¡Today’s Mira Look! kicks off our National Poetry Month posts with an exquisite stroke of paint and prose. Cantando Naranjas y Limones (Singing Oranges and Lemons) written by María Nieves de Abajo Bajo and illustrated by Azita Golarai is, to put it simply, magical, vibrant, soft and picturesque. This picture/poetry book is beautifully bilingual with dancing words and texts that gently sweep you up and cradle you in nature. Poems about nature literally swing and swoop through blue skies, meadows of green and mountains of pink. For example, laid against splashes of yellow, orange and pink that smash into blue, black and grey is the poem The Day is Leaving.
“The day is leaving quite content, singing oranges and lemons. The sun, sleepy head, in shades of violet is going to bed. The smiling moon wins over night.”
This is a picture perfect book to celebrate National Poetry Month and Earth Day with your young kids (all the poems are about nature). The bilingual text brings a more grounded element than had the poems just been written in English. The pictures will delight your young readers. We are so in love with the beautiful simplicity of this book that we’re giving 3 copies away. Simply comment on this post before 3:15 on Wednesday March 27, 2013 and you will be entered to win a copy of this book published right here in Albuquerque by the Spanish Resource Center. Trust me, this is a book you will love to pull off of your shelf over and over again.
—“Mi voz, mi voz suena a ecos de piedra y mar. ” — Mi voz in Cantando Naranjas y Limones.
Ailesha
Vamos a Leer 
I would love to enter for the book giveaway. It sounds like it is wonderful, and I’m hoping to lighten-up with poetry after all of the testing rest of this week and next.
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I’d love to win a copy of “Singing Oranges and Lemons”. Count me in. I look forward to your upcoming poetry focus.
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It looks lovely! I love poetry picture books!
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Sí por favor.
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We actually have four copies, not three–so you all win a copy of the book!! I’ll be emailing you soon to find out where you want your copy mailed to! Congratulations!