Alma Flor Ada

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with the Mexican Hat Dance
Celebra el Cinco de Mayo con un jarabe tapatío

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Story:

Stu­dents pre­pare to cel­e­brate Cinco de Mayo and have a great time prac­tic­ing the Mex­i­can hat dance, “Jarabe tap­atío”. It’s show time, but can the stu­dents dance the “Jarabe tap­atío” with­out step­ping on the hat?

Non-fiction:

An overview of the his­tory and cel­e­bra­tion of Cinco de Mayo with inter­est­ing and col­or­ful 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

Since I am one of the two authors of this book, I can share my side of the story. You can visit www.isabelcampoy.com to read what the other author has to say.

The cel­e­bra­tion of Cinco de Mayo has by far tran­scended the impor­tant his­tor­i­cal moment that inspired it, la Batalla de Puebla. Now it has become a cel­e­bra­tion for all Lati­nos. We cel­e­brate our iden­tity, our char­ac­ter­is­tic cul­tural way of embrac­ing uni­ver­sal values.

Isabel Cam­poy and I have great admi­ra­tion for Ben­ito Juárez, the Mex­i­can leader that was able to insure the inde­pen­dence of Méx­ico by defeat­ing the French who had tried to impose a French emperor in México.

Ben­ito Juárez, an indige­nous boy of very hum­ble ori­gins grew up to be a defender of indige­nous peo­ple and every­one in his coun­try. We have expressed our admi­ra­tion by writ­ing his biog­ra­phy that can be found in the book Smiles or Son­risas of the series Gate­ways to the Sun or Series Colec­ción Puer­tas al sol.

The story for this book is inspired in the poem “Jarabe tap­atío” from Corre al Coro Música amiga 4. This poem has been put to music by Suni Paz and can be found in the CD of the same name, also part of the Series Música amiga.

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.

READERS’ RESPONSES

If you have enjoyed read­ing or shar­ing this book, I would very much like to hear from you. Please click here to send your comments.