Dream Wakers: Mentor Texts That Celebrate Latino Culture

Writing workshop guru Culham showcases 116 diverse mentor texts within her well-established framework of the "6+1" writing traits. She uses the analogy of guests at a dinner party to explain the importance and interdependence of ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and convention—her six traits of wonderful writers—and has compiled a well-curated compendium of recent and classic picture books about Latino culture(s) by (mostly) Latino authors and illustrators. There are few chapter books; a fifth of the materials are nonfiction. Culham offers a short synopsis of each title and a unique writing (or otherwise creative) extension activity. Readers will appreciate interviews with seasoned writers, including Alma Flor Ada and Duncan Tonatiuh, and new authors such as Monica Brown, who speak about their journeys and the need for Latino voices in children's literature. There is an informative introduction on diversity in literature, and the appendix sheds light on Culham's selection process and explains her criteria, developed by experts such as Jamie Naidoo and Louise Derman-Sparks. There is also a handy chart for identifying the type of book (bilingual, English with Spanish words, English only), the highlighted trait, and the genre.