Book Giveaway: Echo

We’re giving away a copy of Echo written by Pam Muñoz Ryan–our featured novel for May book group meeting!! Check out the following from Goodreads: 

Winner of a 2016 Newbery Honor, ECHO pushes the boundaries of genre, form, and storytelling innovation.

Lost and alone in a forbidden forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and suddenly finds himself entwined in a puzzling quest involving a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica.

Decades later, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California each, in turn, become interwoven when the very same harmonica lands in their lives. All the children face daunting challenges: rescuing a father, protecting a brother, holding a family together. And ultimately, pulled by the invisible thread of destiny, their suspenseful solo stories converge in an orchestral crescendo.

Book Giveaway: Dancing in the Rain

We’re giving away a copy of Dancing in the Rain written by Lynn Joseph–our featured novel for March book group meeting!! Check out the following from Good Reads:

Twelve year-old Elizabeth is no normal girl. With an imagination that makes room for mermaids and magic in everyday life, she lives every moment to the fullest. Yet her joyful world crumbles around her when two planes bring down the Twin Towers and tear her family apart. Thousands of miles away, yet still touched by this tragedy, Elizabeth is swimming in a sea of loss. She finally finds hope when she meets her kindred spirit in 8 year-old Brandt and his 13 year-old brother, Jared.

Book Giveaway: Dark Dude

We’re giving away a copy of Dark Dude written by Oscar Hijuelos–our featured novel for our February book group meeting!! Check out the following from Kirkus Reviews:

Fifteen-year-old Rico Fuentes, who refers to himself as the “palest Cubano who ever existed on the planet,” feels impelled by circumstances involving drugs, truancy and family to flee Harlem for Wisconsin; it’s the 1960s and his good friend Roberto, a lottery winner, is attending college and has rented a farm nearby. Hijuelos, who won the Pulitzer Prize for The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1989), explores issues of race, identity, prejudice and outsiderness in his affectionately written, sometimes raw teen debut. Smart, confused, a good-hearted bookworm from the ghetto who feels an affinity with Huck Finn and writes imaginative comic-book superhero stories, Rico ultimately comes to see that “where you are doesn’t change who you are.” In spite of several graphic scenes dealing with drugs and violence, this novel is very much geared to young adults; indeed, it sometimes seems as if the author is trying to pack in too much advice, making for a somewhat loose narrative. Even so, young readers will genuinely care about Rico and be carried along on his journey of discovery.

It looks like another interesting read–a great addition to any personal or classroom library! To be entered in the giveaway, just comment on any post on the blog by January 30.  Everyone who comments between December 6 and January 30 will be entered in the drawing.  If your name is chosen, we’ll email you ASAP about mailing the book to you.

Don’t forget, we also raffle off a copy of the following month’s featured novel at each book group meeting.  So if you’re an Albuquerque local, join us for a chance to win!

Good luck!

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Book Giveaway: The Farming of Bones

We’re giving away a copy of The Farming of Bones written by Edwidge Danticat–our featured novel for December book group meeting!! Check out the following from Kirkus Reviews:

A strong second novel from the Haitian-born author whose debut, Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994), was recently anointed by Oprah, and whose story collection, Krik ? Krak !, won the National Book Award in 1995. Danticat’s subject is the 1937 massacre by Dominican islanders of Haitians living within their borders, at the command of Dominican dictator Trujillo—as experienced, and then remembered many years afterward, by the story’s narrator, Haitian maidservant Amabelle Desir.

In the lyrically written opening section, Amabelle’s intimate moments with her lover, sugarcane worker Sebastien Onius (the two of them share memories of their deceased parents), are counterpointed against her submissive relationship with Senora Valencia, the wife of a Dominican army officer whose own loss of a child subtly foreshadows the many disasters to come. The long middle of the story describes the despised and terrified Haitians’ extended march back to their own country, during which Amabelle and Sebastien are separated. In the meditative last third (almost devoid, unfortunately, of dramatic tension), set a quarter-century later, Amabelle finally makes her peace with her bereavement, and, after an emotional reunion with Senora Valencia, passively accepts the fate she’s been prepared for by her contemporaries and forebears alike.

