Children’s Book Recognized with Two Awards
HOUSTON, TX June, 2014—The Patchwork Garden / Pedacitos de huerto by Diane de Anda with illustrations by Oksana Kemarskaya has been recognized with a Skipping Stones Honor Award from Skipping Stones: An International Multicultural Magazine. Only 22 titles were selected to receive this year’s awards. It was also one of ten titles to be named an Honor Book in the 2014 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People from The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College.
Founded in 1988, Skipping Stones is a timely and timeless award-winning resource in multicultural and global education. It welcomes art and original writings in every language and from all ages.
The mission of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College is to provide poetry events and workshops to a diverse audience and to provide opportunities for poets through contests, awards, a journal, anthologies, reference materials and conferences. Its mission is to promote poets and poetry and to bring poetry to a wider and more diverse audience throughout the United States and the world.
In author Diane de Anda’s colorful picture book, a young girl inspires her neighbors to create community gardens full of delicious vegetables. Brightly hued illustrations depict a cityscape full of multiple generations working towards a common goal in this inspiring bilingual book. According to Kirkus Reviews, “its positive message of collaboration and cooperation is enhanced by gouache paintings that cheerily depict a recognizably Latino neighborhood.”
Diane De Anda is the author of three bilingual picture books for children, A Day without Sugar / Un día sin azúcar (Piñata Books, 2012), Kikirikí / Quiquiriquí (Piñata Books, 2004) and Dancing Miranda / Baila, Miranda, baila (Piñata Books, 2001), and three collections of short fiction for young readers, The Monster in the Mattress and Other Stories / El monstruo en el colchón y otros cuentos (Piñata Books, 2011), The Ice Dove and Other Stories (Piñata Books, 1997) and The Immortal Rooster and Other Stories (Piñata Books, 1999). A professor at UCLA for almost 30 years, she is the author of numerous articles and non-fiction books. She lives and works in Southern California.
Oksana Kemarskaya, a native of Ukraine, has illustrated numerous books for children, including Planet Earth Projects (Dover Publications, 2011), The Legend of the Vampire (Picture Window Books, 2010) and The Secret Lives of Plants! (Capstone Press, 2012). She lives and works in Canada.
Arte Público Press is the nation’s largest and most established publisher of contemporary and recovered literature by U.S. Hispanic authors. Its imprint for children and young adults, Piñata Books, is dedicated to the realistic and authentic portrayal of the themes, languages, characters, and customs of Hispanic culture in the United States. Based at the University of Houston, Arte Público Press, Piñata Books and the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage project provide the most widely recognized and extensive showcase for Hispanic literary arts and creativity.