Culturally-Relevant Picture Books for Mexican ...

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partner-reading picture books. In one group ... PICTURE BOOK FOR MEXICAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS .... tural customs of cooking with chiles, burning incense.
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Culturally-Relevant Picture Books for Mexican-American Children GAYLA S. LOHFINK, KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Recently, as a researcher in an elementary classroom, I observed third graders partner-reading picture books. In one group, Juana Maria and Adriana (pseudonyms), both Mexican-American girls, were talking about Amada Psrez's My Diary from Here to There/Mi diario de aquf hasta alld (2002) when Juana Maria called out, "It's just like me!" She went on to explain that she had moved to the same places Amada P6rez wrote about in her book. Juana Maria appeared awestruck that a writer's experiences could mirror her own life -seeing her experiences reflected in a picture book was truly unique and special. Juana Maria and Adriana are members of the largest, ethnic-racial population of Hispanic or Latino/as (Hispanic or Latino/as is the identifying label used by the U.S. Census) in America (United States Census Bureau, 2008b). The girls are also members of the largest group of Hispanic/Latinos - Mexican-Americans residing in the United States: 64% of Hispanic/Latinos originated in Mexico. Furthermore, Juana Maria and Adriana's families, like approximately 30 million other Hispanic/Latinos, have reported Spanish as the primary language spoken at home (United States Census Bureau, 2008a). Juana Maria and Adriana reflect the growing cultural and linguistic diversity of Mexican and Mexican-American students in American classrooms. To ensure that these girls have equitable literacy opportunities, the teacher must respond appropriately in order for them to succeed academically. Responding appropriately requires that educators develop and implement culturally-responsive language arts curricula and instructional practices (Ladson-Billings, 1995). To respond to the needs of Juana Maria, Adriana, and the other Mexican and Mexican-American students in 34

our elementary classrooms, I propose a more concerted integration of culturally-relevant children's literature within the language arts curriculum. Two premises for this emphasis include (1) research indicating that culturally-relevant teaching has positive effects on the academic achievement of ethnically diverse students and (2) research reflecting the positive literacy connections that readers/viewers develop as they see themselves in children's literature. According to Gay (2002), when academic content is situated within and connected to the lived experiences and frames of references of our elementary students, the academic knowledge and skills of the curriculum are "more personally meaningful, have higher interest appeal, and are learned more easily and thoroughly" (p. 106). Gay argues that the culturally-responsive teacher uses the "cultural characteristics, experiences, and perspectives of ethnically diverse students as conduits for teaching" (p. 106). Culturally-relevant children's literature provides a pedagogical bridge which allows Mexican and/or Mexican-American students to connect their background experiences of home and family, language, and culture to the school setting. While culture encompasses many complex characteristics and ways of thinking, Gay advocates that teachers develop a knowledge base of an ethnic group's cultural values through learning its traditions, communication, learning styles, contributions, and relational patterns. As Galda (1998) observed, children's literary texts may act as mirrors for children to see themselves and their Journal of Children's Literature v35 n2

Culturally Relevant Picture Books

cultures reflected. Just as Juana Maria exclaimed, "It's just like me!" a children's book can provide a literacy connection -a bridge to learning. Giving access to multicultural children's literature, books that help to contextualize the Mexican and/or MexicanAmerican child's diverse perspectives, is one way that a culturally- responsive educator meets his/her diverse students' literacy needs. EXAMPLE OF A CULTURALLY-RELEVANT PICTURE BOOK FOR MEXICAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS

An example of a culturally-relevant children's book for a Mexican-American student is Nana's Big Surprisel Nana iquý sorpresa! by Amada P6rez (2007). In this bilingual story, P6rez shares a fictionalized account of memories of Nana (her grandmother) coming from Mexicali to stay with her family in California after the death of Nana's husband, Tata (her grandfather). To comfort their grandmother, P6rez and her brothers decide that Nana will mourn less if she is involved in the raising of chickens. This intergenerational tale of love and grieving reflects poignantly the Mexican cultural importance of family, and particularly the value placed on extended family. In sharing this story from her childhood, P6rez explains that she hopes to promote multicultural understanding by depicting the cultural strength of Mexican families. Growing up as a Mexican immigrant in the United States, she had neither books that related to her Mexican life nor books written in Spanish to read (Pereira, 2007). Because this children's book is written in a dual-language format, with Spanish and English parallel texts on each page layout, the Mexican-American child is able to connect linguistically to the picture book. Like this picture book, culturally-relevant children's literature offers diverse elementary students opportunities to connect to real and imagined characters' languages, problems, and settings by relating aesthetically to their lives and identities. IMPACT OF CULTURALLY-RELEVANT BOOKS WITHIN THE CURRICULUM UPON MEXICAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS

When the culturally-responsive teacher uses an instructional strategy, such as purposely integrating children's literature reflective of Mexican-American children's backgrounds into the school curriculum, Villegas and Lucas (2007) assert that the teacher shows an Journal of Children's Literature v35 n2

affirming perspective of cultural diversity to students.

By providing materials relevant linguistically and culturally to students' diverse backgrounds, Villegas and Lucas explain that the teacher helps "students from

non-dominant groups [like the Mexican-American students]" believe in themselves as "capable learners"

(p. 32) for they now have access to the curriculum. Rudine Sims Bishop clarifies that self-esteem develops from a number of sources, not the least of which is the social context in which children grow up, including the context beyond family and community. As a part of

the social and scholastic context, literature can contribute to the development of self-esteem by holding up to its readers images of themselves.... (1997, p. 4) Because of the extent to which a sense of self-worth is tied to school achievement, a teacher's connecting of the curriculum through books that relate to a Mexican-American child's Spanish language and Mexican culture may ultimately facilitate that elementary child's growth in reading development. Indeed, Gay (2002) offers research showing how culturally-relevant examples of teaching ethnic literature have impacted

diverse students' academic achievement positively. THEORETICAL FRAMES

At least three theoretical frames provide relatedness for including Mexican-American children's literature in the school curriculum: (1) key propositions of effective pedagogy relative to culturally-responsive practices; (2) importance of prior knowledge or schema theory in terms of readers' comprehension of text; and (3) experiential reader response theory which focuses upon not only the reader's making of meaning but also the transactions between readers and literary texts. In grounding her theory of culturally-relevant pedagogy, Ladson-Billings (1995) determined key propositions for effective teaching of ethnically diverse students. Culturally-responsive instruction reflects the educator's cultural knowledge base, pedagogical actions, and determination of curricula and practices that build upon students' knowledge and experiences. Risko and Walker-Dalhouse (2007) argue that literacy instruction must begin with texts that elicit students' connections, feelings, and interpretations. 35

Lohfink In fact, Anderson (1994) observed that readers' comprehension was affected by their familiarity with topics, objects, and events described in a text. By activating schemata, or prior knowledge, Carrell (1987) found that culturally-familiar content affected students' reading comprehension positively. Students of Muslim and Catholic/Spanish backgrounds comprehended familiar content better than unfamiliar content. Fitzgerald (1995) reviewed ten similar studies involving culturally-familiar and culturallyunfamiliar passages of similar linguistic difficulty and concluded that students' comprehension was higher for the culturally-familiar text. Silva (2006) argues that texts become interesting when the reader moves beyond the textual features into "deep processing" by elaborating the text's meaning and connecting "its ideas to personal experience and prior knowledge" (p. 69). Louise Rosenblatt (1978), the premier articulator of experiential reader response theory, would agree that the reader engages with a text by bringing personal knowledge, ideas, and beliefs to the meaning-making process. The nature of how readers interact with a text evolves dynamically in that meaning happens or comes into being during the transaction between reader and text. To illustrate, Brooks (2006) observed that African-American children actively used cultural knowledge, experiences, and African-American textual features to develop literacy understandings. Eighth graders responded to textual features in African-American children's novels by relating to characters, metaphors, plot patterns, theme, conflict, and the author's intention. Interestingly, Rice (2005), too, noted how sixth graders' socio-cultural backgrounds influenced their interpretations of Hispanic-American stories, although she concluded that the "cultural maps" of the White, mid-to-high-socioeconomic-status participants interfered with their understanding of the short stories by Gary Soto (p. 346). Even though the participants read "multicultural stories with universal themes," their responses showed that they were unable to "vicariously experience the depicted culture" (pp. 356-357). While Brooks's (2006) and Rice's (2005) studies with older elementary students' reflect more complex cultural responses than younger children may exhibit, the students' engagement with the multicultural literature exposes how readers' understandings are shaped by their particular cultural conditions. 36