Danticat tells this sorrowful tale in rich, lush prose that veers, often very suddenly, between rigidly controlled understatement and feverish emotionalism. Her word pictures are extraordinarily precise and compelling, as in a representative description of fires set to clear harvested cane fields: “The smell of burning soil and molasses invaded the air, dry grass and weeds crackling and shooting sparks, vultures circling low, looking for rats and lizards escaping the blaze.— Though it loses intensity as it proceeds, here’s more than sufficient passion, color, and empathy to confirm Danticat’s high standing among our more gifted younger writers.

It looks like another interesting read–a great addition to any personal or classroom library! To be entered in the giveaway, just comment on any post on the blog by December 5.  Everyone who comments between November 8 and December 5 will be entered in the drawing.  If your name is chosen, we’ll email you ASAP about mailing the book to you.

Don’t forget, we also raffle off a copy of the following month’s featured novel at each book group meeting.  So if you’re an Albuquerque local, join us for a chance to win!

Good luck!

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Book Giveaway: Out of Darkness

We’re giving away a copy of Out of Darkness written by Ashley Hope Pérez–our featured novel for our October book group meeting!! Check out the following from Kirkus Reviews: 

A Mexican-American girl and a black boy begin an ill-fated love in the months leading up to a catastrophic 1937 school explosion in East Texas.

The powerful story opens with the legendary school explosion in New London and then rewinds to September 1936. Naomi has begrudgingly left behind her abuelitos in San Antonio for a new life with her younger half siblings, twins, and their long-absent white father, Henry. Now a born-again Christian, Henry struggles to atone for his sins. The siblings struggle to fit into the segregated oil town, where store signs boast “No Negroes, Mexicans, or dogs.” The precocious twins read better than half the senior class, and dark-skinned Naomi is guilty of not only being Mexican, but also of being “prettier than any girl in school.” Their one friend is Wash, a brilliant African-American senior from the black part of town. Pérez deftly weaves multiple perspectives—including Henry and “the Gang,” the collective voice of the racist students—into her unflinchingly intense narrative, but the story ultimately belongs to Naomi and Wash. Their beautifully detailed love story blossoms in the relative seclusion of the woods, where even stepfathers can’t keep them apart. But as heartbreaking events unfold, the star-crossed lovers desperately hope that any light can penetrate the black smoke cloud of darkness spreading around them.

A powerful, layered tale of forbidden love in times of unrelenting racism.

It looks like another interesting read–a great addition to any personal or classroom library! To be entered in the giveaway, just comment on any post on the blog by October 3.  Everyone who comments between September 14 and October 3 will be entered in the drawing.  If your name is chosen, we’ll email you ASAP about mailing the book to you.

Don’t forget, we also raffle off a copy of the following month’s featured novel at each book group meeting.  So if you’re an Albuquerque local, join us for a chance to win!

Good luck!

Book Giveaway: Silver People

We’re giving away a copy of Silver People written by Margarita Engle–our featured novel for September’s book group meeting!!  Check out the following from Kirkus Reviews:

“A poetic exploration of the construction of the Panama Canal.

From the animal inhabitants of the Panamanian jungle, disturbed and displaced by the construction, and the trees felled to the human workers, Engle unites disparate voices into a cohesive narrative in poems chronicling the creation of the Panama Canal. Mateo, a 14-year-old Cuban lured by promises of wealth, journeys to Panama only to discover the recruiters’ lies and a life of harsh labor. However, through his relationships with Anita, an “herb girl,” Henry, a black Jamaican worker, and Augusto, a Puerto Rican geologist, Mateo is able to find a place in his new land. The Newbery Honoree and Pura Belpré winner’s verse is characteristically elegant, and her inclusion of nonhuman voices brings home the environmental impact of the monumental project.”

