Alma Flor Ada

Alma Flor Ada, Professor Emerita at the University of San Francisco, has devoted her life to advocacy for peace by promoting a pedagogy oriented to personal realization and social justice. A former Radcliffe Scholar at Harvard University and Fulbright Research Scholar she is an internationally re-known speaker and the author of numerous children’s books of poetry, narrative, folklore and non-fiction.

Her books have received prestigious awards and recognitions; among many: Christopher Medal (The Gold Coin/La moneda de oro), Pura Belpré Medal (Under the Royal Palms/Bajo las palmas reales), Once Upon a World (Gathering the Sun), Parents’ Choice Honor (Dear Peter Rabbit), NCSS and CBC Notable Book (My Name is María Isabel), Aesop’s Accolade (Mediopollito-Halfchicken). Junior Library Guild Selections Ten Little Puppies/Diez perritos and Yes! We Are Latinos/¡Sí! Somos latinos co-authored with Isabel Campoy and two novels for middle grades, Dancing Home/Nacer bailando and Love, Amalia/Con cariño, Amalia co-authored with her son Gabriel Zubizarreta, all four of them .

Among recent publications are her book Arrullos de la sirena with poems that have been turned into songs by Suni Paz published in a CD of the same name and the program Alegría. Poesía cada día co-authored with Isabel Campoy.

Alma Flor is also the author of a book of memoirs, Vivir en dos idiomas, two novels for adults, En clave de sol and A pesar del amor, and several professional books for educators, including A Magical Encounter: Latino Children’s Literature in the Classroom, as well as a wealth of educational materials. Her work, in collaboration with F. Isabel Campoy in promoting authorship in students, teachers, and parents is the content of their book Authors in the Classroom: A Transformative Education Process. Also in collaboration they have publishes recently the books Spanish Literacy Strategies for Young Learners (Frog Street) and  Está linda la mar: para entender la poesía y usarla en la clase (Santillana).

Alma Flor Ada has been awarded the Hispanic Issues Award from the American Education Research Association [AERA]; the California Association for Bilingual Education [CABE] Life Long Award, the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education [AAHHE] Literary Award and the prestigious Virginia Hamilton Literary Award. In 2014 she received the OHTLI  Award from the Mexican Government for her distinguished contributions to the Mexican community abroad and in 2016 she has been nominated for the international NSK Neustadt Prize.

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F. Isabel Campoy

F. ISABEL CAMPOY could be described in her own words as a venturous, adventurous, multilingual, mestiza, multicultural, Latina. She is the author of over one hundred titles in Spanish and English, including children’s books in the areas of poetry, theatre, stories, biographies, and art, as well as books for educators in the areas of Transformative Education, Second Language Acquisition and Authentic Writing. Her work aims at providing children keys to interpret the world in a fun, challenging, and affirmative way. Among some of her latest works are Poesía eres tú, and Maybe Something Beautiful.

Isabel is a prolific translator of authors such as Mo Willems, Alice Schertle, Pelé, Ellen Walsh, Audrey Wood, among many others.

As a researcher she has published extensively bringing to the curriculum an awareness of the richness of the Hispanic culture. Her educational specializations are in the area of literacy and home school interaction, topics on which she lecturers nationally and internationally.

Among numerous accolades she has been recognized with the Laureate Award from the San Francisco Public Library; the 2005 Reading the World Award from the University of San Francisco, and the ALA Notable Book Award; nine of her books are Junior Library Guild Selections. She has received the International Latino Children’s Book award 2014 for Yes! We Are Latinos co-authored with Alma Flor Ada, and the 2015 for Poesía eres tú.

She is a Member of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language as well as several organizations for the advancement of multicultural awareness and world peace. CABE (The American Association for Bilingual Education) has established in her name an endowment to provide scholarships for future teachers.

She obtained her degree in Philology from University Complutense of Madrid. For her post-graduate work she was a Ford Scholar at Reading University in England, and a Fulbright Scholar at UCLA. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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The Authors

In 1994 Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy begun a collaboration that to date has grown beyond fruitful to fun, beyond professional to personal, beyond work to wonder. Writing in collaboration is not a frequent endeavor. So much so that the question of “how do you plan your writing?” is frequently asked to the authors.

The answer is a simple one. With respect, with a lot of talking pre-writing, and allowing brain-storming to create one single author with two writing hands. It helps to have different backgrounds, complementary pedagogical and linguistic experiences, two nationalities, Cuba and Spain, multiple interests that sometimes coincide and others are different, which lead to a wider and richer, work scenario.

In this way we have created numerous books among others, nursery rhymes, like Pío Peep, ¡Muu, Moo!, Mamá Goose, and Ten Little Puppies; non-fiction culture books like El vuelo del quetzal/ The Quetzal’s Journey and Ojos del jaguar/Eyes of the Jaguar; biographies like Caminos/Paths and Voices/Voces; theatre and poetry anthologies, like Alegría. Poesía cada día; books of art, like Blue and Green, and a collection of traditional tales, Tales Our Abuelitas Told/Cuentos que contaban nuestras abuelas, as well as pedagogical books like Authors in the Classroom: A Transformative Education Process, Spanish Literacy: Strategies for Young Learners, and Está linda la mar: Para entender la poesía y usarla en el aula.

Writing Yes! We Are Latinos provided the opportunity to research and create about our identity, to unearth truth and triumphs of our culture and to share the pride of our rainbow of origins: Indigenous, African, European, Asian, all creating now a new culture in the United States. The Latino culture.

We appreciate the collaboration of Silvia Dorta-Duque de Reyes, National Education Consultant, in the process of creating this website

Silvia Dorta-Duque is well known for her contributions in the areas of curriculum design, English Language Arts, English Language Development, Spanish Language Arts, Staff development and Parent Involvement.

Her area of expertise is biliteracy with a focus on academic writing and the organization of instruction for explicit teaching of Spanish to English cross-linguistic transfer.

In collaboration with the CCSSO and the California Department of Education, Silvia coordinated the Spanish translation and linguistic augmentation of the Common Core State Standards for Language Arts and Mathematics.