Jennifer Crow, curator of the Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s Literature, and Dr. Larissa Mercado-López, professor of women’s studies, will give a presentation on the many attributes of Latino literature for young people. “De Colores: A Mosaic of Latino Children’s Literature” will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25, at the Henry Madden Library (Room 2206) at Fresno State.
Crow and Mercado-López will explore themes in Latino children’s literature and put them in context with themes and theories related to social justice, ethnic studies and feminism. The pair will also discuss recent statistics on published materials by Latino authors gathered yearly by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the need for increased inclusion of Latino literature in our libraries and classrooms.
To enhance the discussion, Crow and Mercado-López will provide samples of works that best illustrate the Latino/a experience. Examples will include prize-winning books that have received the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award, the Américas Book Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature and the Pura Belpré Award.
The latter award, co-sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, and the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking, is presented each year to both a Latino and Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms and celebrates the Latino cultural experience.
The talk is sponsored by “Latino Americans: 500 Years of History,” a grant funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. It is part of a National Endowment for the Humanities initiative, “The Common Good: The Humanities in the Public Square.”
The Arne Nixon Center, a research collection of children’s and young adult literature and a department of the Madden Library, houses over 60,000 books and related materials. The collection is multicultural and international in nature and supports a large number of Spanish and English bilingual books as well as books written by and about Latinos. The center owns over 2,200 books in Spanish from around the Spanish-speaking world.
The event is free and open to the public. Parking is restricted. Please obtain a permit from a parking kiosk.
For more information, visit www.library.fresnostate.edu or contact Crow at 559.278.8116 or jcrow@csufresno.edu.
For information about disability accommodations or physical access, call 559.278.5792.
