Alma Flor Ada

Celebrate Christmas and Three Kings Day with Pablo and Carlitos
Celebra la Navidad y el Día de los Reyes Magos con Pablo y Carlitos

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Story:

Car­l­i­tos writes a let­ter to the Three Kings, los Reyes Magos, ask­ing for lots of presents. Later, he decides to write a new let­ter and gives up some of the things on his wish list in exchange for a big­ger gift for his older brother, Pablo, who is very good to him and is teach­ing him how to ride a bike. The Three Kings are truly wise and sur­prise Car­l­i­tos and his brother with just the right gifts!

Non-fiction:

A descrip­tion of the many ways in which Christ­mas and the Three Kings Day, or Día de los Reyes Magos, are cel­e­brated in var­i­ous coun­tries. Illus­trated with numer­ous infor­ma­tive photographs.

SERIES DESCRIPTION

Each of the twenty four books in this col­lec­tion ded­i­cated to some of the most impor­tant hol­i­days and fes­tiv­i­ties cel­e­brated in the United States is the com­bi­na­tion of two books in one. The first part is an engag­ing real­is­tic fic­tion story beau­ti­fully illus­trated by a diver­sity of illus­tra­tors. The sec­ond part is a non-fiction piece that explains the his­tory and sig­nif­i­cance of the hol­i­day or cel­e­bra­tion. This sec­ond part is illus­trated with bright and unique pho­tographs that will allow chil­dren to wit­ness the celebration.

The fes­tiv­i­ties addressed include:

• Cel­e­brate Mar­tin Luther King Jr. Day
• Cel­e­brate PowWow
• Cel­e­brate Chi­nese New Year
• Cel­e­brate Hal­loween & Day of the Dead
• Cel­e­brate Mardi Gras
• Cel­e­brate Thanksgiving
• Cel­e­brate St. Patrick’s Day
• Cel­e­brate Hannukah
• Cel­e­brate Cinco de Mayo
• Cel­e­brate Kwanzaa
• Cel­e­brate Fourth of July
• Cel­e­brate Christ­mas & Three Kings Day

For more details in the series and the val­ues it presents see the series descrip­tion: Series Sto­ries to Cel­e­brate / Cuen­tos para cel­e­brar. There is also an indi­vid­ual page, like this, for each of the books in the series.

Les­son plans and ques­tions to guide the Cre­ative Read­ing Dia­logue can be found on the San­til­lanaUSA web­site: www.santillanausa.com/cuentosparacelebrar.htm

CDS DESCRIPTION

There are two CDs with the read­ings of the twelve sto­ries in Eng­lish and two CDs with the read­ings of the twelve sto­ries in Spanish.

The CDs will allow chil­dren to fol­low a pro­fes­sional read­ing aloud indi­vid­u­ally or in groups.

They can be ben­e­fi­cial to chil­dren learn­ing a sec­ond lan­guage, whether Eng­lish or Span­ish, since they will be able to read the book in their stronger lan­guage and then lis­ten to the record­ing in the sec­ond lan­guage, or vice versa.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Navi­dades and el Día de Reyes were high­lights of my child­hood and I waited for them all year. There were mul­ti­ple asso­ci­a­tions with those days: the most impor­tant that my aunts, uncle and cousins and a dear fam­ily friend, Rafael Respall, would return from La Habana to our home town of Cam­agüey. Their pres­ence was the best Christ­mas gift.

I delighted in build­ing the Nativ­ity scene. Rafael was a true mas­ter in cre­at­ing a very elab­o­rate depic­tion all over our front porch. At the begin­ning we had an incred­i­ble array of nativ­ity fig­urines, bor­rowed from my par­ents’ store, then as the sea­son pro­gressed and the dif­fer­ent mod­els were sold in the store, ours would return to the store shelves and their place would be cov­ered with plants or stones. It did not make us sad, we were happy to know that other peo­ple were also cre­at­ing won­der­ful nacimientos.

I have writ­ten about the expe­ri­ence of help­ing my par­ents cre­ate sim­ple Nativ­ity fig­ures in the vignette “Christ­mas for All” in the book Under the Royal Palms or Bajo las pal­mas reales.

Christ­mas also meant spe­cial food only eaten at that time of year, the only time when we had apples and grapes and the won­der­ful tur­rones from Jijona and Alicante.

Since I am only one of the authors of this book. You can visit www.isabelcampoy.com to read what the other author has to say.

Many read­ers are intrigued about how two authors col­lab­o­rate to write a book. If you share this curios­ity you may enjoy read­ing how Isabel Cam­poy explains this expe­ri­ence in the chap­ter authored by her “Writ­ing in Col­lab­o­ra­tion: One plus One is One or Two” in the book Alma Flor Ada and You, vol­ume II pub­lished by Libraries Unlimited.

CONNECTIONS

Sev­eral of my books and poems touch on the topic of Christ­mas and Día de Reyes. This book can be cor­re­lated with La jaula dorada from the series Sto­ries the Year ‘Round or Cuen­tos para todo el año, with the bilin­gual book The Christ­mas Tree/El árbol de Navi­dad. Also auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal Christ­mas expe­ri­ences in the vignette “Christ­mas for All” in the book Under the Royal Palms or Bajo las pal­mas reales.

The theme of Christ­mas is also men­tioned in the book I Don’t Want to Melt or No quiero der­re­tirme from the series Sto­ries the Year ‘Round or Cuen­tos para todo el año. Chil­dren read­ing in Span­ish may enjoy these poems from the poetry anthol­ogy Días y días de poesía.

About Win­ter:

Invierno
Alma Flor Ada

Salir a jugar feliz
y, para no acatar­rarse,
¡abri­garse la nariz!

About those ele­ments of Christ­mas that are presents and cards:

Rega­los
Alma Flor Ada

¡Qué diver­tido
envolver un regalo
y guarder el secreto
de lo encerrado!

Tar­je­tas de Navi­dad
Alma Flor Ada

A un amigo lejano
le puedes man­dar
una tar­jeta
de Navi­dad.
Paisajes, arboli­tos
y rega­los, quizá,
dibu­jada por ti
le gus­tará más.

Rega­los hechos por mi
Alma Flor Ada

He estado hoy día
canta que canta:
hacer rega­los
a mí… me encanta.
Papel y lápiz,
goma y tijera,
creo lin­das cosas
de esta man­era.
Todos recibirán
con ale­gría
lo que pro­ducen
las manos mías.

About the New Mex­i­can tra­di­tion of plac­ing lumi­nar­ias for this season:

Lumi­nar­ias
Alma Flor Ada

Una bolsa de papel
llena de arena
para que se sujete
muy bien la vela.
La velita encen­dida
marca el camino
que recor­ren can­tando
los pere­gri­nos.
Can­tando vil­lan­ci­cos
de Navi­dad
desde un extreme al otro
de la ciu­dad.
Esperando que llegue
la Nochebuena
ami­gos y rega­los
¡y una gran cena!

And about Three Kings Day:

Los Reyes Magos
Alma Flor Ada

Uno a caballo y otro en camello
y, algo ade­lante,
otro mon­tado a lomos
de un ele­fante.
Van los tres reyes magos
por una huella.
Mel­chor, Gas­par y Bal­tasar
siguen la estrella

READERS’ RESPONSES

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