CULTURALLY-RELEVANT PICTURE

BOOKS

FOR MEXICAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS

Directions from such theoretical frames support a culturally-responsive elementary educator's purposeful inclusion of culturally-relevant children's literature within the school curriculum. To investigate the availability of culturally-relevant picture books for Mexican-American students in the language arts classroom, I first reviewed literature relating the history and current status of Mexican-American children's books in America. Nilsson's (2005) synthesis of research of Mexican-American children's literature published from 1966 to 2003 concluded that while the numbers of children's books published for Mexican-American children have increased, the statistics are still not proportionate to the increasing number of Mexican Americans who comprise the United States population. Primary publishers of Mexican-American children's books included Children's Book Press of California, Pifiata Books (an imprint of Arte Pfiblico of Texas), and Cinco Puntos Press of El Paso, Texas. SELECTION PROCESS IN CONSIDERING A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MEXICAN-AMERICAN CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOKS

After determining the limited number of children's books in local libraries, I turned to children's literature textbooks and several Internet resources as a means of locating and examining quality children's books for Mexican-American elementary students (See Figure 1). Because I work with pre-service teachers and elementary teachers who teach primarily kindergarten through grade four, I decided to focus my search exclusively on picture books. Criteria I considered included (1) highquality texts and illustrations that reflected Mexican and Mexican-American cultures, (2) picture books written and/or illustrated by Mexican and Mexican-American authors and illustrators, (3) dual language formats of Spanish and English in the texts, and (4) recent publications of various genres of children's literature. In seeking children's literature with which elementary students could engage, I began my selection process with picture books recognized for their literary quality. Websites associated with awards established for quality Mexican and Mexican-American literature post the titles of award-winning fiction and nonfiction yearly. I viewed recent selections for the Tom6s Rivera Mexican-American Children's Book Award and the Journal of Children's Literature v35 n2

Culturally Relevant Picture Books

Figure 1. Resources for Locating Mexican and Mexican-American Children's Literature

"* Americas Book Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature httpV//www4.uwm.edu/clacs/aa/index.cfm "• Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents http.//warw.csusm.edu/csb/ " Children's Literature Comprehensive Database http.//www.childrenslit.com/ " Hancock, M. R. (2008). A Celebration of Literatureand Response (3' ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall. "* Harris, V. J. (1997). UsingMultiethnic Literaturein the K-8 Classroom. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon. "* Schon, I. (2004). Recommended Books in Spanishfor Children and Young Adults 2000-2004. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. " Tomrs Rivera Mexican-American Children's Book Award httpl//www.riverabookaward.info/?t=anon

Americas Book Award for Children and Young Adult Literature. To further investigate aggregated literary elements of these recognized picture books, I accessed the Children's Literature Comprehensive Database. This source of information presented literary specialists' reviews and recommendations as well as each book's interest and readability levels and publisher information. To determine if a selected picture book might serve as a potential text for responsive teachers to purposefully integrate into their language arts curriculum, I then purchased many children's books for Mexican and Mexican-American students that appeared to be of high quality.

