Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds

A comprehensive professional development resource that centers on Latino children's literature and its inclusion and use in school settings. Divided into five parts and 16 chapters, the volume captures the significance of Latino children's books, their impact on bicultural and bilingual children, and the approaches that educators must take to use these materials critically. Themes such as bilingual learners, selection criteria, transnationalism, counternarratives, and digital literacies are broadly presented, as well as the importance of challenging tokenism and stereotypes and incorporating Latino children's books in language arts, social studies, science, and math curricula. Each chapter includes a theoretical framework, an application of theory section, and references, discussion questions, activities, and further professional reading. Introductory lists of Latino children's books, titles in Spanish for children, and online resources are appended. This work positions this literature in a sociocultural, historical, and political context that successfully brings theories to praxis and always encourages educators to keep in mind the bicultural and bilingual young readers of these books. A great companion to Dana L. Fox and Kathy G. Short's Stories Matter: The Complexity of Cultural Authenticity in Children's Literature and the works by theorist and educator Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings.