Bloomington Public Library Saturday celebrated the magic of books and the wonders of bilingual education during Saturday's 8th Annual El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros celebration.
Guests enjoyed the magic of Jesus Rios and musical entertainment by Mike Anderson on the library patio. Children also enjoyed crafts, face painting by the Zoo Lady, visits with Dora the Explorer and other mascots, popcorn, and community services displays.
Each child received a goodie bag including a free book.
The Bloomington library in recent years has hosted bilingual story times and other events to highlight the benefit of dual Spanish and English language skills.
Here's a sample of the library's bilingual favorites:
Gossie, by Olivier Dunrea -- Gossie is a gosling who likes to wear bright red boots every day, no matter what she is doing, and so she is heartbroken the day the boots are missing and she can't find them anywhere.
Cool Salsa, by Lori Carlson and Oscar Hijuelos -- Poems celebrating Hispanic culture are the focus of this collection. Liberal sprinkling of Spanish words and phrases with some poems translated from one language to another make this an ideal anthology for both the English class and the bilingual ESL classroom. Topics for poems extend from hot dogs to learning English to the revolution in Nicaragua. What all of the selections have in common is the adolescent experience at the core of the poem.
Maximilian and The Mystery of the Guardian Angel, by Xavier Garza -- Eleven-year-old Maximilian, a big fan of the form of wrestling known as lucha libre, begins to suspect that he has a close connection with his favorite luchador, El Angel de La Guardia, the Guardian Angel.
Tractores Agricolas, by Matt Doeden -- Simple text and photographs describe farm tractors, their parts, and what they do--in both English and Spanish.
