first day or during the first week, to get students back into the routine of reading both at school and at home. I also like that it is in both English and Spanish. It also talks about celebrating Children's Day and Book

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Day on April 30th.

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This is a book with both English and Spanish text, and would be good for teaching about diversity, different cultures around the world, and how we all can share a love for reading.

I really adore this book. "Book fiesta" is a fun book that attempts to connect children to the wonderful world of books. It is a multicultural concept book that implies how books can be enjoyed from anywhere. The colorful illustrations are vibrant and eye catching; they draw interest from young

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readers. Great idea of using both English and Spanish languages inside the narration of the story. I also liked the idea of including an author's letter at the end which suggest that parents and schools host reading parties on Children's Day/Book Day. This is a fun idea for young readers to connect with their favorite characters by dressing up as them or making collages based on their favorite books/characters. I am personally adding this book to my collection.

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In my opinion, the book "Book Fiesta" by Pat Mora is a great book for young readers. One thing I liked about this book was the fact that is was bilingual. Students who speak English are slowly introduced to Spanish words while still having the story in English, and Spanish students have the entire

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story in Spanish so they can match the Spanish words in English. For example, one page reads: "We read libros together in the car." An English speaking student can infer that "libros" means books in Spanish since this is what the sentence and illustration on the page suggest since there is a child reading in a car. I also liked that the sentences were on the shorter side, allowing the reader to pick up on some Spanish/English words, depending on their native language. One sentence reads: "We read riding an elephant." While this is not a complex sentence, the reader can find the similarities to the same sentence in Spanish, or focus on the colorful illustrations. The illustrations were also an important and likable aspect of the book as well. They were very colorful and seemed to be done in a collage style. Each illustration perfectly matches what is being described on the page. The page that talks about reading on a submarine has a huge submarine covering both pages and had children inside who are reading. There is also a diverse group of students represented in these illustrations which means a wide range of students could relate to the characters. The big idea of the story was to help both English and Spanish students learn about the other language and perhaps learn some new words and phrases in another language.

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Unique, colorful, and creative are all ways to describe this realistic fiction book. Each page is bilingual and describes the excitement and joy found in celebrating Children's Day/Book Day. This book can be read in English, Spanish, or both.

I was excited to find a bilingual story that celebrated a love of reading. Pat Mora is a wonderful author and this picture book is truly a love story – a love of children, a love of reading, and love books. All books, anywhere, anytime.
Curricular connections can be made with early Spanish

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learners. It would be easy to cover the English portion of the book and have students read for comprehension and fluency. My 7th grade daughter is in her second “year” of Spanish; she takes one trimester of Spanish each year. She read the story and enjoyed figuring out unfamiliar words; and there is a letter from the author in the back that would be challenging to translate.

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What can you do in a book? You can do just about anything and go just about anywhere and Book Fiesta gives us a little taste of that. With English and Spanish on each page it is very fun to read. (I am glad that Spanish is phonetic since I am by no means fluent)