It looks like another interesting read–a great addition to any personal or classroom library! To be entered in the giveaway, just comment on any post on the blog by September 12.  Everyone who comments between today, August 12 and September 12 will be entered in the drawing.  If your name is chosen, we’ll email you ASAP about mailing the book to you.

Don’t forget, we also raffle off a copy of the following month’s featured novel at each book group meeting.  So if you’re an Albuquerque local, join us for a chance to win!

Good luck!

Lee & Low Book Tour: Mamá The Alien/Mamá la Extraterrestre

Saludos todos! Today I would like to take the time to feature a new release, Mamá The Alien/Mamá la Extraterrestre, written by René Colato Laínez and illustrated by Laura Lacámara. We’re proud to highlight Laínez and Lacámara’s work as part of a blog tour organized by one of our favorite publishers, Lee & Low Books. Vamos a Leer is participating alongside a whole host of superb Latinx-focused blogs, including The Latina Book Club, Mommy Maestra, Latinaish, Pragmatic Mom, Reading Authors, and The Logonauts.

Lee and Low Books is the largest multicultural children’s book publisher in the country, and, naturally, a consistent source of the books we feature on the  Vamos a Leer blog. To celebrate the release of this book, and highlight its important discussion of the terms “illegal” and “alien,” Lee & Low recently invited Laínez to write a guest post titled “No More ‘Illegal Aliens’ ” on their blog, The Open Book.  I highly recommend that you visit their blog to read Laínez’s own words, but here’s a snippet that stood out strongly to us here at Vamos a Leer:

My goal as a children’s books author is to produce strong multicultural children’s literature; stories where minority children are portrayed in a positive way, where they see themselves as heroes, and where they dream and hope for the future. I wanted to write authentic stories of Latin American children living in the United States.

This objective resonates strongly with our own mission, and only reinforces this book’s potential to serve as a valuable resource to young readers. We strongly refute the practice of dehumanizing immigrants beneath such misleading terms as “illegal” or “alien,” let alone the two combined. If you’re not familiar with the effort to do away with these words, you can gain a basic grasp by reading Lee & Low’s post on “Diversity 102: The Library of Congress Battle Over ‘Illegal Alien‘” and watching this TEDBlog presentation on “Rethinking the term ‘illegal’ immigrant: Because people can’t be illegal.”

But that’s part of a bigger discussion meriting much more time. For the moment, I’m going to redirect attention back to our featured title. Here’s the publisher’s summary:

When Mama’s purse falls on the floor, Sofia gets a peek at Mama’s old Resident Alien card and comes to the conclusion that Mama might be an alien from outer space. Sofia heads to the library to learn more about aliens. Some are small and some are tall. Some have four fingers on each hand and some have large, round eyes. Their skin can be gray or blue or green. But Mama looks like a human mother! Could she really be an alien? Sofia is still puzzling out this mystery when she sees an alien-looking Mama one night. It turns out Mama is doing a beauty treatment so she will look her best for her citizenship ceremony. That’s when Sofia realizes that in English, an alien can be someone from another planet, and it can also be a person from another country. Just like Mama! Filled with imagination and humor, Mamá the Alien/Mamá la extraterrestre is a lighthearted immigration tale and a celebration of family, no matter where that family comes from. Even if its outer space!

Both author and illustrator are remarkable. Laínez has long been a favorite author of ours here at Vamos a Leer. When Kalyn was writing her post on 10 Bilingual Children’s Books About Immigration, we were hard pressed not to include every book that Laínez has written. In addition, Lorraine delighted in pairing two of his beautiful books in her review post, ¡Mira, Look!: My Shoes and I, & From North to South. You can learn more about this award-winning children’s book author from El Salvador by visiting Laínez’s official website.

Similarly, Laura Lacámara is also another favorite of ours here. She’s a Cuban-born, award-winning illustrator whom we’ve featured previously on the blog with our review of the beautifully written and illustrated (she did both!) children’s book, Dalia’s Wondrous Hair / El cabello maravilloso de Dalia.  To find out more about her, visit her official website.

