Gathering the Sun: An Alphabet in Spanish and English - Hardcover

Ada, Alma Flor

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688139035 ISBN 13: 9780688139032

Publisher: HarperCollins Espanol, 1997

Synopsis

Translated by Rosa Zubizarreta.

Simple poems and glorious paintings offer a deeply moving portrait of migrant Chicano farmworker families at work and play.

About this title

From the Author

Some of the most heart­en­ing expe­ri­ences of my life have been my work with Migrant Farm Work­ing fam­i­lies. I have described the aca­d­e­mic results of shar­ing high qual­ity children's books with Migrant par­ents and invit­ing them to cre­ate books with their chil­dren in Pájaro Val­ley, Cal­i­for­nia in the book A Mag­i­cal Encounter: Use of Latino Lit­er­a­ture in the Class­room. I have described my work with farm work­ing par­ents, and the learn­ing I derived from it, in my mem­oirs, Vivir en dos idiomas.

The poems of Gath­er­ing the Sun were born out of these enrich­ing expe­ri­ences. Simón Silva, who knew inti­mately the life in the fields dur­ing his child­hood and has drawn from the her­itage of the great Mex­i­can mural­ists pro­vided strong and mag­nif­i­cent illus­tra­tions that have made this book the true homage to the farm work­ers lives and strug­gles that I dreamt to create.
It has given me unsur­pass­able joy to sign this book for golden anniver­saries of grand­par­ents and for birth­day gifts, for quinceañeras, new­born babies and babies yet to be born, real­iz­ing that in each case the book is a sym­bol of the strength, the resilience, the deter­mi­na­tion, the dig­nity and the pro­found love of fam­ily of those who work in the fields and whose labor allows us all to live.

Suni's unique voice and her mas­ter­ful com­po­si­tions have allowed the words in this book to tran­scend their birth as poems becom­ing unfor­get­table songs. My grat­i­tude to Suni and Simón, for allow­ing this homage to César Chávez and all campesinos to be as inspir­ing as his exam­ple and their lives.

About the Author

Alma Flor Ada is an internationally published children's book author. She is the recipient of several prestigious honors, including the Pura Belpré Award, the Christopher Award, the José Martí World Award, and the Museum of Tolerance Award. She lives in Lucas Valley, California.

Alma Flor Ada es una autora de libros para niños reconocida y publicada internacionalmente. Ha recibido varios premios prestigiosos en Estados Unidos, entre ellos, el Pura Belpré y el José Martí.

Simóon SilvaHaving grown up a part of a migrant-working family, Simón Silva says, "I grew up with a certain amount of shame about who I was, and it wasn'tuntil I came to understand and appreciate my culture that I was able to find true purpose for myself and my art." This is Simón Silva's first book.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Espanol
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0688139035
• ISBN 13: 9780688139032
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Silva Simon