The 2019 L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program

The 2019 L4LL Summer Reading Program is now live and available in the L4LL TpT store. 

If you're looking for a summer reading program created by Latinas for Latino children, this one really is remarkable. It has undergone a lot of changes as we have strived to find the best way to make the program accessible to families and educators.

The program includes tons of printable materials and culturally-based activities for your children to do on a variety of themes. Take a look...

Our free BASIC Summer Reading Program 

This consists of printable resources to help your kids have fun reading in English or Spanish during the summer. It contains:

• Our 2019 Summer Reading Lists
• Reading passport
• Reading logs
• Bookmarks
• Postcards
• Pledges
• Certificate of completion

You pick the materials that best suit your family’s/student’s needs.

Each year, we update our Summer Reading Lists to include new titles. You’ll only find Latino children’s literature on our lists as we strive to highlight this small – but important! – genre by Hispanic authors and illustrators. Choose books from our suggested 2019 reading lists of Latino children’s literature, or pick your own. Our program is easy, flexible, and fun!

ALL of the activity pages are available in English and Spanish.

Our Summer Reading CAMP 

This is a 10-week DIY Summer Reading Camp with culturally-based activities to develop reading and writing skills. It is for children ages 6 to 12 years old and includes more than 100 activity sheets designed to boost literacy skills over the summer break, as well as additional tools for educators and students. The program also includes original reading passages and illustrations by Latino children’s authors Alma Flor Ada, F. Isabel Campoy, René Colato Laínez, and Lulu Delacre.

Each week covers a different theme:

1. Art/Arte
2. Family/Familia
3. Folklore/Folclore
4. Food/Comida
5. Immigration & Heritage/Inmigración y herencia
6. Music/Música
7. Nature/Naturaleza
8. Poetry/Poesía
9. Sports/Deportes
10. Summer/Verano

You can now buy the individual themes or save 10% when you buy the complete CAMP!

Again, all the activities are available in English and Spanish.

Head over to the L4LL TpT shop to download your copies!

Happy reading!

The 2018 L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program

Did you know that May is Bilingual Literacy Month?

So it is with extreme pleasure that I can share that the 2018 L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program is now live!

Five years ago, my business partner Viviana Hurtado, Ph.D. and I launched the first national online summer reading program for Latino families. Our goal was to support literacy among Latino children, who consistently come in last when it comes to literacy.

Our mission has been to raise literacy rates through pedagogically sound, culturally relevant content, and technology is rooted in our belief that all educational and professional achievement, as well as economic empowerment, rests on the mastery of basic reading skills.

The program has changed a lot over the course of these five years as we strived to find the right way to make it accessible to families and educators. And, in fact, Viviana and I stepped back from it for the last year or so as she started a new job and I managed my pregnancy, move to Texas, caring for my mother, and the birth of my baby. But we knew that we had a really great program, and we are happy to say that we think we have found the best way to bring it to bilingual families and educators. All of our reading programs are now available as direct downloads from both our newly updated website and our new TpT store. 

We have three programs available.

Our free BASIC Summer Reading Program 

This consists of printable resources to help your kids have fun reading in English or Spanish during the summer. It contains:

• Our 2018 Summer Reading Lists
• Reading passport
• Reading logs
• Bookmarks
• Postcards
• Pledges
• Certificate of completion

You pick the materials that best suit your family’s/student’s needs.

Each year, we update our Summer Reading Lists to include new titles. You’ll only find Latino children’s literature on our lists as we strive to highlight this small – but important! – genre by Hispanic authors and illustrators. Choose books from our suggested 2018 reading lists of Latino children’s literature, or pick your own. Our program is easy, flexible, and fun!

ALL of the activity pages are available in English and Spanish.

Our Summer Reading CAMP 

This is a 10-week DIY Summer Reading Camp with culturally-based activities to develop reading and writing skills. It is for children ages 6 to 12 years old and includes more than 100 activity sheets designed to boost literacy skills over the summer break, as well as additional tools for educators and students. The program also includes original reading passages and illustrations by Latino children’s authors Alma Flor Ada, F. Isabel Campoy, René Colato Laínez, and Lulu Delacre.

Each week covers a different theme:

1. Art/Arte
2. Family/Familia
3. Folklore/Folclore
4. Food/Comida
5. Immigration & Heritage/Inmigración y herencia
6. Music/Música
7. Nature/Naturaleza
8. Poetry/Poesía
9. Sports/Deportes
10. Summer/Verano

You can now buy the individual themes or save 10% when you buy the complete CAMP!

Again, all the activities are available in English and Spanish.

The L4LL Latino Children’s Year-Round Program 

For those of you who really enjoy our Summer Reading CAMP and want to use it during the school year, this extension is for you!

We’ve created three additional themes for educators who would like to use our CAMP during the school year. These three themes are:

1. Holidays & Traditions/Fiestas y tradiciones
2. Famous Latinos/Latinos famosos
3. Seasons/Estaciones

The third theme, Seasons/Estaciones, is meant to replace the Summer/Verano theme in our Summer Reading CAMP.  This then gives you an additional 75 pages and a total of 12 full weeks of materials to complete over the course of the semester or year. You decide your time frame, we supply the base materials.

Like our CAMP, these themes contain culturally-relevant literacy activities to boost your students’ reading and writing skills. You’ll also receive reading suggestions relevant to each theme.


If you want to learn more about what activities are found in each theme, visit our website's shop or our new TpT store!

Oh, and YES! We're participating in TpT's sitewide sale in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, so if you take a look there, you'll find all of our products on sale up to 25%!

The 2017 L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program - FREE!

Hi, Friends!

A few years ago, a friend and I created the first online national summer reading program for Latino children. Since then, the L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program has grown tremendously. But we've listened to your feedback and are in the process of making changes.

However, this year's free summer reading program is still live! You can now download all of our summer reading materials for free from the Latinas for Latino Lit website.

The downloads are available in English and Spanish - you choose which materials best suit your needs. They include our annual summer reading lists, pledges, summer reading logs, reading passport, postcards, bookmarks, and a certificate of achievement.

It's designed to be flexible to allow you to implement it in your home, school or library program in a way that works best for you.

Be on the lookout for our other reading program materials, which will also be made available soon.

Happy reading!!

L4LL's Remarkable Latino Children's Books of 2015

As we head into one of my favorite holidays tomorrow, I just wanted to share with you all this year's list of Remarkable Latino Children's Literature by Latinas for Latino Lit.

I'm certainly thankful for all the inspirational Latino authors and illustrators who work so hard to make sure that our children's can see their own families and lives reflected in the books they read. I have so many books sitting here by my desk awaiting reviews. And the diversity that they portray is astounding.

This holiday season, I hope that you will consider giving a child in your life, one of these remarkable books. This list is just a starting point as there are many titles that were published not only this year, but over the last 15 or so that are worth sharing with our children. You can download the entire list here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

L4LL's Summer Lunchtime Hangouts with Latino Authors

This summer, Latinas for Latino Lit hosted a series of Google hangouts with Latino authors. These authors are the voices of our cultures and their stories are the reflection of our children's experiences. They play a critical role in motivating and inspiring our kids to embrace their heritage and to strive to make their dreams a reality.

The last lunchtime hangout took place this afternoon at lunch, and so I thought that just in case you missed any of them, that I would share them all here. If you enjoy these videos and learning about the books and life stories of these authors, be sure to check out the L4LL You Tube channel which contains many curated videos specifically on the topic of Latino children's literature and literacy.

Enjoy!

The Latino Children's Summer Reading Program Is Open!

Dear Familia, thank you so much for staying with me this past month as I practically abandoned this blog while I concentrated my full attention on the L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program. It is with the greatest relief that I announce that our new and improved program is officially open!

Check out our new English and Spanish websites. If you haven't registered yet, please do so. Your kids can win great prizes this summer such as Chromebooks, Google Play gift cards, school supplies, and books from publisher Lee & Low to help your family start a home library.

We have two (2!) FREE programs this year:

First is our basic Summer Reading Program for kids 0 - 18 years old. Yes, we absolutely know that most kids under 4 can't read very well on their own. But parents with children under 4 (yes, even newborns!) can register and pledge to read to their children over the summer (and we hope, year round). This program includes access to our 2015 Summer Reading Lists featuring Latino children's literature titles, printable and online reading logs, and many other printable materials.

I'm most excited about our Summer Reading CAMP for kids 6 - 12 years old. I've agonized over this curriculum for the past two years and this year, it includes contributions from some of my favorite Latino children's authors and illustrators. Alma Flor Ada, F. Isabel Campoy, René Colato Laínez, and Lulu Delacre have be wonderful supporters of Latinas for Latino Lit and our programs for Latino children's literacy from the very beginning. I'm looking forward to working with additional authors and illustrators in the years to come.

The CAMP has lots of fantastic reading passages, poems, and other activities to boost your child's literacy skills during this critical time in their academic life. We have crafts, drawing activities, storytelling projects, and so much more.

I really hope that all of you will take advantage of the program this summer and use it to build your children's literacy skills.

I must end this post with a sincere, heartfelt thank you to Google for believing in our program. From the very beginning two years ago, they've provided endless support to make the Latino Children's Summer Reading Program possible.

