Alma Flor Ada

Celebrate Halloween and the Day of the Dead with Cristina and her Blue Bunny
Celebra el Halloween y el Día de Muertos con Cristina y su conejito azul

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Story:

It’s Hal­loween but Cristina is very sad and doesn’t feel like putting on a cos­tume and going trick-or-treating because she’s lost her favorite stuffed ani­mal, her blue bunny. Dur­ing the cel­e­bra­tion of the Day of the Dead, her par­ents teach her about a unique way to deal with the pain of the loss of a loved one.

Non-fiction:

An overview of the his­tory of Hal­loween and the Day of the Dead and activ­i­ties on these days, 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

Many of my books have been inspired by my chil­dren and grand­chil­dren. My grand­daugh­ter Cristina had a blue bunny, a stuffed toy that she had cher­ished since she was a baby. Because Blue Bunny accom­pa­nied her every­where on sev­eral occa­sions her mother decided that Blue Bunny needed to go in the wash­ing machine. And with each wash there was less blue in Blue Bunny, and really less of Blue Bunny in gen­eral. But no mat­ter how skinny and pale Blue Bunny became, Cristina’s love was unfal­ter­ing… and then, one day, Blue Bunny got lost.

While think­ing of a child’s loss for this book, Blue Bunny seemed the most appropriate.

Cristina is also the inspi­ra­tion and pro­tag­o­nist of my book Cristina and the Frog or Cristina y la rana, where her photo, kiss­ing a frog, can be seen. The book is the story of a child who kisses a frog hop­ing it will turn into a girl to play with… only to be dis­ap­pointed when all she gets is a froggy baby sister.

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.

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

This book can be cor­re­lated with another Hal­loween book: What are Ghosts Afraid of? or El susto de los fan­tas­mas from the series Sto­ries the Year ‘Round or Cuen­tos para todo el año.

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.