Pat Mora's Blog, page 9

Celebrating the 2019 Mora Award Honor Winners

There were two Mora Honor Awards given this year to recognize literacy activities during the month of April in celebration of Children’s Day, Book Day; also known as El día de los niños, El día de los libros; or Día. The Mora Award is given annually by Pat and her sister, Stella Mora Henry, in partnership with First Book.

These two honor winners received $500 in credit to the First Book Marketplace: Andress High School Library in El Paso, TX and the Anaheim Central Library Children’s Room in...

Alive: September 2019

Each of the four seasons brings us memories. Some years back, I enjoyed writing haiku about the foods of the Americas in Yum! ¡Mmm! ¡Qué Rico! America’s Sproutings, illustrated by my talented friend Rafael López.

Autumn is often a season of counting our blessings including family, health, education and our beautiful planet. Each of our blessings makes us more alive and, ideally, prompts us to share what we’ve been given.

Pat

The post Alive: September 2019 appeared first on Pat Mora.

Congratulations to the 2019 Mora Award winners!

The Boys & Girls Clubs of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama have received the 2019 Estela and Raúl Mora Award, an honor given by Pat and her sister, Stella Mora Henry, in partnership with First Book. The award recognizes literacy activities during the month of April in celebration of Children’s Day, Book Day; also known as El día de los niños, El día de los libros; or Día. The Boys & Girls Clubs will receive a $1,000 credit for brand new books from the First Book Marketplace.

The Boys & Girls...

The Wonders of Water Everywhere: World Water Week

“Water fascinates me, pehaps because I’ve spent most of my life in the Southwest desert region of the United States. The sound of rain is welcome music on a dry and thirsty landscape. Creeks and rivers refresh desert dwellers, and lakes—so much water—seem a surprise. Lighting and downpours startle. Snow softens mountains, hills, cactuses, rocks.
—Pat, from the Author’s Note in Water Rolls, Water Rises/El agua rueda, el agua sube.

The last week in August is World Water Week, the annual focal po...

Teachers: Make Lasting Connections with Your Students

At this time of year, both students and teachers find themselves in classrooms with new faces. How do teachers cultivate their own and students’ creativity and foster new lasting connections? Here’s an excerpt from Zing! Seven Creativity Practices for Educators and Students, Pat’s book supporting inventive teaching.

“Educators are incredibly important people; you change lives. How do we make the necessary time, space, and support to guide a student to value her creativity? How do we see his i...

A Letter from Pat

Hi Girls and Boys,

I hope you enjoyed a good summer and that reading good books was part of the fun.

I feel so lucky to be a reader and to have public libraries I can visit. I also feel lucky that I can read in English and Spanish. Maybe you get your books at your school library. What kind of books do you like to read? What is your favorite time to read?

Who is the cute girl in this picture? She’s Bonny, my granddaughter who is six-years-old. I certainly can’t pick her up anymore, but we enjo...

Ode to El Paso

            Stubborn mountain,
rock anchor,
            you grew from cuentos carried at night
in the wind’s dry hands,
            seed pebbles
that became your wide-hipped,
unmovable contours, curves
where finches and secretive
            spiders nest.

            Poet of ancient seas
and baritone fossils,
            of trilobites and cephalopods,
lyric cantadora of horn corals,
            ammonites and crinoids,

            impatient, gray historian
lured by the whir of a pen,

         ...

Do you know Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz?

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was a 17th century nun who devoted her life to writing and learning and words. Though she died in 1695, Sor Juana Inés is still considered one of the most brilliant writers in Mexico’s history: her poetry is recited by schoolchildren throughout Mexico and is studied at schools and universities around the world.

Original cover

Pat’s story about the life of Sor Juana, A Library for Juana: The World of Sor Juana Inés , was first published in 2002, with illustrations by B...

Celebrate the Creativity of Teacher Graduates

Every year, brand-new teachers graduate and get ready to head into fall classrooms for the first time. Encourage them to cultivate their own creativity with ZING! Seven Creativity Practices for Educators & Students.

“Written as a series of seven letters to teachers, this useful, insightful and inviting book encourages teachers to rediscover their creative and artistic energy in order to become more impassioned educators.”–REFORMA newsletter

In this video, Pat explains how she hopes Zing! will...

Alive: May 2019

I hadn’t thought of this season that I wait for with great anticipation as a verb too, of course–to leap. The spring season does have plants springing up and leaves appearing. Blossoms too. Ah, even here in the New Mexico desert, the scent of lilacs, sweetens the breeze. Lilacs require that we be attentive since though lovely, like many spring flowers, lilacs don’t last long.

Neither do the huge pink peony buds, a neighbor’s amazing gift. I am mesmerized by the stunning beauty, how the huge,...