Costales' (2007) Abuelita Full of Life/Abuelita liena de vida and determined the storyline of Jos6's abuelita (grandmother) coming to live with Jos6 (little boy) and his family to be believable -different generations often do live in one household (in Mexican-American families as well as other American families). In the story, Abuelita's move brings about changes in Jos6's life- some of which are not particularly liked by Jos6. But the changes also elicit Jos6's awareness of special gifts his grandmother brings to the family, like the cultural customs of cooking with chiles, burning incense at the altar, and listening to Mexican music on the radio. I considered the repetitive text of "Jose's grandma is already old when she comes to live with him and his family" as language appropriate for young children and developing readers. Moreover, the dual-language format showing both the Spanish and English translations of text helps to "bridge" the English Language Learner's entry into English texts. The illustrations are detailed and support the lively image expected of Jos6's grandmother; she appears as "too old to keep up with Jos6 on his bike," but "quick enough to chase the ice-cream man." By using this literary characteristic of contrasting the image of old age with liveliness, Costales' message of the celebration of life is conveyed to her readers. Ultimately, I determined that the storyline reflected cultural aspects of Mexican-American children's backgrounds, particularly in its emphasis on the importance of family and valuing of old age. Moreover, the well-written, bilingual text reflected linguistic connections that Mexican-American children can engage with and relate to aesthetically. ASPECTS OF MEXICAN AND MEXICAN-AMERICAN CULTURAL CONNECTIONS REFLECTED IN PICTURE BOOKS

ENGAGING STORIES THAT CONNECT TO MEXICAN-AMERICAN ELEMENTARY STUDENTS' CULTURAL BACKGROUNDS

While relying on the literary recognition of the picture books as well as positive reviews and recommendations of specialists in the field of children's literature as primary indicators in the selection process, I additionally considered suggestions from NathensonMejia and Escamilla (2003) and personally examined each picture book in terms of its (1) strong, engaging storyline, (2) well-written language appropriate for elementary children, and (3) illustrations which matched and supported the storyline. To illustrate, I reviewed Journal of Children's Literature v35 n2

In examining the quality of each multicultural picture book, I regarded how the story and illustrations reflected Mexican and Mexican-American cultures authentically. To do this, I relied upon Gay's (2002) definition of culture and studied the literary selection in terms of how a picture book reflected the dimensions of her definition: the values, traditions, communication, contributions, and relational patterns of Mexican and/or Mexican-Americans. In authenticating these dimensions of culture, I relied upon "insider" (Hancock, 2008, p. 183) authors and illustrators to present realistic, cultural experiences children could relate to .37

Lohfink personally. As an example, Juan Felipe Herrera's (2000) The Upside Down Boy/El nifio de cabeza conveys the story of Juanito, a young boy who enters school feeling disoriented and often "upside down" as he makes sense of his new life in the city. In school, Juanito searches for understanding of English words and American school routines but finds that when he jumps up, "everyone sits," and when he sits, "all the kids swing through the air." The picture storybook captures the ups and downs of moving for migrant children and relates to a child's journey of finding oneself. Gonzalez-Jensen (1997) argues that because of Herrera's ethnic and cultural background, his writings allow readers the opportunity to "identify culturally with a story, setting, or character in a piece of literature" (p. 204). To show cultural responsiveness to Mexican-American elementary students, therefore, the picture books I finally selected reflect authors and/or illustrators who are ethnically and culturally connected to Mexico. I viewed translations of English picture books with dominant-culture content as just that and chose children's books which reflected Mexican and/or Mexican-American authors and/or illustrators only. To be more specific, I considered how the story settings, plots, and illustrations reflected varying dimensions of Mexican and Mexican-American cultures. To illustrate a selection showing folklore, Yuyi Morales' (2008) Just in Case: A Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book highlights numerous Mexican cultural traditions, particularly in the Spanish alphabet depicted and the picture book artwork. This tale is a sequel to Morales' (2003) Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book, in which Grandma Beetle tricks Sehor Galavera (Death) by refusing to accompany him until she has everything prepared for her birthday party. In Just in Case, a year has passed and Sehor Galavera is eagerly anticipating another one of Grandma Beetle's birthday parties. On the way to her party, however, he is stopped by Zelmiro the Ghost, who reminds him that he needs a present for Grandma Beetle. So, Sefior Galavera embarks upon a search for the best present, with each gift he collects corresponding to a letter of the Spanish alphabet, beginning with "un acorde6n." While Zelmiro praises each gift chosen by Sehor Galavera for Grandma Beetle, he continually wonders if the gift is what "Grandma Beetle would love the most" and then suggests that Sehor Galavera look again, "just in 38

