Globe-trotting authors Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy have donated more than 2,000 rare children’s books from their personal collections to the Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at California State University, Fresno.

The books date from the 1950s to the 1980s and include nearly 200 titles written by one or both authors.

Flor was born in Cuba to a family of storytellers. Her first books were published in Peru, where she earned a Ph.D. Later she became a Radcliffe Scholar at Harvard and a Fulbright Research Scholar.

She is professor emerita at the University of San Francisco, where she founded a master’s degree program in children’s literature and directed a doctoral program in multicultural education. Many of her students wrote dissertations focused on children’s literature.

Campoy was born in Spain. This poet and playwright has published more than 100 books for children in both English and Spanish. She obtained her degree in philology at University Complutense of Madrid, an M.A. in Reading, England, and was a Fulbright Research Scholar at UCLA while completing her Ph.D.

Many of her books explore Hispanic folklore and interpret Spanish culture to children around the world.

The authors have won many awards for their books and their humanitarian efforts.

Both are donating their papers to the Arne Nixon Center, which is housed within the Henry Madden Library. The authors have pledged their unique collections of children’s books, too.

This first donation consists of 752 books from Spain, 283 from Argentina, 194 from Mexico, and 119 from the USA. Other books are from Africa, the Middle East, the Pacific, the former Soviet Union, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico and Uruguay.

Most are in Spanish; some are bilingual editions.

The authors will be featured at the conference of the International Board on Books for Young People, to be hosted by the Arne Nixon Center on campus Oct. 21-23. The conference theme is “Peace the World together with Children’s Books.”

For more information, contact Angelica Carpenter at the Nixon Center, 559.278.8116 or angelica@csufresno.edu.

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