Here’s a sneak peek into the book: (from Goodreads)
Margarito acts like any other eleven-year-old aficionado of lucha libre. He worships all the players. But in the summer just before sixth grade, he tumbles over the railing at a match in San Antonio and makes a connection to the world of Mexican wrestling that will ultimately connect him—maybe by blood!—to the greatest hero of all time: the Guardian Angel.
We hope to see you there!
We’ll also be raffling off a copy of February’s featured book, The Inexplicable Logic of my Life (Grades 7 and up). Join us that evening to be entered!
As you might have gathered from my recent introductory post, I’m coming to Vamos a Leer with a deep commitment to finding diverse literature and bringing it directly to classrooms. I hope in the coming months to use the blog to share the voices of others who are equally if not even more deeply committed to this cause. But before I dive into that effort, I wanted to take a minute and tap into the bigger questions that underlie all this work.
I’m going to start with an assumption with which I think many of our readers would agree: We need diverse books. But what are diverse books? How do we pick them? And how do we use them?
A couple of years ago I started working in an after school program at a bilingual elementary school in Oregon. In my conversations with educators I learned that there were a variety of questions and concerns that commonly prevent diverse books from being used in the classroom.
In her article and conversation with two other authors earlier this year, Tanwi Nandini Islam wondered whether all the “buzz” about diversity had made the word become hollow. Daniel José Older, author of the young adult novel Shadowshaper (previously reviewed by Katrina), told her: “I’m fighting for diverse books, I’m fighting for honest books. When we have books or shows about New York City and it’s all white folks, there’s a lie inherent to that. It’s a question of honesty.”
When I was working with the school, though, I heard a common set of responses: But how do I (as an educator, a librarian, an administrator, a parent) find this diverse and honest representation in books? How do I pick a book about a group I don’t know anything about? How do I choose “quality” diverse books? What do I do if a book has stereotypes? What if I say something wrong? It turns out many educators and others around the country are asking similar questions.
Luckily, there are a growing number of resources to help you out – whether you are a parent, a friend, an educator, or someone who just loves to read (and of course, none of these are mutually exclusive!).
To start, check out this short Oregon-based video called Choosing Diverse Literature that hopes to address some of these concerns! (Friendly disclaimer: I helped produce it and owe a great deal to all those who made the project possible!)
Ready to choose and use diverse books in your own classroom? Here are some more tips and resources to help get you started:
It’s helpful to start by considering how books can act as mirrors and windows – Rudine Sims Bishop’s theory of books as Mirrors, Windows and Sliding Glass Doors can help you start to think of books in this way. You can hear her talk about this idea in an interview with Reading Rockets.
Okay, I get it – diverse books are important – but how do I choose them? Educators at the University of North Carolina have created a critical lens to help educators make diverse and equitable choices about the books they choose for the classroom. Their lens combines the “mirrors and windows” theory with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s single story frame to consider issues of equity and power.
Keep your eyes peeled for We Need Diverse Books’ new Our Story App which will aim to help educators and children identify quality books with diverse characters, themes, and by multicultural authors. The app will launch in January of 2017!
Read about how a new publishing subsidiary is trying to create a “multi-cultural, positive and affirming library of children’s books that feature LGBT families.”
One of the questions we receive most often from the educators we work with and our blog readers is what recommendations we have for good bilingual classroom resources, mainly books. While doing research for some other posts, I came across a number of great bilingual resources perfect for teaching about winter celebrations. If you didn’t get a chance to read last week’s post on why I liked to teach about winter celebrations and how I implemented it, you may want to check that out here. Ailesha also put together two great posts full of resources for teaching about Las Posadas, a number of which are bilingual. Read about online resources here and books here.
Join us April 2nd at Bookworks from 5:00-7:00 for our next book group discussion. We will be discussing Margarita Engle’s, The Surrender Tree. If you’re not familiar with it, definitely check it out. It’s quite a unique book. It’s a novel written in verse–perfect for National Poetry Month!! It’s also a really engaging way to introduce your students to early Cuban History. We can’t wait to hear what you have to say!
If you couldn’t make it to our March meeting, be sure to let us know what you thought about Before we were Free by commenting on a post. We want to know what you think about the book!! If you’ve used it in your classroom, let us know how it went!
5:00-7:00 pm to discuss our next book. We are reading Maximilian & the Mystery of the Guardian Angel: A Bilingual Lucha Libre Thriller (Grades 2 – 7) by Xavier Garza.
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