case." In the picture book, Morales reflects the folklore of Mexico by her portrayal of characters like Sehor Galavera - a Mexican representation of Death - through her illustrations rich in vibrant and warm colors, and by her use of language patterns often found in folk stories. By emphasizing Spanish vocabulary to illustrate the letters of the alphabet, Morales further connects to the culture of Mexico and the native language of many Mexican-American students. Because of the importance of the Spanish language as a cultural dimension, I considered varying formats reflecting the dual languages of Spanish and English as I reviewed picture books for Mexican-American elementary children. One format is the aforementioned bilingual text, in which both English and Spanish languages are presented as parallel texts within the picture book. To explain more specifically, Brown's (2007) Butterflies on Carmen Street/Mariposasen la calle Carmen shows separate translations on each page layout of the developing storyline of Julianita, an elementary school child. These separate texts in Spanish and English illustrate Julianita, as she learns about Monarch butterflies from her teacher, Ms. Rodriguez, and her grandfather, who grew up in MichoacAin, Mexico, the location of where Monarch butterflies from the Unites States spend their winters. Another bilingual format, like that found in Pat Mora's (2008) Abuelos, inter-linguals the use of Spanish within the English text (or visa versa) and picture book format. Such code-switching "alternates the use of two languages at the word, phrase, clause, or sentence level as the two languages help to tell stories, identify speakers, and define social roles" (Hancock, 2007, p. 83). Susan Middleton Elya and Merry Banks (2007) also alternate Spanish and English languages in their alphabet book, N is for Navidad, as they describe Mexican customs and traditions in preparation of the Christmas season. This picture book offers another dual-language format in the form of a glossary and pronunciation guide of the Spanish words included in the English text. Finally, books like Hip, Hip, Hooray, It's Monsoon Day!/Ajaa, ya lleg6 el chubasco! (Rivera-Ashford, 2007) and Tales our Abulelitas Told (Campoy & Ada, 2006), are published as separate editions of Spanish and English picture books, thereby demonstrating an additional bilingual format for Mexican-American elementary students to engage with and read. Journal of Children's Literature v35 n2

Culturally Relevant Picture Books

Figure 2. Selected bibliography of Mexican and/or Mexican-American children's picture books for elementary children Criteria for picture books selected: * Recognized for literary quality * Authored and/or illustrated by Mexican or MexicanAmerican author/artist * Reflects Mexican or Mexican-American cultures * Reflects both Spanish and English languages in varying formats * Reflects interest and/or readability levels for elementary grades * Published recently Anthologies Campoy, F I., &Ada, A. F. (2006). Tales our Abuelitas told/ Cuentos que contaban nuestrasabuelas. New York: Simon & Schuster/Atheneum.

P6rez, A. I. (2007). Nana's big surprise/Nana,lque sorpresa! San Francisco: Children's Book Press. Ruiz-Flores, L. (2007). The woodcutter'sgift/El regalo del lefiador. Illus. E. Jerome. Houston: Pifiata Books. Sdenz, B. A. (2008). A perfect seasonfor dreaming/Un tiempo perfecto para sofiar.Illus. E. Valencia. [Trans. by L. Humberto]. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press. Zepeda. G. (2008). Growing up with tamales/Los tamales de Ana. Illus. A. Ward. [Trans. by G. Baeza]. Houston: Pifiata Books.

"

Nonfiction Rivera-Ashford, R. C. (2007). Hip, hip, hooray, it's monsoon day!/Ajga, ya lleg6 el chubasco! Illus. R. Johnsen. Tucson, AZ: Sonora Desert Museum Press.

