Based on a traditional folksong that has been sung by parents and children in Spanish-speaking countries for generations, Canta, Rana, canta / Sing, Froggie, Sing is a charming tale in which a “frog was sitting under the water, when she decided to croak out loud.” But a fly came along and “hushed her mouth.” When the fly decided to buzz out loud, “along came a spider and hushed her mouth.” In each verse, an insect or animal larger than the one in the previous stanza hushes the smaller one. So the fly hushes the frog, the spider hushes the fly, the mouse the spider, the cat the mouse and so on. The book’s cumulative structure encourages kids to practice their memorization skills while becoming familiar with animals and the sounds they make. This bilingual edition includes an updated version of the original Spanish, a first-ever English translation, and the musical …

El día de los niños and libros celebration kicks off at library’s Discovery Green branch Do you know“bookjoy”? It’s a love of reading! And on Saturday, April 20, from noon – 2:00 at the Houston Public Library Express-Discovery Green branch, bookjoy and music will fill the air as “Día at Discovery,” a celebration of El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day), gets underway with acclaimed children’s author Monica Brown—best known for her biographies on Latin greats such as Celia Cruz and Gabriel García Márquez—and director and founder of Arte Público Press Nicolás Kanellos, as they present stories and folk songs for families at Discovery Green park (1500 McKinney). Kanellos will also be on hand for remarks at a City of Houston City Council meeting on Tuesday, April 16, for a Mayoral Proclamation, sponsored by Council Member Melissa Noriega, honoring Houston Public Library and Arte Público’s …

Zepeda chosen as April 2013’s “Author of the Month” on Houston Public Media Houston Public Media radio host Eric Ladau interviewed Zepeda for its website’s “Arte Público Press Author of the Month” feature, and along with the transcript, their conversation is available to listeners on the station’s interactive site through on-demand audio streaming here. Click here to see all Arte Público authors featured on Houston Public Media. About the Author: Gwendolyn Zepeda is the author of I Kick the Ball / Pateo el balón (Piñata Books, 2011); Growing Up with Tamales / Los tamales de Ana (Piñata Books, 2008), a 2009 Charlotte Zolotow Award Highly Commended Title; and Sunflowers / Girasoles (Piñata Books, 2009), winner of the Texas Institute of Letters’ Austin Public Library Friends Foundation Award for Best Children’s Book. She lives and works in Houston, Texas. About her latest book, Level Up / Paso de nivel David is obsessed with reaching the next level …

Gaspar de Alba chosen as March 2013’s “Author of the Month” on Houston Public Media Houston Public Media radio host Eric Ladau interviewed Gaspar de Alba for its website’s “Arte Público Press Author of the Month” feature, and along with the transcript, their conversation is available to listeners on the station’s interactive site through on-demand audio streaming here. Click here to see all Arte Público authors featured on Houston Public Media. About the Author: ALICIA GASPAR DE ALBA is the author of various works of poetry, fiction and nonfiction, among them a Lambda Award-winning novel, Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders (Arte Público Press, 2005), a collection of poems and essays, La Llorona on the Longfellow Bridge: Poetry y Otras Movidas (Arte Público Press, 2003) and a historical novel, Sor Juana’s Second Dream (University of New Mexico Press, 1999). She is also the editor of Making a Killing: Femicide, Free Trade, and La Frontera (University …

Caraballo chosen as December 2012’s “Author of the Month” on KUHF Houston Public Radio KUHF radio host Eric Ladau interviewed Samuel Caraballo for its website’s “Arte Público Press Author of the Month” feature, and along with the transcript, their conversation is available to listeners on the station’s interactive site through on-demand audio streaming here. Click here to see all Arte Público authors featured on KUHF. About the Author: Samuel Caraballo was born in Vieques, a gorgeous, tiny island off the East Coast of Puerto Rico. He spent many of his childhood days playing in the countryside hills and picking mango and guavas, his favorite tropical fruits. He has served as an interpreter for the courts for cases involving Hispanics. He has also dedicated many years to teaching Spanish in several public schools in the United States. He presently lives in Virginia with his family. He loves painting, fishing, and writing …

