2019 Winner For Writer

“KITTEN AND THE NIGHT WATCHMAN”

by John Sullivan

Illustrated by Taeeun Yoo

Amazon Recommended Grade Level: Preschool - 3

Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books

ISBN-13: 978-1481461917

What does a night watchman do? Perfect for children whose parents work at night or who wonder what goes on at night when they’re asleep, this book gently weaves the work a night watchman does with the poetry of a sleeping construction site, the warmth of a new kitten and pleasure of going home at sunrise to a loving family.

 

2019 Winner For Illustrator

“OGE MORA, FOR THANK YOU, OMU!”

by Oge Mora

Illustrated by Oge Mora

Amazon Recommended Grade Level: Preschool - 3

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

ISBN-13: 978-0316431248

In the busy city who would think that Omu’s fragrant and tasty stew could bring people together as if they lived in a small town? This playful story, as well as the bright, Keatsian illustrations, show us that kind human connections can form intimate support groups amidst any kind of city bustle.  Like Keats, Mora illustrated her book using collage.

 

2019 Honor Writer Winners

“ALMA AND HOW SHE GOT HER NAME”  

by Juana Martinez-Neal

Illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal

Amazon Recommended Grade Level: Preschool - 3

Publisher: Candlewick Press

ISBN-13: 978-0763693558

Alma Sofia Esperanza José Pura Candela has name that she feels is too long.  When she tries to write it on a piece of paper, she runs out of room for “Candela.” “My name is so long, Daddy.  It never fits.”  Her father, however, has the solution—to teach her about her family’s history and how she got her name.

“THE FUNERAL”

by Matt James

Illustrated by Matt James

Amazon Recommended Grade Level: Preschool - 3

Publisher: Groundwood Books

ISBN-13: 978-1554989089

In this sensitive and life-affirming story, Norma and her parents are going to her great-uncle Frank’s funeral, but little Norma is more excited than sad.  She is looking forward to playing with her favorite cousin, Ray.  Things change, however, when she arrives at the church, and she is confronted with rituals and ideas that have never occurred to her before.

 

“LENA’S SHOES ARE NERVOUS: A FIRST-DAY-OF-SCHOOL DILEMMA”

by Keith Calabrese

Illustrated by Juana Medina

Amazon Recommended Grade Level: Preschool - 3

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

ISBN-13: 978-1534408944

Today, Lena starts kindergarten, and she’s excited.  She’s picked out her favorite clothes to wear: her blue dress, her pink striped socks and her headband with the bright green flower.  But Lena’s shoes are nervous.  Lena doesn’t want to miss her first day of school, but she can’t go without her shoes!  How can she convince them to be brave?

2019 Honor Illustrator Winners

“JULIÁN IS A MERMAID” 

by Jessica Love

Illustrated by Jessica Love

Amazon Recommended Grade Level: Preschool - 3

Publisher: Candlewick Press

ISBN-13: 978-0763690458

While riding the subway with his abuela, Julián notices three women spectacularly dressed up—their dresses end in fishtails. When Julián gets home, all he can think about is dressing up in his own mermaid costume: a curtain for his tail, the fronds of a potted fern for his headdress. But what will Abuela think about how Julián sees himself?

“PRICKLY HEDGEHOGS!”

by Jane McGuinness

Illustrated by Jane McGuinness

Amazon Recommended Grade Level: Preschool - Kindergarten

Publisher: Candlewick Press

ISBN-13: 978-0763698805

When the sun has set, Hedgehog’s day has only just begun.  She’s out, snuffling through leaves and twigs as she searches for bugs and other things to eat.  Young animal lovers will enjoy following Hedgehog and her babies through towns and gardens, parks and woodland, as they sniff-sniff-sniff for food, and she teaches them how to survive on their own.

“MURDER IN MÉRIDA, 1792: VIOLENCE, FACTIONS, AND THE LAW”

by Mark W. Lentz

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press

ISBN-13: 978-0826359612

During the summer of 1792, a man wearing the garb of a vaquero stepped out of the night shadows of Mérida, Yucatan, and murdered the province’s top royal official, don Lucas de Gálvez. This book recounts the mystery of this murder and its resolution, an event that captured contemporaries’ imaginations throughout the Hispanic world and caused consternation on the part of authorities in both Mexico and Madrid. In this work Lentz provides new insights on late colonial Yucatecan society through the vast depictions of the cross-section of Yucatecan people questioned during the decade it took to uncover the assassin’s identity.

“GOTHIC IMAGINATION IN LATIN AMERICAN FICTION AND FILM”

by Carmen A. Serrano

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press

ISBN-13: 978-0826360441

This work traces how Gothic imagination from the literature and culture of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe, as well as twentieth-century U.S. and European film, has impacted Latin American literature and film culture. Serrano argues that the Gothic has provided Latin American authors with a way to critique a number of issues, including colonization, authoritarianism, feudalism and patriarchy. The book includes a literary history of the European Gothic to demonstrate how Latin American authors have incorporated its characteristics but also how they have broken away from or inverted some elements to suit their work and address a unique set of issues.

 

“CULTURAL NATIONALISM AND ETHNIC MUSIC IN LATIN AMERICA”

Edited by William H. Beezley

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press

ISBN-13: 978-0826359759

Music has been critical to national identity in Latin America. Unlike European countries with unified ethnic populations, Latin American nations claimed blended ethnicities—indigenous, Caucasian, African and Asian—and the process of national stereotyping that began in the 1920s drew on themes of indigenous and African cultures. Composers and performers drew on the folklore and heritage of ethnic and immigrant groups in different nations to produce the music representative of different countries. Mexico became the nation of mariachi bands, Argentina the land of the tango, Brazil the country of samba and Cuba the island of Afro-Cuban rhythms, including the rhumba.

“SARAPIQUÍ CHRONICLE: A NATURALIST IN COSTA RICA” (revised and expanded edition)

by Allen M. Young

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press; Revised

ISBN-13: 978-0826357816

“Peering down on that steep gorge, formed over millions of years by the raging, powerful waters of the Sarapiquí River cascading down from an ancient volcano, I am transfixed by the mist-studded greenery of the forest.  This region must be one of nature’s most complex theatres of biological adaptation, where every mode of adaptive ingenuity is reflected in the tremendous diversity of life thriving here.” The abundant insect life of northeastern Costa Rica’s rainforests is the subject of this engaging book, first published more than 25 years ago and now including two new chapters on the rise of ecotourism in the region.