"

Biogjaphy Bertrand, D. G. (2007). Ricardo'srace/La carrerade Ricardo. Illus. A. Accardo. Houston: Pifiata Books. Tafolla, C., & Teneyuca, S. (2008). That's notfair! Emma Tenayuca's strugglefor justice/iNoes justo! La lucha de Emma Tenayuca por la justicia. Illus. T. Ybdfiez. San Antonio: Wings Press.

"* Folklore Anaya, R. (2007). The first tortilla. Illus. A. C6rdova. [Trans. by E. Lamadrid]. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. Mora, P. (2008). Abuelos. Illus. A. Carling. Berkley, CA: Groundwood Books. Morales, Y.(2008). Just in case:A trickster tale and Spanish alphabet book. New York: Roaring Brook Press.

" Fiction Brown, M. (2007). Butterlies on Carmen Street/Mariposasen la calle Carmen. Illus. A. Ward. Houston: Pifiata Books. Costales, A. (2007). Abuelitafull of life/Abuelita llena de vida. Illus. M. Aviless. Flagstaff, AZ: Luna Rising. Elya, S. M., & Banks, M. (2007). N isfor Navidad. Illus. J. Cepeda. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. Herrera, J. F (2000). The upside down boy/El nifio de cabeza. San Francisco: Children's Book Press. RECENT PUBLICATIONS OF VARIOUS GENRES OF PICTURE BOOKS REFLECTIVE OF MEXICAN AND MEXICAN-AMERICAN CULTURAL CONNECTIONS

In seeking authentic Mexican and MexicanAmerican cultural representations in the picture books, I only considered children's literature published since 2000. Because of recent trends - due in part to an increase in Mexican-American authors writing children's literature and the establishment of literary awards recognizing Latino writers for their literary works-Lynch-Brown and Tomlinson (2005) argue that the quality of Latino (including Cuban Americans, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and others of Spanish descent) children's books have improved since the 1990s. Nilsson's (2005) meta-analysis reported specific improvements in the authentic depictions of Mexican-American characters in recent years, as these Journal of Children's Literature v35 n2

Ada, A. F., & Campoy, F. I. (2007). Merry Navidad!Villancicosen espafiol e inglis/Christmascarols in Spanish and English. Illus. V. EscrivA. New York: Rayo/ Harpercollins. Alarc6n, F. X. (2007). Animal poems of the Iguaza/Animalariodel Iguaz4. Illus. M. Gonzalez. San Francisco: Children's Book Press.

newer children's books reflected a noticeable mirroring of contemporary demographics. Most of the books I selected for this bibliography were published in the past two or three years. In viewing these recent publications, I examined how both fiction and nonfiction literary selections reflected cultural connections to Mexican-American elementary students. While, as Nilsson (2005) concluded, many of the picture books I studied were fiction, I did determine quality picture books reflective of the genres of poetry, nonfiction, and biography. For example, Alarc6n's (2008) poetry collection of Animal Poems of the IguazWlAnimalario del Iguazfi shows separate English and Spanish translations of each poem, warmly illustrated, presented side-by-side. Alarc6n's words paint images of the "green voice of the rainforest," as he reminds his readers that the Earth's fate is dependent 39

Lohfink

upon our protecting the wonders of the plants, animals, waters, and skies in rainforests. Maya Christina Gonzalez uses eye-catching illustrations to build upon Alarc6n's "wonder" poems. Similarly, Richard Johnsen captures the natural colors of the landscape of the U.S. Southwest in his illustrations of Rivera-Ashford's (2007) history of San Juan's Day in Hip, Hip, Hooray, It's Monsoon Day!/Ajta, ya lleg6 el chubasco! Johnsen vividly depicts the story of the celebration in his illustrations, but Rivera-Ashford adds to the content of the historical event by presenting information about monsoons, the tradition of San Juan's Day, as well as plants and animals discussed in the book. Biographies of such persons as Ricardo Romo, President of the University of Texas, and Emma Tenayuca, an advocate for the rights of Mexican-American farm workers in the 1930s and 1940s, are realistically portrayed in the picture books, Ricardo's Race by Diane Gonzales Bertrand (2007) and That's Not Fair!Emma Tenayuca's Strugglefi)r JusticeliNo Es Justo!La lucha de Emma Tenayuca por la justiciaby Carmen Tafolla and Sharyll Teneyuca (2008). Both biographies show the authentic struggles of these well-known Mexican-American persons as children and how they persevered to achieve their goals. While numerous picture books were reviewed and could have been selected, the following bibliography of multicultural picture books for Mexican-American children reflects many of the most recent publications. This compilation of literary selections relates culturally and linguistically to elementary students and can be a valuable resource for the culturally-responsive teacher who is seeking to purposely integrate the language arts curriculum with children's literature reflective of Mexican-American students' backgrounds (See Figure 2.) CONCLUSION

