Good morning, everyone!
Congratulations to the winner of last week’s giveaway and thank you to all who commented! 
This week, you have a chance to win another giveaway package, which includes the book Nacer Bailando and the English language edition, Dancing Home.
We are grateful to Alma Flor Ada, who not only co-authored this book with Gabriel M. Zubizarreta, but also donated the copies we are able to give away today! School Library Journal recommends the book for grades three through six (ages eight to twelve) and features a review written by Helen Foster James: “Margie is proud to be an American, born in the United States. Her parents were born in Mexico and so was her cousin, Lupe, who has come to stay with Margie’s family in California. At first Margie is excited, but that enthusiasm dissipates when Lupe is placed in her classroom. She doesn’t speak English, and Margie’s teacher expects her to translate for her. A couple of classroom bullies seem bent on belittling the cousins’ heritage. Margie is relieved when Lupe is transferred to a bilingual class, leaving a desk near her for the newest classmate, Camille. The girls become great friends. When they’re given a journal assignment, Camille models what it’s like to have a passion as she thinks, researches, and writes about dolphins. Lupe stays after school to learn folkloric dances, and the book concludes with a performance that helps Margie understand how American she is and how her Mexican heritage fits into her identity. This story will assist readers in embracing their own heritage and developing an appreciation for their classmates’ backgrounds.”
One of the great things about this particular book is that it has already been made into a lesson plan for the classroom. On Alma Flor’s website, there is a page for each of the books she has authored. For this one, towards the bottom of the page, you can find questions already written in both English and Spanish to facilitate class discussion and even a series of activities/research questions that can be used to further engage students in understanding the book in the context of their daily lives.
As per usual, please leave a comment below letting us know how you can use these books in your home collection or classroom! We will contact a winner at the end of the week to get mailing information.
Until next week,
Charla
Image: Photo of Nacer Bailando. Reprinted from Alma Flor’s Website.
Vamos a Leer 
This sounds like a great read-aloud. My children are 8 and 11. My husband’s grandparents came to the U.S. from Mexico and my daughter is currently doing a research project on Mexico as part of her gifted curriculum. If chosen for this giveaway, I’d definitely use it as a family read-aloud then donate to my daughter’s teacher for her classroom collection.
Hi Pam! Thanks for stopping by the blog and commenting on the post! It’s great to hear that your daughter is already doing research on Mexico! We will be drawing the winner later this week! Please check out some of the other blog posts for more resources that could be useful for your daughter’s research!
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Love it when you feature books with lesson plans created 🙂 It makes it so much better!!
Thank you!!
Hi Emily! So glad you liked the feature! We offer many other great resources with lesson plans as well so be sure you check out some of our other materials. We’ll be announcing the giveaway winner tomorrow afternoon! 🙂 Thank you!
I am a program coordinator for literacy program in Baltimore and part of our work is providing great culturally-based material such as this to our students!
Hi Melissa! We are so glad to hear that you offer culturally-based material to your students! Thanks for stopping by the blog! I hope you can take some time and check out our other multicultural resources. Thank you!