December 6th

Today is Saturday and I was able to take a little breather from the hectic schedule of last week. The weather warmed up a bit and now the Christmas lights are hanging in the front yard.

I spent some time today trying to collect children's books written in Spanish to send to my cousin in Argentina. He's working on coordinating a local book drive for the schools there. Local books stores carry a small selection of books written in Spanish. They are next to impossible to find in used book stores.

I ended up purchasing some old favorites in Spanish from Barnes and Noble. I had fun reading them in Spanish. They brought back many happy memories of reading to my own children many years ago. I went to Barnes and Noble because our middle school and high school were hosting a fundraiser there today and a percentage of all sales went to our school.

I think more books need to be published in Spanish and sold in the US. I did a bit of research on this and discovered The Children's Book Council has some things to say on this subject.

There is an ever-increasing number of Spanish-speaking children in the United States. Many of these children have Limited English Proficiency (LEP) and bilingual educators are constantly looking for Spanish or Bilingual books in a variety of subjects (and age levels) that will help these children step into reading.

There is also a large number of Spanish-speaking parents in the U.S. who want their children to maintain their Spanish-language skills. As a result, many Hispanic children in the United States, even those who are second and third generation, speak Spanish in the home and retain ties to their roots. Publishers can effectively respond to this market by making available the broadest possible selection of excellent children's books in Spanish.