2007 Printable Manual - Texas State Library and Archives ...

2007 Texas Reading Club Manual
By the same token, many people ask whether it is best to use English books that have
been translated into Spanish or original Spanish works. As children’s librarians we are
accustomed to the 32-page picture book format, in which the story does not crowd out the
pictures. This format is not necessarily used in original Spanish language children’s
books, which can be wordier and have fewer illustrations. An example is La calle es libre
by Kurusa Monika Doppert. The difference can be intimidating and challenging for
librarians who have not worked with that format. However, one must take into account
that in Spanish-speaking countries children and parents read these books, and so the
format may not feel strange to your audience.
Something else to consider is that even if the English title is a great work, some
translations may not be the greatest because they have grammatical errors in Spanish. For
example, El gato ensombrerado (The Cat in the Hat) has some grammatical mistakes and
simply does not flow well in Spanish, although ¡El Gato con sombrero viene de nuevo!
(The Cat in the Hat Comes Back) does justice to the original.
Dr. Isabel Schon is a great resource if you are not fluent in Spanish and need to know
which translated books are good to use for your programs or for collection development.
She has written several books on the subject and also has a web site, Barahona Center for
the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents, www.csusm.edu/csb, on
which you can search recommended titles both in English and in Spanish. Whenever
possible, a mix of both original Spanish children’s books and English books that have
been translated into Spanish is the best solution. Original Spanish books will have the
natural cadence of the language, and Spanish translations of English works will help your
readers become familiar with titles that their English-speaking peers know.
But how does a librarian present a Spanish bilingual storytime if you yourself don’t speak
Spanish? There are several ways that to do this. The easiest solution is to look for library
staff or patrons to assist with storytime. Librarians can work with them and select the
materials to be presented together. When presenting the program, librarians may read a
page in English and the staff member or volunteer can read the same page in Spanish
consecutively; or one could read a paragraph or line in one language followed by the
reader of the second language. Some presenters also choose to read the whole book in
one language and follow it with a complete reading in the other language. When using
this approach librarians will especially need to consider the audience’s reactions. If
working with monolingual audiences, where either the children are only English or
Spanish speakers, or when the audience includes a bit of both, the children can became
distracted whenever a particular language group is not being addressed for a long period
of time. Yet another way for librarians who speak little Spanish to present bilingual
storytimes is to present the bulk of the program in English and add some basic songs and
rhymes in Spanish.
Some presenters write the rhymes and songs on big posters for everyone to see and
follow along; others provide handouts. This is a great way to involve parents, and it takes
away the fear of forgetting unfamiliar words. Librarians may wish to try presenting
storytimes in different ways to discover the most comfortable approach.
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