The Américas Award

Honoring Latino/a Childrens and Young Adult Literature of the Americas

Contributions by Candace Doerr-Stevens, Patricia Enciso, Leanne M. Evans, Wooseob Jeong, Ruth McKoy Lowery, Colleen E. Marsh, Carmen Liliana Medina, Jamie Campbell Naidoo, Ruth Quiroa, Roxanne Schroeder-Arce, Denise Woltering Vargas, Erin N. Winkler, Vivian Yenika-Agbaw Edited by Laretta Henderson

Publication date:

16 December 2015

Length of book:

228 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498501606

First awarded in 1993, the Américas Award is given in recognition of books that authentically and engagingly portray Latino/as in Latin America, the Caribbean or the United States. By combining both and linking the Americas, the award reaches beyond geographic borders, as well as multicultural-international boundaries, focusing instead upon cultural heritages within the hemisphere. The Award is unique in that selects Latino/a youth literature for classroom use and in that it focuses on the entire Western Hemisphere.

Scholars from the fields of literature, education, lbrary science, and theater engage with Latino/a Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) in this ecollection of essays about the Américas Award, the Award-winning and honored books, and the contexts in which the books are used. This collection offers essays on the history of the award, close readings of Award-winning and honored books situated in the classroom, and discussions of how best to use the books in the classroom, library and theater.

Chapter 1: The Américas Award: Latino/a Youth Literature for the K-12 Classroom
Laretta Henderson
Chapter 2: Why does Latino/a Youth Literature Matter? How Children and Young Adults Learn about Race
Erin Winkler
Chapter 3: Envisioning Tomorrow: The Musings of Julie Kline on the History and Future of the Américas Award
Ruth Quiroa
Chapter 4: Educating for Global Competence through the Américas Award
Denise Woltering Vargas
Chapter 5: The Américas Award, Cultural Competence, and the Politics of Publishing
Jamie Naidoo
Chapter 6: Book Awards, Social Responsibility and Cultural Contextualization
Laretta Henderson
Chapter 7: The Américas Award Books in Early Childhood Education: Reconceptualizing the Conversation about Diversity with Pre-service Teachers
Leanne Evans
Chapter 8: Cultural and Social Justice Issues in the Américas Award Winning Poetry Anthologies
Vivian Yenika-Agbaw
Chapter 9: Borders, Home, Spirituality, and Language: Sociopolitical Themes in Latino/a Children's Literature 1990-2015
Patricia Enciso and Carmen L. Medina
Chapter 10: Border Crossing: Immigration in the Américas Award Winning Books
Ruth McKoy Lowery
Chapter 11: The Américas Award on Screen: Promoting Critical Engagement with Literature via Multimodal Composition
Candance M. Doerr-Stevens
Chapter 12: The Américas Award on Stage: A Call for More Latino Youth Theater
Roxanne Schroeder-Arce
Chapter 13: Translation and Transformation: The Status of Américas Award Books Translation in East Asia
Wooseob Jeong
Chapter 14: Public Library Service to Latino/a Communities
Colleen E. Marsh
Index
About the Contributors

Containing essays from a range of critical viewpoints and perspectives on Latino/a children’s and young adult literature of the Americas, The Américas Award is...intellectually stimulating in ways that surpass the limited confines of its specialty subject matter.... By pulling together many disparate strands within this contentious field, the collection provides a timely and astute critique of the crisis of acculturation affecting American children’s literature today and its potentially devastating implications for multicultural awareness and harmony.... This volume, therefore, successfully shows the relevance of Latino/a literature not only as an important genre in its own right, but also as a lens through which to view the problems of race and culture that pervade American society, and as an example of the ways in which the children’s literature genre functions as a tool of acculturation and division.... The Américas Award: Honoring Latino/a Children’s and Young Adult Literature of the Americas provides an inspirational range of perspectives on the difficult question of multiculturalism for children.