Together Laínez and Lacámara have put together a memorable book that explores some of the most complex and sensitive aspects of immigration. And thanks to Lee & Low, we’re able to help bring it to your bookshelf. The publisher is offering a FREE copy to Vamos a Leer readers. Just leave us a comment below by next Friday, August 27, 2016, and we’ll enter you in the drawing.

Stay tuned for more award-winning features, as well as my upcoming, September book reviews!

¡Hasta pronto!

Alice

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Images taken from Lee & Low Books

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Book Giveaway: Poesía eres tú and Todo es canción

¡Buenas!

In light of Poetry Month, we are giving away two poetry anthologies in the Spanish language. The two books are Poesía eres tú: Antología poética, written by F. Isabel Campoy and illustrated by Marcela Calderón, and Todo es canción: Antología poética, written by Alma Flor Ada and illustrated by María Jesús Álvarez.

These books would be great for Spanish language learners and ideal for the classroom. The poems draw from everyday happenings, illuminating the beauty and creativity that exists in our day to day activities. Through these poems, I think that children will be inspired to write poetry themselves. Both of the authors have divided their poems into categories, so you can easily find different poetry themes you are in the mood for. I encourage you to check out Alma Flor Ada’s webpage about this book, where you can find a book description, author’s note, book review, and a video of Alma Flor Ada reading the poem “Bilingüe” from her book. Isabel Campoy also has a description of her book on her website that I recommend taking a look at.

To be entered in the giveaway, comment on this post by April 30^th. If your name is chosen, we will email you about mailing the book to you.

Good luck!
Kalyn

Book Giveaway: Dark Dude

We’re giving away a copy of Dark Dude written by Oscar Hijuelos–our featured novel for the May book group meeting!! Check out the following from Goodreads:

In Wisconsin, Rico could blend in. His light hair and lighter skin wouldn’t make him the “dark dude” or the punching bag for the whole neighborhood. The Midwest is the land of milk and honey, but for Rico Fuentes, it’s really a last resort. Trading Harlem for Wisconsin, though, means giving up on a big part of his identity. And when Rico no longer has to prove that he’s Latino, he almost stops being one. Except he can never have an ordinary white kid’s life, because there are some things that can’t be left behind, that can’t be cut loose or forgotten. These are the things that will be with you forever…. These are the things that will follow you a thousand miles away.

For anyone who loved The Outsiders — and for anyone who’s ever felt like one — Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Oscar Hijuelos brings to life a haunting choice and an unforgettable journey about identity, misidentity, and all that we take with us when we run away

It looks like another interesting read–a great addition to any personal or classroom. To be entered in the giveaway, just comment on any post on the blog by April 26.  Everyone who comments between March 29 and April 26 will be entered in the drawing.  If your name is chosen, we’ll email you ASAP about mailing the book to you.

Don’t forget, we also raffle off a copy of the following month’s featured novel at each book group meeting.  So if you’re an Albuquerque local, join us for a chance to win!

Good luck!

Book Giveaway: I Lived on Butterfly Hill

¡Hola a todos!

This month we have a special book in store for you! We are giving away the novel titled I Lived on Butterfly Hill, written by Marjorie Agosín and illustrated by Lee White. This book is a winner of the 2015 Pura Belpré Author Award, and also a Commended Title of the 2015 Américas Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. It is for ages 10-14, and it tells the story of eleven-year-old Celeste Marconi, her experiences during the beginning of the military coup in Chile, and her move to the United States due to governmental violations of liberty, danger and fear. During this time, Celeste’s parents are in hiding. It follows Celeste during and after the Pinochet regime, exposing her fears, anxieties and longings associated with her country. According to De Colores, “Magic and mysticism are important elements, and Agosín adds dimension and depth by showing how children and adults from the different cultures within Chile—including Nana Delfina, a Mapuche woman from the south of Chile, and Grandmother Frida, a Jewish refugee from Central Europe—incorporate the supernatural into their lives.” We hope the winner enjoys this book!

To be entered in the giveaway, comment on this post by March 31st. The winner will receive an email about where to mail the book.

Good luck!
Kalyn