Story time is a great way to expose your children to new ideas, and these five books are a fun way to introduce your children to Hispanic and Latino culture.
Mamá Goose: A Latino Nursery Treasury Ages: 3-7
Featuring lullabies, hand games, jump-rope songs, riddles, and much more. This book is illustrated with rich watercolor illustrations and is fun to read in English and in Spanish for parents and kids alike.
Margaret and Margarita/Margarita y Margaret Ages: 3-8
This bilingual story features two little girls and their mothers who meet up on a park bench. On the left is Margaret, who comes to the park with her mother and is carrying her toy rabbit, Susan, and on the right is Margarita, who is with her mother and is carrying her cat, Susana. As the two girls interact, the story switches back and fourth between English and Spanish. And while the mothers believe that language will keep their girls from interacting, Margaret and Margarita prove otherwise.
My Very Own Room/Mi propio cuartito Ages: 6-9
When an 8-year-old Mexican American girl gets tired of sharing a room with her five brothers, the whole family pitches in to convert an old storage room into a place she can call her own.
Family Pictures, 15th Anniversary Edition/Cuadros de familia Ages: 7-10
Author Carmen Lomas Garza presents a charming series of paintings that relate to her experiences as a girl in a Texas town close to the border with Mexico. Using a bright folk art style of painting, Lomas Garza shares simple stories drawn from her memory, and rendered in both Spanish and English.
Abuela (Picture Puffins--English with Spanish Phrases) Ages: 3-8
Rosalba and her abuela--grandmother--are always going places, and during one of their trips to feed birds in the park, the little girl wonders aloud, "What if I could fly?" And that begins a magical journey of imagination where Rosalba and her abuela fly above and around Manhattan. The mixed-media collages that illustrate the book work well as they weave the girl's imaginings with her grandmother's cultural homeland.
