Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Tejas Star Book Award Winner

René Colato Laínez



Congratulations to Xavier Garza! His bilingual book Juan and the Chupacabras/ Juan y el Chupacabras (Piñata Books) won the 2007 Tejas Star Book award.

This is the description of the book:

A suspenseful and entertaining bilingual picture book for children

“The beast had dark green skin and glowing red eyes that were the size of two baseballs,” Abuelo tells his wide-eyed grandchildren. According to Abuelo, a creature called the Chupacabras lurks in the fields looking for fresh victims.

Young Juan and his cousin Luz savor Abuelo’s hair-raising stories. He tells the children of defeating terrifying fiends like the Chupacabras and La Llorona. The children cling to every word as he describes his brave stand-off with the Chupacabras, a terrifying beast with wings, claws and sharp fangs.

But yet they wonder if there’s more to his strange story than meets the eye. Plucky Luz hatches a plan to either disprove Abuelo’s tale or hunt down the menacing monster and put an end to it once and for all. Armed with a bag of marbles dipped in holy water and a sling shot, the children venture into a cornfield one moonless night in search of the truth.

Just like Chupacabras’s thirst for blood and the children’s appetite for Abuelo’s stories, young readers aged 3-7 will devour the pages of this exciting picture book that transmits the storytelling traditions of the Mexican-American community from one generation to the next.


The 2007 Tejas Star Book Award finalists are:

*Ay, luna, luna, lunita by Yanitzia Cannetti. Illustrated by Angeles Peinador.
*El enmascarado de lata by Vivian Mansour
*Little Crow to the Rescue/ El cuervito al rescate by Victor Villaseñor. Illustrated by Felipe Ugalde alcántara.
*Lover Boy/ Juanito el cariñoso by Lee Merrill Byrd. Illustrated by Francisco Delgado.
*Playing Lotería/ El juego de la lotería by me :) René Colato Laínez. Illustrated by Jill Arena.
*Spoon for Every Bite/Una Cuchara Para Cada Bocado by Joe Hayes. Illustrated by Rebecca Leer.
*
The Ruiz Street Kids/Los Muchachos de la Calle Ruiz by Diane G. Bertrand.


....And the nominees for the 2008 Tejas Star Book Award are:


Andricaín, Sergio (Comp). (2008). Arco Iris de Poesía: Poemas de las Américas y España. New York: Lectorum [Scholastic]. Olga Cuellar (Illus.) ISBN: 1930332599


Argueta, Jorge. (2006). La fiesta de las tortillas/The Fiesta of the Tortillas. Miami: Alfaguara [Santillana]. María Jesús Álvarez (Illus.) ISBN: 1598200941


Brown, Mónica. (2007). Butterflies on Carmen Street/Mariposas en la calle Carmen. Houston: Piñata Books [Arte Público]. April Ward (Illus.) ISBN: 9781558854840


Colato Laínez, René. (2005). I am René, the Boy/Soy René, el Niño. Houston: Piñata Books [Arte Público]. Fabiola Graullera Ramírez (Illus). ISBN: 1558853782


Cuenca, Héctor. (2008). La cucarachita Martina. New York: Lectorum [Scholastic]. ISBN: 1933032367


Garza, Xavier. (2005). Lucha Libre: The Man in the Silver Mask: A Bilingual Cuento. Piñata Books [Arte Público]. ISBN: 093831792X (Hardback)


Lázaro, Georgina. (2007). Juana Inés. Cuando los grandes eran pequeños. New York: Lectorum [Scholastic]. Bruno González Preza (Illus.) ISBN: 1930332572


Pérez, Amada Irma. (2007). Nana’s Big Surprise/Nana, ¡Qué Sorpresa! San Francisco, Calfornia: Children’s Book Press. Maya Christina González (Illus.) ISBN 0892391901


Romeu, Emma. (2007). El rey de las octavas. New York: Lectorum [Scholastic]. Enrique S. Moreiro (Illus.) ISBN: 193303226X


Ruiz-Flores, Lupe. (2007). The Woodcutter’s Gift/El regalo del leñador. Houston: Piñata Books [Arte Público]. Elaine Jerome (Illus.) ISBN: 9781558854895


Tafolla, Carmen and Sharyll Teneyuca. (2008). That’s Not Fair! Emma Tenayuca’s Struggle for Justice/¡No es Justo! La lucha de Emma Tenayuca por la justicia. San Antonio, Texas: Wings Press. Terry Ybañez (Illus.) ISBN: 9780916727338


Zepeda, Gwendolyn. (2008). Growing up with Tamales/Los Tamales de Ana. Houston: Piñata Books [Arte Público]. April Ward (Illus.) ISBN: 9781558854932


Great Event at the University of Arizona!

Today at 5:00 PM.

For more info click on the image to enlarge.



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