ForeWord Reviews has announced its 2012 Book of the Year finalists, and The Land Grant by Carlos Cisneros made the cut in the Thriller and Suspense category. The Poet Upstairs by Judith Ortiz Cofer with illustrations by Oscar Ortiz was named a Children’s Picture Book finalist. ForeWord Reviews, a quarterly print journal established in 1998, is dedicated to exclusively reviewing independently published books to provide booksellers, librarians, agents, and publishing professionals with reviews of the best titles from small, alternative and academic presses. Representing more than 700 publishers, the finalists were selected from 1300 entries in 62 categories. ForeWord’s Book of the Year Awards program was created to highlight the year’s most distinguished books from independent publishers. Award winners are chosen by librarians and booksellers. Carlos Cisneros’s The Land Grant picks up where his acclaimed debut novel, The Case Runner, left off. Attorney Alejandro Del Fuerte is asked to take …

Humanities Texas Presents a Radio Broadcast Dedicated to the Life of Jovita González Born in 1904 on her grandparents’ ranch in Roma, Texas, pioneering folklorist and educator Jovita González felt a deep commitment to the people and culture of South Texas. While attending The University of Texas in Austin, González met J. Frank Dobie, who encouraged her to begin writing for folklore publications. She soon began traveling throughout Cameron, Starr, and Zapata counties, interviewing residents of the borderlands. González carried a letter of introduction from San Antonio’s archbishop and often knitted during her interviews, putting her subjects at ease. She captured the voices of ordinary Mexican Americans seeking to preserve their cultural traditions during a period of tumultuous change. In 1930, the same year she received her master’s degree in history, González became the first Mexican American president of the Texas Folklore Society. González was also a teacher. With her …

Many interviews and events are scheduled for the eight Latinas who through their new autobiographical collection have encouraged others to discover their own personal power The Women of 8 Ways to Say “I Love my Life!” are certainly busy. Beginning Friday, March 1, contributors Joanna Iliziliturri Diaz, Rita Mosqueda Marmolejo and Bel Hernandez Castillo will be interviewed by Elizabeth Espinosa for her show “Sin Límites” for CNN Latino in Los Angeles from 8-9 p.m. Also on March 1, AARP radio will be interviewing contributor Susan Orosco. Podcasts will be available online. Directly following these events, on March 2, the women of 8 Ways to Say “I Love My Life!”will be participating in an all-day workshop on surviving and thriving in a crabs-in-the-bucket mentality. The workshop is being held at Santa Monica College and they will be teaming up with The Latina Bible’s Sandra Guzman. Contributor Bel Hernandez Castillo will be …

In Hotel Juárez: Stories, Rooms and Loops—Daniel Chacón’s new collection of short and flash fiction—misconceptions about people, the responsibility of the artist and conflicts about identity pepper stories that take place in the U.S. and abroad. In one story, a girl remembers her father, who taught her to love books and libraries. “A book can whisper at you, call at you from the shelves. Sometimes a book can find you. Seek you out and ask you to come and play,” he told her. Years later, she finds herself pulling an assortment from the shelves, randomly reading passages from different books and entering into the landscapes as if each book were a wormhole. In “Mais, Je Suis Chicano,” a Mexican American living in Paris identifies himself as Chicano, rather than American. “It’s not my fault I was born on the U.S. side of the border,” he tells a French Moroccan woman …

With a foreword by renowned novelist Rolando Hinojosa and comprised of personal essays about the impact of drug violence on life and culture in the border region, Our Lost Border: Essays on Life amid the Narco Violence puts a human face on the news stories. Editors Sarah Cortez and Sergio Troncoso write that this anthology was “born of a vision to bear witness to how violence has shattered life on the border, to remember the past, but also to point to the possibilities of a better future.” Mexican authors Liliana Blum, Lolita Bosch, Diego Osorno and María Socorro Tabuenca write riveting, first-hand accounts about the clashes between the drug cartels and citizens’ attempts to resist the criminals. American authors focus on how the corruption and bloodshed have affected the bi-national and bi-cultural existence of families and individuals. Celestino Fernández and Jessie K. Finch write about the violence’s effect on musicians, …