The elementary educator can easily and purposely integrate literature within the language arts curriculum and impact literacy development, whether s/he has two Mexican-American students or 20 in the classroom. As a guest reader with limited knowledge of the children's backgrounds, I was confronted with a classroom of elementary students, of which five students were Mexican Americans. My introduction to the shared reading of the picture book, Dofia Flor (Mora, 2005), produced immediate engaged responses from these Mexican-American students. One student 40

exclaimed, "I moved here from Mexico," and two more shared, "I speak Spanish." Two of the Mexican-American students sitting in the back of class group scooted to the front of the group, and then all eagerly interacted in the read aloud by providing Spanish translations of specific vocabulary. Because of the story's strong plot and the nature of the collaborative read aloud, the other students in the group maintained engagement as well. Shouldn't other Mexican-American children have similar opportunities to see themselves and their lives mirrored in children's books and be able to exclaim, "It's just like me!"? By becoming responsive to the cultural and linguistic needs of Mexican-American students, elementary teachers facilitate these students' connecting of background experiences and language to the curriculum. Relevant associations build Mexican-American students' valuing of books and learning as well as their joy of reading. By being culturally responsive, the elementary educator becomes a "good comadre" as Canales (2005) explains in The Tequila Worm, someone who makes people into family. This educator recognizes that diversity enhances learning for all students and that building relationships among students creates community. REFERENCES Anderson, R. C. (1994). Role of reader's schemata in comprehension, learning, and memory. In R. B. Ruddell, M. R. Ruddell ,& H. Singer (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (pp. 469-482). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Bishop, R. S. (1997). Selecting literature for a multicultural curriculum. In V. J. Harris (Ed.), Using nultiethnicliteraturein the K-8 classroom (pp. 1-19). Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon. Brooks, W. (2006). Reading representations of themselves: Urban youth use culture and African American textual features to develop literacy understandings. Reading Research Quarterly,47(3), 372-392. Carrell, P. (1987). Content and formal schemata in ESL reading. TESOL Quarterly, 21(3), 461-481. Fitzgerald, J. (1995). English-as-a-second language learners' cognitive reading processes: A review of research in the Unites States. Review of Educational Research, 65, 145-190. Galda, L. (1998). Mirrors and windows: Reading as transformation. In T. E. Raphael, & K. 1I. Au (Eds.), Literature-basedinstruction:Reshaping the curriculum. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon. Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2), 106-116. Gonzalez-Jensen, M. (1997). The status of children's fiction literature written in Spanish by U.S. authors. Bilingual Research Journal, 21(2/3), 203-212. Hancock, M. R. (2008). A celebrationof literatureand response (3r' ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall. Hancock, M. R. (2007). Language arts: Extending the possibilities. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.

