Alma Flor Ada

Celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day with Samantha and Lola
Celebra el Día de San Patricio con Samantha y Lola

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Story:

Saman­tha loves Irish danc­ing, wigs, cos­tumes, and all! She is ready for the school tal­ent show. Her catchy enthu­si­asm moti­vates her friend, Lola, to learn a step or two. “One step at a time” Lola learns more and more.

Lit­tle does she know that Saman­tha has a Saint Patrick’s Day sur­prise in store!

Non-fiction:

An overview of the his­tory and cel­e­bra­tion of St. Patrick’s Day 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.

Through­out my life many of my books have been inspired first by my four chil­dren, and lately by my nine grand­chil­dren. Saman­tha, the sec­ond old­est of my nine grand­chil­dren was for sev­eral years a ded­i­cated dancer of Irish dance. This book was inspired by her.

Both Isabel Cam­poy and I had the oppor­tu­nity to see her dance in var­i­ous cities through­out the United States. Her enthu­si­asm, the qual­ity of her per­for­mance, and the excit­ing expe­ri­ence of see­ing so many girls par­tic­i­pat­ing in these Fes­hes, as Irish dance meets are called, were won­der­ful sup­port at the time of writ­ing this book. It is eas­ier, and more mean­ing­ful to write, about things one has expe­ri­enced or knows well.

This book also hon­ors the spirit of gen­eros­ity that I have always cel­e­brated in my chil­dren and grand­chil­dren, and that, for me, is one of the great­est trea­sures. I am very thank­ful to my daugh­ter in law, Denise Zubizarreta, by her assis­tance dur­ing the prepa­ra­tion of this book. Her pho­tos con­tributed to the authen­tic­ity of the beau­ti­ful cos­tumes depicted in this book.

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

Stu­dents read­ing this book in Span­ish may enjoy this poem from Días y días de poesía:

El Día de San Patri­cio
Alma Flor Ada

¿Qué les parece?
Todos me han pel­liz­cado
sólo por haberme vestido
de rosado.
El próx­imo St. Patrick’s
me vestiré de verde.
Y pobre el que se vista
de morado.

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.