Pat Mora's Blog, page 93

Día in North Carolina

Our interview today is with Lori Special, Youth Services Consultant for the State Library of North Carolina. Lori is a fantastic Día supporter and she incorporates information about Día into her regional workshops about summer reading and other topics.



1. Why are you offering sessions about Día and "best practices" during regional workshops throughout the state?
The Youth Services staff member in the public libraries in our state are very responsive to the needs of the members of their commun...

A New Día Champion

In March, to recognize her impressive work to promote Día throughout the state of NM, we highlighted Flo Trujillo of Farmington, New Mexico as our first Día champion featured on this blog. I have the good fortune to meet committed Día supporters all over the country. As the year ends, I'd like to recognize Ana Schmitt, who in typical Ana style, insisted that any recognition needed to go to their LIBROS staff at Multnomah County Library, winners of the 2002 Mora Award. Ana and her colleagues...

Mora Award Winner, San Francisco PL, Pt. 2

We're continuing our interview with Barbara VanderBorght at the San Francisco PL, one of the winners of the 2009 Mora Award.


4. Tell us about some of your plans to celebrate Día in April 2010.
This coming year, for the first time, all of the Día events, including the big citywide celebration on the last Sunday in April, will be held at the Library. We are very excited about this opportunity to welcome many of our Dolores Park Día participants to the Main Library. Unlike many Día celebrations,...

Interviews with the 2009 Mora Award Winners

Today, we're sharing the first part of an interview with Barbara VanderBorght, Children's Programing Specialist at the San Francisco Public Library. The library was one of two winners of the 2009 Mora Award, which recognized their exemplary programing for El día de los niños/El día de los libros, Children's Day/Book Day.


1. How did you feel when you heard you were one of the 2009 winners?
I was, of course, quite thrilled to hear that we had won the award. I am one of a small group of people ...

Bravo to the Chicago Public Library!

How fortunate I felt to participate in CPL's annual book festival Book-A-Mania. Kudos to Bernadette Nowakowski who began the event for families fifteen years ago in 1994. Bernie said the celebration has grown in wondrous ways thanks to a dedicated and enthusiastic staff, city support, volunteers and the assistance of diverse funders including Target. This year's art was based on Book Fiesta illustrated by the talented Rafael López. As children participated in all kinds of activities, they wer...

Mora Award Winner, San Francisco PL

recognizing their exemplary programing for El día de los niños/El día de los libros, Children's Day/Book Day.

Mora Award Winner, Topeka & Shawnee Cty., Part 2

We're continuing our interview with Judy Rohr at the Topeka & Shawnee County PL (KS), one of the winners of the 2009 Mora Award.

You can make this happen!

4. What advice would you give to a library planning a Día event for the first time?
Start out with a small agenda. Perhaps set up an activity session where you can involve children in literacy activities. Have a puppet show, a bilingual storytime, a few bilingual games or art projects. And of course, offer ideas about reading to your children...

Interviews with the 2009 Mora Award Winners

Two public libraries won this year's Mora Award, recognizing their exemplary programing for El día de los niños/El día de los libros, Children's Day/Book Day. The libraries are San Francisco Public Library, CA and Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, KS. Congratulations to these libraries and and to all the libraries who applied for the award and who celebrated Día!
We're especially pleased that the winners of the 2009 Mora  Award gave us their time for brief interviews, telling us and y...

My Private Light Show

On October 25, I happened to be awake and ambulatory at 5:30 a.m. Not a usual occurrence. Gazing out the window toward the East, I saw the black sky and a large, roundish star, looking like a Christmas ornament above the soft Santa Fe hills. Curious, I looked at the star with binoculars. Wow! The light from the star became a thin, white streak of looping and zipping light. At first, I thought that perhaps I wasn't holding the binoculars steadily, but then I reasoned that the hills weren't...

November is Family Literacy Month

We found out from the Children's Literacy Round-Up that November 1 is National Family Literacy Day and the celebration continues through the month of November. There are some great free resources available from the National Center for Family Literacy and other organizations such as Read Write Think.

Don't forget to check Pat's Dia pages on her website for more ideas on how to celebrate literacy every day.