Andrea García

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IBBY Mexico: 40 Years of Forming Readers and Promoting Excellence in Children´s and YA Lit in Spanish

By Andrea García, Ph.D. Literacy Consultant, Pädi, Queretaro, Mexico

IBBY Mexico LogoThe International Board for Books for Young People (IBBY) is a well–established international presence for promoting reading and helping bring high quality children’s and young adult literature to readers across the world. Today, I want to focus on IBBY Mexico, and specifically to highlight their yearly guide to the best children’s and young adult literature available in Spanish. This is a resource that I know will become a favorite one for teachers, educators, and researchers around the world wanting to keep up with the latest trends and happenings in the publishing world in Spanish. Continue reading →

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The White Ravens: International Recognition of Children’s and Young Adult’s Literature Published in Spanish from Mexico

By Andrea García, Ph.D. Literacy Consultant, Pädi, Queretaro, Mexico

The White Ravens CoverShifts in demographics over the last decades reveal that the U.S. is the second largest Spanish–speaking country after Mexico. Data reported by the Instituto Cervantes in 2019, indicate that the U.S. has over 50 million Spanish speakers, including both native and bilingual speakers. It is no surprise that over the years that librarians, teachers, parents, and readers in general have expressed an interest in locating high quality children’s and young adult’s literature published originally in Spanish to respond to this growing demand from readers. Continue reading →

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Fundación Cuatrogatos: Promoting Children’s and YA Literature in Spanish in the United States

By Andrea García, Ph.D. Literacy Consultant, Pädi, Queretaro, Mexico

Fundacion CuatrogatosFor the last couple of years, I have been working as a teacher, educator and a literacy consultant in both Mexico and the United States. Through my work and conversations with teachers, educators, and parents in both countries, I know that there is still a great need to diversify the choices we offer our younger readers, particularly stories with authentic and contemporary representations of traditionally marginalized identities across ethnicity, race, gender, ability, and so on. Continue reading →

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Explorando Libros: Publishing Houses in Mexico Transforming Children’s and Young Adult Literature–Editorial 3 Abejas

By Andrea García, Ph.D. Literacy Consultant, Pädi, Queretaro, Mexico

My writing for this week focuses on the work of Editorial 3 Abejas, an independent Mexican editorial house launched in 2013. Editorial 3 Abejas is dedicated to publishing children’s and young adult literature with special attention to bringing together imaginative stories with innovative graphic design and illustrations. Their catalog represents a carefully curated collection of books intended to bring together young and experienced readers in the sharing of meaningful stories.

Editorial 3 abejas at FILIJ Continue reading →

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Explorando Libros: Publishing Houses in Mexico Transforming Children’s and Young Adult’s Literature–Fondo de Cultura Económica

By Andrea García, Ph.D. Literacy Consultant, Pädi, Queretaro, Mexico

This week, I will focus on one of the oldest and most important editorial houses in Mexico, and across Latin America, the Fondo de Cultura Económica, FCE or “el Fondo,” as it is usually referred to. FCE is a nonprofit organization that is partially funded by the Mexican government.

Fondo de Cultura Económica at FILIJ Continue reading →

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Explorando Libros: Publishing Houses in Mexico Transforming Children’s and Young Adult’s Literature – Nostra Ediciones

By Andrea García, Ph.D. Literacy Consultant, Pädi, Queretaro, Mexico

This week, we take a closer look at the work of Nostra Ediciones, an independent Mexican publishing company founded in 2000. Nostra identifies its mission as publishing books with an emphasis on promoting high-quality literary works with innovative visual layouts that generate “curiosity and enthusiasm in all readers, regardless of their age and whether they are novice or experienced readers.” Their main line of publication is geared towards children’s and young adult literature, but they also have books geared for the public in general.

Nostra Ediciones at FILIJ Continue reading →

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Explorando Libros: Publishing Houses in Mexico Transforming Children’s and Young Adult Literature–Ediciones Tecolote

By Andrea García, Ph.D. Literacy Consultant, Pädi, Queretaro, Mexico

The second stop in our journey into the world of publishing houses in Mexico takes us to the work of Ediciones Tecolote. And this week, my writing for WOW Currents could not have arrived at a better time, as the world of children’s and young adult literature in Mexico is celebrating. Ediciones Tecolote was just named the recipient of the 6th Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publishers of the Year (BOP Prize) for Central and South America. This prestigious award is presented at the 2018 Bologna Children’s Book Fair, celebrated this year from March 26 to 29, 2018 in Bologna, Italy.

Tecolote Display at FILIJ Continue reading →

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Explorando Libros: Publishing Houses in Mexico Transforming Children’s and Young Adult Literature–CIDCLI

By Andrea García, Ph.D. Literacy Consultant, Pädi, Queretaro, Mexico.

This April, WOW Currents features publishing houses in Mexico whose work is actively transforming the landscape of children’s and young adult literature in Spanish. WOW Director Dr. Kathy Short, University of Arizona professor Dr. Carol Brochin, and I visited these publishing houses when we attended the 37 Feria Internacional del Libro Infantil y Juvenil (FILIJ) in Mexico City, Mexico, in November 2017. The FILIJ, the International Book Fair for Children and Young Adults, is the largest annual gathering of publishers specifically focused on children’s and young adult literature in Spanish. This 10-day cultural celebration surrounding books and literature hosted more than 442,000 people.

FILIJ Continue reading →

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Global Explorations in Verse: Salt: A Story of Friendship in a Time of War

by Andrea García, Diana Collins and Melissa Tuller, Hofstra University.

SaltWe close our writing for the month of November sharing our exploration of Salt: A Story of Friendship in a Time of War by Helen Frost. This is the final book I chose for a text set focusing on Global Explorations in Verse, which I used in my graduate children’s literature course this semester. As we consider our Thanksgiving celebrations this week, we feel this story provides an appropriate backdrop to consider the relationships between Native Americans and Americans from a historical perspective. Helen Frost’s novel in verse explores the complexities of friendship, when sociopolitical issues threaten to destroy the loyalties and the trust built amongst friends. Continue reading →

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Global Explorations in Verse: Home of the Brave

by Andrea García, Keith Donnelly, and Michele McGuinness, Hofstra University.

Our writing for this week will take us to explore Home of the Brave, by Katherine Applegate (2008). This is the third book in the text set I created focusing on Global Explorations in verse for my children’s literature graduate course. In this story, we meet Kek, an 11-year-old refugee boy from Sudan, who is relocated to Minnesota escaping the civil war in his country, after witnessing the death of his father and brother. Unaware of her mother’s whereabouts, Kek joins his aunt and cousin in the U.S., and begins a memorable journey into learning to live in a different culture and in a different language. In this unforgettable story of hopefulness and resilience, Applegate makes use of spare free verse to tell Kek’s immigration story. Continue reading →