Alma Flor Ada

Voices
Voces

Book Descrip­tion

This book includes the biogra­phies of three very dif­fer­ent indi­vid­u­als, each a remark­able con­trib­u­tor to her/her society.

Play­wright, screen­writer, and direc­tor Luis Valdez began his life as a farm worker but he held onto his dreams. Hold­ing onto our dreams is one of the keys to suc­cess. Hop aboard as we accom­pany mural­ist Judith Fran­cisca Baca, and the per­son who dis­cov­ered the cause of yel­low fever, and Doc­tor Car­los Juan Fin­lay, from their hum­ble begin­nings to their incred­i­ble accomplishments.

Author’s Note

José Martí, extra­or­di­nary writer and excep­tional human being, liked to say “Hon­rar, honra” imply­ing that when we honor those who deserve it, we some­how par­take of the honor. His mes­sage that it is impor­tant to honor those who have open roads that we now travel has inspired this biog­ra­phy series.

Isabel and I would like chil­dren to real­ize that the peo­ple we admire earned that admi­ra­tion as they faced life with courage and dig­nity, deter­mined not to be stopped by dif­fi­cul­ties, but con­sis­tently fol­low­ing their dreams.

It is our great hope that chil­dren will rec­og­nize that hum­ble begin­nings or phys­i­cal lim­i­ta­tions, while cre­at­ing unques­tion­able chal­lenges, should not be seen as impos­si­ble bar­ri­ers, and that these biogra­phies will be for them an inspiration.

Con­nec­tions

There are ample ref­er­ences to the Migrant Farm Work­ers in my books, since work­ing with Migrant Farm Work­ing fam­i­lies has been one of the most sig­nif­i­cant aspects of my life.

Specif­i­cally con­nected to Luis Valdés work “Teatro campesino: ¡Qué flo­rezca la luz!” en Imá­genes del pasado is a reflec­tion about the Teatro can­pesino and the Migrant Farm Work­ers experience.

Gath­er­ing the Sun is an alpha­bet book of poems, writ­ten in honor of the Farm Work­ers. The book was illus­trated by Simon Silva, who grew up on a farm work­ers fam­ily. The poems have been turned into pow­er­ful songs by Suni Paz, who recorded them for the CD of the same title.

The life of César Chávez is tied to the Migrant Farm Work­ers strug­gle. Thus an inter­est­ing con­nec­tion could be estab­lished between the biog­ra­phy of Luis Valdés and that of Chávez which appears in Paths or Caminos, another book of this series.

Gath­er­ing the Sun/ Puer­tas al sol Col­lec­tion Description

This col­lec­tion high­lights the genius, the tenac­ity and the achieve­ment of His­panic cul­ture. For His­panic read­ers, the col­lec­tion pro­motes pride in their cul­ture; for non-Hispanic read­ers, it fos­ters an appre­ci­a­tion and an acknowl­edg­ment of—and a respect for—Latinos. The col­lec­tion com­prises the fol­low­ing 6 series. Each book and jour­nal is pub­lished in sep­a­rate edi­tions in Eng­lish and in Spanish.

Poetry Series Gate­ways to the Sun

These poetry antholo­gies are divided in sec­tions fea­tur­ing poets from var­i­ous coun­tries from the Span­ish speak­ing world. The sec­tions open with orig­i­nal poems by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Cam­poy cel­e­brat­ing the poets and the poet’s coun­try of ori­gin. Selected poems by the fea­tured poet com­pletes each sec­tion. The con­tri­bu­tion of Lati­nos is acknowl­edged as well as that of the anony­mous poets who cre­ated the rhymes of the tra­di­tional folk­lore, enrich­ing our heritage.

Art Series Gate­ways to the Sun

A wide vari­ety of gen­res, tech­niques, media, and his­tor­i­cal events in His­panic art are depicted in these over­size strik­ingly beau­ti­ful books. Each book includes repro­duc­tions of paint­ings selected from the best His­panic artists of all times, from clas­si­cal to con­tem­po­rary. Each paint­ing is accom­pa­nied by brief poetic readings.

Each book is paired with an inter­ac­tive jour­nal where chil­dren can learn more about art and begin their own artis­tic expressions.

Biog­ra­phy Series Gate­ways to the Sun

This series offers the biogra­phies of twelve sig­nif­i­cant fig­ures from var­i­ous coun­tries in the Spanish-speaking world, rep­re­sent­ing var­i­ous fields and occu­pa­tions. These his­tor­i­cal and con­tem­po­rary fig­ures are role mod­els, who over­came obsta­cles to make a dif­fer­ence in the world.

The­ater Series Gate­ways to the Sun

The­atri­cal adap­ta­tions of well known sto­ries and folk­tales as well as orig­i­nal plays are enhanced by beau­ti­ful art. The illus­tra­tions, by sev­eral His­panic artists, sug­gest cos­tumes, props and stage designs to help on the stag­ing of the play

• Rat-a-Tat Cat | Teatro del gato Garabato
• Roll ‘n Role | Teatrín de don Crispín
• Top Hat | Esce­nario de Polichinela
• Cur­tains Up | Teatro de doña Rosita

Lan­guage Series Gate­ways to the Sun

These frac­tured fairy tales books bring new twists to the lives of well-loved char­ac­ters from sto­ry­books. They pro­vide ample oppor­tu­ni­ties for lan­guage devel­op­ment as they use diverse forms of language.

• One, Two, Three… Who Can It Be? | Uno, dos, tres. ¡Dime, quién es?
• A New Home for the Seven Lit­tle Kids | El nuevo hogar de los siete cabritos
• Happy Birth­day, Lit­tle Red Rid­ing Hood | ¡Feliz cumpleaños, Cape­rucita Roja!
• A New Job for Pérez, the Mouse | Ratoncito Pérez, cartero

His­panic Lands Series Gate­ways to the Sun

Three over­size books on the rich­ness and diver­sity of the Spanish-speaking coun­tries of the Amer­i­cas. The poetic, but highly infor­ma­tive text, brings atten­tion to the extra­or­di­nary achieve­ment of the indige­nous peo­ple. The strik­ing illus­tra­tions are care­fully designed by Mae­stro Felipe Dáva­los. They offer ample infor­ma­tion to sup­port and enrich the text that reflects on the responses of human groups to the chal­lenges of their envi­ron­ment, and empha­size respect towards diver­sity, envi­ron­men­tal and eco­log­i­cal aware­ness, com­mu­nity involve­ment, and appre­ci­a­tion for education.

• The Quetzal’s Jour­ney | El vuelo del quetzal
• On the Wings of the Con­dor | En alas del cóndor
• Eyes of the Jaguar | Ojos del jaguar

READERS’ RESPONSES

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