Have questions? Join us today 6/1/2015 at 12p EST Watch our quick hangout on our YouTube channel for our live program overview and new features, including this year's digitized, mobile-friendly program. Click on our Facebook or our Google+ pages to navigate to our hangout.

So what are you waiting for? Go and register today!

Early Registration for the 2015 #L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program Opens!

I am SO excited to announce that early registration for the L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program has officially opened!

Over the last two summers, we've listened carefully to your feedback and this year's program reflects your requests.

First, thanks to our underwriters, we're pleased to announce that the entire program is FREE for both families and groups.

Second, you're going to love our new, family-friendly website! Once you register, parents and even children can login to our site on June 1st to access both of our summer reading programs. Here's a brief description of the two and how they differ:

Third, you can officially save the titles of the eight books your child reads (or that you read to your child) over the course of the summer as he or she reads them with our new easy, online reading log.

As in both previous years, both programs are available in English and Spanish, and all of the materials have been updated.

Now the absolute BEST part is our online Summer Reading Camp. Designed for children in 2nd through 6th grade, it includes so many wonderful literacy boosting activities, including original work by Latina authors and illustrators! Your students can explore 10 themes: Art, Music, Sports, Folklore, Food, Summer, Nature, Heritage & Immigration, Family, and Poetry. Infused with culture, each one comes with a reading passage and games or activities that strengthen reading and writing skills, as well as additional reading recommendations to fit each theme.

I can't wait to share some snapshots of the camp with you, but will have to wait until we're closer to June 1st.


And did I mention that this year's program is open to GROUPS for FREE, too?

Educators: Once you register your group, you'll receive a Group Number that you can share with your students. When they sign up with your number, we'll be able to track them in our system and send you monthly reports on how your students are progressing over the summer.

Parents: Need help nudging your child's school to participate? Download and share our flyer with them!

So what are you waiting for? Head over to our new L4LL Summer Reading website and register your family or group!

Margarita Engle for the 2015 L4LL Dia Blog Hop

It is my greatest pleasure, once again, to be one of the hosts of the L4LL Día Blog Hop! As a co-founder of Latinas for Latino Lit, supporting Latino children's literacy remains one of my biggest passions. I especially love it when I can feature one of the Latino authors or illustrators who create the magical books that reflect the Latino experience for our children. 

This year's Día Blog Hop runs today through Thursday, April 30th. Each day three different authors or illustrators are featured on three different Latina blogs. I hope you'll follow along! You can find the complete schedule here. 

So without further ado, I'm pleased to introduce poet Margarita Engle writing on this year's theme of "immersion" on behalf of Latino children's literacy.

photo courtesy of Amish Karanjit

IMMERSED IN MEMORIES, WONDER, AND HOPE

Immigrants and refugees are often subject to a unique state of mind called añoranza. It is a form of tristealegría, the sad-happy nostalgia of feeling wrapped in music, feasting, and joy, while mourning the distance that separates loved ones. The children of immigrants may inherit only a slim corner of that world of memory, a corner passed on through stories. Without inherited memories, we don’t know who we are, or where our ancestors originated. By the time añoranza reaches my U.S.-born generation, it bursts with curiosity and wishes.

Writing my childhood memoir required total immersion in a devastating past. Enchanted Air (Atheneum, August, 2015) is the true story of my travels back and forth to Cuba during the revolution and Cold War. Remembering was a privilege, but it was also excruciatingly painful. I cried while writing, and I will cry while reading out loud at conferences. Somehow, at the same time, it is a truly hopeful book. The subtitle Two Cultures, Two Wings was born from the magic of travel. Family visits allowed me to know and love my abuelita, bisabuela, tíos, and primos. Travel gave me the gift of connection and the treasure of compassion. Travel immersed me in tropical nature, Cuban culture, Spanish poetry, and the grief of an enormous before and after that chopped my family in half. The Missile Crisis. Severed diplomatic relations. Loss. More than half a century of hostility between my two countries of origin. During my teen years, it was easier for an American citizen to walk on the moon than to visit relatives in Cuba.

Amazingly, exactly one week before I received advanced review copies of Enchanted Air, President Obama announced the first glimmer of hope for renewed diplomatic relations with Cuba. Irrationally, I felt like my immersion in memories had served as a silent prayer, even though the little book of poems was not yet published, and could never reach the ears of anyone influential enough to determine foreign policy. More realistically, I will acknowledge that writing Enchanted Air has served as a bridge between my childhood and adulthood. With enthusiasm for all bridges between cultures, I dedicated it to the estimated ten million people who are currently stateless as the result of conflicts all over the world. I hope that young readers will read my memories as a plea for peace.

