THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

       Poetry is like a song, like a psalm, like a prayer. Poetry is different things to many people, and April being Poetry Month, The  Latina Book Club  has been celebrating and spotlighting poets all month long. We are happy to end the month with a brilliant and stupendous poetry collection by the legendary  Margarita Engle , poet, writer and multiple Pura Belpre award winner.  Margarita Engle’s collection is rightly named, BRAVO! POEMS ABOUT AMAZING HISPANICS.  The applause for this collection is endless. She honors the best and the brightest Latino stars. The subjects come from different lands, different professions, but all their poems share a richness that makes us proud to be Latino too.  And many thanks to artist Rafael Lopez who illustrated the books. His drawings are a great compliment to Engle’s poems.   SUMMARY:   Musician, botanist, baseball player, pilot―the Latinos featured in t...

  [I need to] "go, go, go as far away as I can from this place where nothing changes."  - --Sonia Manzano, Emmy award winning actress and Pura Belpre Award winning author      Scholastic BECOMING MARIA: A MEMOIR Love and Chaos in the South Bronx Passionate and Personal.  This is a story about the courage and strength to dream big, and making those dreams come true from a woman who continues to inspire.  Bravo, Sonia! Sonia Manzano is best known as “Maria” from the eternally popular “Sesame Street” TV show.  BECOMING MARIA is her passionate and personal memoir.  Although, the book briefly touches on her iconic role, this memoir is more about her troubled childhood; the family’s struggle with poverty in the south Bronx during the 1950s and 60s; her father’s drunken abusive rages; her long suffering mother; and the despair of thinking she would be stuck in that life forever.  Television is her solace, h...

   This week the Latina Book Club  has celebrated Mothers with books with strong, courageous Mamás.  We began with our Book of the Month, THE CRUEL COUNTRY. We hope you have enjoyed our selections.   Feel free to share your favorite “Mother” book with us.   Here now is our final selection.  Happy Reading.  Happy Mothers Week! Singing makes me so happy . – Mamá Laura Lacamara has written a sweet, magical children’s book inspired by her mother, who was an opera singer in Havana.   Lacamara’s book comes to live with the vibrant and amazing illustrations from talented illustrator Yuyi Morales .   Readers of all ages will enjoy this book again and again.   And, best of all, the book is bilingual -- written in both English and Spanish.      BOOK SUMMARY:   Anita comes home from school on her seventh birthday to find her mother singing opera and floating in the air.  Everyone ...

  Hispanic Heritage Month is in full swing and The Latina Book Club continues its celebration and promotion of Latino authors.   Below is an impressive list of children's books and young adult authors.   I didn't include the obvious choices -- Esmeralda Santiago (When I Was Puerto Rican), Julia Alvarez (Return to Sender) and Sandra Cisneros (The House on Mango Street) -- to give their spots to "newer" authors, a few of whom have won the prestigious Pura Belpre Award.   We also did not include these two new authors -- Cindy L. Rodriguez (When Reason Breaks) and Valerie Tejeda (Hollywood Witch Hunters) -- because their works will not be out until 2015, but keep them in mind for the new year.   The Latina Book Club welcomes your additions to our list.   --mcf 1.     *Yuyi Morales, Niño Wrestles the World, www.yuyimorales.com   2.     Yadhira Gonzalez-Taylor, Martina Finds a Shiny Coin, www.ygtbooks.com ...

    Ladies reign at this year's Pura Belpré Awards.   The Latina Book Club congratulates Meg Medina  and Yuyi Morales on their win.        The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented annually to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.     The 2014 Winners are:     Author Award Winner – Meg Medina for her book YAQUI DELGADO WANTS TO KICK YOUR ASS (Candlewick Press), a YA book on bullying and resilience.       Illustrator Award Winner – Yuyi Morales for her illustrations and writing of NIÑO WRESTLES THE WORLD (Roaring Brook Press), a YA book about a boy who battles icons from Mexican popular culture in the lucha libre ring.           Honorable Mentions include :  ...

      This year, the Pura Belpré Awards went to the younger sect.  written by Benjamin Alire Saenz Simon & Schuster   The 2013 Author Award Winner was ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE by Benjamin Alire Saénz .  It is the tale of two boys on the edge of manhood.   The Pura Belpré Award Committee Chair Charmette S. Kuhn-Kendrick, said the book was chosen because:   “Sáenz demonstrates superb use of language and character development, while gently exploring important aspects of identity without straying into gender or cultural stereotypes.” The Author Honor Award (honorable mention) went to THE REVOLUTION OF EVELYN SERRANO by Sonia Manzano (Scholastic Press), whom many will remember as “Maria” on Sesame Street.   Set in Spanish Harlem in 1969, this is the story of 14-year old Evelyn caught in the turmoil of the revolutionary Young Lords. The 2013 Illustrator Awards Winner was MARTIN DE PORRES: THE...

   UNDER THE MESQUITE by Guadalupe Garcia McCall (Lee and Low Books Inc.) has won the 2012 Pura Belpre Award.  Garcia McCall's winning entry is an "emotionally riveting" tale of growing up in a bicultural community in Texas from the point of view of fourteen-year-old Lupita, the oldest of eight children, who is in charge while her mother battles cancer. The 2012 Illustrator Award went to Duncan Tonatiuh for DIEGO RIVERA: HIS WORLD AND OURS.  Tonatiuh wrote and illustratrate the book, which was published by Abrams Books for Young Readers. The annual award is named after Pura Belpré, the first Latina librarian at the New York Public Library.  For the complete listing of winners and honorable mentions, click here .