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Culturally Relevant Picture Books Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal,32(3), 465-491. Lynch-Brown, C., & Tomlinson, C. M. (2005). Essentials of children's literature (5h ed.). Boston: Pearson Education. Nathenson-Mejia, S., & Escamilla, K. (2003). Connecting with Latino children: Bridging cultural gaps with children's literature. Bilingual Research Journal,27(1), 101-116. Nilsson, N. L. (2005). How does Hispanic portrayal in children's books measure up after 40 years? The answer is "It depends." The Reading Teacher, 58(6), 534-548. Pereira, A. (2007). Interview with author Amada Irma Perez. Retrieved April 11, 2009 from http://www.papertigers.org/interviews/archived interviews/aperez.html. Rice, P. (2005). It "ain't" always so: Sixth graders' interpretations of Hispanic-American stories with universal themes. Children's Literature in Education, 36(4), 343-362. Risko, V. J., & Walker-Dalhouse, D. (2007). Tapping students' cultural funds of knowledge to address the achievement gap. The Reading Teacher, 61(1), 98-100. Rosenblatt, L. M. (1978). The reader, the text, the poem: The transactional theory of the literary work. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. Silva, P. (2006). Exploring the psychology of interest. New York: Oxford University Press. United States Census Bureau, 2008a. Hispanic origin population. Retrieved July 1, 2008 from http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/011910.html. United States Census Bureau, 2008b. Selected social characteristics in the United States: 2006. Retrieved July 1, 2008 from http://factfinder.census.gov/. Villegas, A. M., & Lucas, T. (2007). The culturally responsive teacher. Educational Leadership, 64(6), 28-33. CHILDREN'S BOOKS CITED Alarc6n, F. X. (2007). Animal poems of the IguazWi/Animalario del Iguazu. Illus. M. Gonzalez. San Francisco: Children's Book Press.

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Bertrand, D. G. (2007). Ricardo's race/La carrerade Ricardo. Illus. A. Accardo. Houston: Pifiata Books. Brown, M. (2007). Butterflies on Carmen Street/Mariposasen la calle Carmen. Illus. A. Ward. Houston: Pifiata Books. Campoy, F. I., & Ada. A. F. (2006). Tales our Abuelitas told/Cuentos que contaban nuestrasabuelas. New York: Simon & Schuster/ Atheneum. Canales, V. (2005). The tequila worm. New York: Wendy Lamb Books. Costales, A. (2007). AbuelitaMfull of life/Abuelita llena de vida. Illus. M. Avil6s. Flagstaff, AZ: Luna Rising. Elya, S. M., & Banks, M. (2007). N is for Navidad. Illus. J. Cepeda. San Francisco: Chronicle. Herrera, J. F. (2000). The upside down boy/El nihio de cabeza. San Francisco: Children's Book Press. Mora, P. (2008). Abuelos. Illus. A. Carling. Berkley, CA: Groundwood Books. Mora, P. (2005). Dofia Flor:A tall tale about a giant woman with a great big heart. Illus. R. Colon. New York: Knopf. Morales, Y. (2003). Just a minute: A trickster tale and counting book. San Francisco: Chronicle. Morales, Y.(2008). just in case: A trickster tale and Spanish alphabetbook. New York: Roaring Brook Press. P6rez, A. 1. (2007). Nana's big surprise/Nana,ique sorpresa! Illus. M. C. Gonzalez. San Francisco: Children's Book Press. P6rez, A. I. (2002). My diaryfrom here to therelMi diario de aqui hasta alUd. Illus. M. C. Gonzalez. San Francisco: Children's Book Press. Rivera-Ashford, R. C. (2007). Hip, hip, hooray, it's monsoon day!l/Ajaa, ya lleg6 el chubasco! Illus. R. Johnsen. Tucson, AZ: Sonora Desert Museum Press. Tafolla, C., & Teneyuca, S. (2008). That's not fair! Emma Tenayuca's struggleforjustice/iNoes justo! La lucha de Emma Tenayuca por la justicia. Illus. T. YbAfiez. San Antonio: Wings Press. Gayla S. Lohfink is a Project Coordinator/Instructor for the Equity and Access Partnershipat Kansas State University.She has taught undergraduateand graduate literacy education courses and is currently involved with a federal program to address the state and nationalneeds of HispanicAmerican students and English Language Learners.

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TITLE: Culturally-Relevant Picture Books for Mexican-American Children SOURCE: J Child Lit 35 no2 Fall 2009 The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of this article and it is reproduced with permission. Further reproduction of this article in violation of the copyright is prohibited. To contact the publisher: http://www.uta.edu/soe/CLA/index.html