----------------------------------

Margarita Engle is the Cuban-American author of many young adult verse novels about the island, including THE SURRENDER TREE, which received the first Newbery Honor ever awarded to a Latino, and THE LIGHTNING DREAMER, recipient of the 2014 PEN USA Award. Other honors include multiple Pura Belpré and Américas Awards, as well as Jane Addams, International Reading Association, Claudia Lewis, International Latino, and MANA Las Primeras Awards. Books for younger children include MOUNTAIN DOG, SUMMER BIRDS, ORANGUTANKA, DRUM DREAM GIRL, and THE SKY PAINTER.

Margarita grew up in Los Angeles, but developed a deep attachment to her mother’s homeland during summers with her extended family in Cuba. ENCHANTED AIR, Two Cultures, Two Wings (Atheneum, August, 2015) is a verse memoir about those childhood visits.

Margarita was trained as a botanist and agronomist before becoming a full-time poet and novelist. She lives in central California, where she enjoys hiding in the wilderness to help train her husband’s search and rescue dogs.

Free Download: L4LL DIY Summer Reading Camp in Spanish and English

I already shared this on my MM Facebook page, but I'm delighted to announce that the translator is finished and did an amazing job (Thank you, Lorraine!), and the files have been officially uploaded! Our L4LL DIY Summer Reading Camp is officially available in English AND SPANISH!

Who can download it?

Freemium subscribers: If you signed up for our basic, free summer reading program, you should be able to purchase the individual weeks (there's 10 weeks of 100+ activity pages divided into 10 themes) for $6. Check your emails on Monday for the link to the Spanish files.

Premium subscribers: If you already purchased the premium membership for $50 and are using the English version, just check your Accounts page to pull up the Spanish files and download them to your computer. (Don't forget, you save $10 when you buy the Premium subscription, and $15 when you use my coupon code - mm1410 - only for MommyMaestra readers!)

What does it include?

TEN weeks of activity pages to strengthen your child's literacy skills in English and/or Spanish. More than 100 printable pages are divided into 10 themes: Folklore, Sports, Art, Poetry, Immigration & Heritage, Nature, Summer, Music, Food, and Familia. I designed all of these with my own children in mind: I wanted to focus on fun while building their literacy skills.

The first week is Folklore and my children have been busy doing the English version. We focused on a different activity each day over this past week. We started off reading The Bossy Gallito by Lucía González, since it is on the recommended reading list that comes with each theme (these titles are in addition to the ones on our Summer Reading Lists), then the kids colored in their Fairy Tale Bingo Cards and we laminated them for extra durability before we played a bunch of rounds.

Then they filled out the Fairy Tale Storyboard, where they drew scenes from six different tales. Check out my daughter's completed storyboard below. She included both Ratoncito Perez, Cucarachita Martina, and Señor Gato (I don't really remember his story, but she said it was from another book by Lucía González).

Next it was time to make our own storytelling cards. My kids are big drawers, so they made a list of random items: people, places, things. Then drew them out.

They did a few more activities and ended the week learning the difference between folklore and fairy tales.

The L4LL blog is also posting additional resources such as videos and craft tutorials each week to complement that week's theme. This past Wednesday we shared an awesome video about Latino Folk Tales.

Free Download

Because I know you'd want to sample a page before you purchase anything, I have a free printable for you to enjoy. This freebie has the English and Spanish version. I had SUCH a hard time deciding what to offer you because there are so many awesome activities, but in the end I figured one of the cover pages would be best because every themed file has one at the beginning and it gives you an idea of what types of activities are included in the pack. Each week's activity pack comes with approximately 10 activity pages for your child to complete over the course of the week. 

Click here to download your sample page

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

L4LL's 2014 Latino Children's Summer Reading Program Opens

I've been neglecting this blog lately. And the truth is that it is because I've been working almost non-stop on this year's L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program.

And I'm SO PLEASED to announce that registration opens today!

Like last year, you can subscribe to the program for free and download our 2014 Reading Lists featuring Latino children's literature titles written by and about Latinos. And you can also download our free summer reading kits that include a pledge to read, reading logs, and a certificate of achievement to recognize your child's reading efforts over the summer. And yes, they are still available in English AND Spanish.

But this year we have added an exciting new element to the program. Our Premium Subscription gives your family access to our new DIY Summer Reading Camp that includes more than 100 printable activities to boost your child's literacy skills. Designed for children in 2nd through 6th grade, the 100 printables are divided into 10 engaging themes, such as Art, Music, Sports, and many others. These 10 themes are meant to cover our 10-week summer reading program. Each week, your family can explore a different theme together and try a different activity each day. While parental guidance and participation is encouraged, it is not required for children who are reading at grade level. All of the themed camps include additional reading recommendations for Latino children's literature related to each theme. And all of them are full of culturally-based crafts and activities.

UPDATE: A SPANISH version of all these printables now available! You can purchase the individual files each week for only $6 through your free subscription, or just get them all at once with a Premium subscription.

Additionally, if you are concerned about the materials meeting educational benchmarks, you might be happy to know that all of the 10 themes are Common Core aligned.

If you don't care about Common Core, then you can rest assured you don't have to worry about it. ALL of the printables were designed with children (my own!) in mind FIRST and created to be engaging and FUN while helping to develop literacy skills. There is a modest fee of $50 for the Premium subscription. This one time payment covers the entire summer and gives access to every printable in our summer reading program. That equals $5 a week.

However, MommyMaestra readers get 10% off the cost of a Premium Subscription. Just enter the coupon code mm1410 when you checkout.

While the L4LL Latino Children's Summer Reading Program officially runs from June 1st to August 10th, you can head over there today, subscribe and receive immediate access to our program downloads so you can start preparing for June 1st.

ALL subscribers (both those who subscribe to our Freemium and Premium subscriptions) can take part in our summer reading program and all of those subscribed families who submit a list of 8 books that your child(ren) read over the summer are automatically entered to win great prizes, such as free school supplies, Nexus tablets, Google Play gift cards and more.

So head on over to Latinas4LatinoLit.org and sign up today!

Latino Authors Read Aloud for Día de los Niños

Opportunity alert! As a co-founder of Latinas for Latino Lit (L4LL), I'm super proud to share with you this great opportunity for families and educators. Over at L4LL, we've partnered with Qlovi to bring you live readings by Latino authors during an all-day virtual event. 

Next Wednesday on Día de los Niños, from 9 am to 5 pm ET, eight magnificent Latino authors will go online to read aloud one or two of their own titles. And YOU can sign up to watch for FREE! In addition, you'll have the opportunity to submit questions during the event.

Go here to see the schedule and sign up for one, two, or ALL EIGHT read alouds. We hope to see you there!

L4LL Announces 2nd Annual Día Blog Hop

I have been very slow to post on MommyMaestra lately. And here is just one of the reasons: Today, Latinas for Latino Lit (of which I am a co-founder with my partner Viviana Hurtado) is announcing our 2nd annual Día Blog Hop!

Two dozen (24!!!) Latino authors and/or illustrators have been paired with 24 Latina bloggers, and all of them have enthusiastically agreed once again to support Latino children's literacy. Each day, beginning April 6th, a different blog will host a different author/illustrator on their site. The article they've submitted are moving and passionate, sharing with all of us a glimpse into their lives and what motivates them to write for children.

You can find the complete schedule here on the L4LL website. I hope you'll follow along. Here on MommyMaestra, I'll be hosting author Amy Costales next Monday, April 7th.

The Día Blog Hop will end on April 30th (Día de los Niños, Día de los Libros) with a special announcement.

Gracias to all the authors, illustrators, and bloggers for supporting Latino children's literacy!

Experience Colors Without Using Sight On L4LL

How do you describe colors to a person who cannot see? I absolutely love the idea of the book, The Black Book of Colors, which does exactly that and introduces children to the concept of blindness. I love that this book helps children understand and experience if only briefly what it is like to live without the sense of sight and how to use other senses to describe things. If we are to raise global children, we must not only expose our children to different cultures, but to different lifestyles and abilities within our own.

So I'm excited to share that Latinas for Latino Lit has partnered with Zoobean to giveaway not just one, but THREE copies of The Black Book of Colors! This is a weekend giveaway that ends Monday night, so head over there right away and enter to win your own copy!

The book was also originally written in Spanish by the Venezuelan author, Rosana Faria, and if you go over to the L4LL website, you'll find some free downloadable reading guides to accompany the book in both English AND Spanish.

This is an awesome opportunity, Amigas! Enjoy!

Get Latino Teens Reading

In case you missed it, yesterday Latinas 4 Latino Literature announce the Young Adult Challege portion of their Latino Children's Summer Reading Program. To motivate teens to read this summer, they're giving away 10 Chromebooks and 10 Nexus 7 tablets donated by the summer reading program's naming sponsor, Google.

To be eligible to win, the teens must read 8 books over the summer and submit a video book review on one Latino (children's) literature title that they've read. Easy, no?

So if you know or have a child between the ages of 12 and 18, it's time to get them reading!

Learn more here.