2014 El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros

(LtoR) Me-Pat Mora-Carolyn

At the TLA conference last week, I met the author and founder of El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros, Pat Mora. It was such an honor to meet with her and talk a little about El Día and the many events that are coming up for that celebration during the month of April. I am proud that my illustrator daughter, Carolyn Dee Flores, and I will be participating in El Día in Houston with readings and presentations to celebrate children, books, and literacy.

 

While at the San Antonio Book Festival a couple of weeks ago, I was interviewed for a video by My Story, www.thestorytellingplace.com. Click here to view the video: My Story – Lupe Ruiz-Flores. 

 

I also did a blog post interview for an event, Día Blog Hop, where several authors were interviewed as well. Here is the link to that post on the Other Side of the Tortilla blog. 

 

Since April is Poetry Month, here is a great post that appeared on the Cynsations blog, “National Poetry Month: Guest Post from Naomi Shihab Nye: On Language-Energy.” I’ve enjoyed reading her poetry and have most of her books. I once took a class with her and was inspired to try my hand at poetry.   

Have a wonderful Easter!!

2014 Texas Library Association Conference in San Antonio, TX

Another fantastic week! This time it was the Texas Library Association (TLA) conference held in San Antonio this year. Thousands of librarians from all over Texas attended the event. In fact, according to an announcement made on the last day, over 7,000 people had been at the conference. There were sessions, speakers, vendors, publishers, food, and books, books, books. 

 

I was on a panel with five award-winning authors and the topic was, “Latino Bookfest: A Celebración of the Best in Latino Literature for Youth.” I also joined many other authors in the Author Signing Area and my books sold out. Hurray! It was an exhausting three days, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I renewed friendships with writers I hadn’t seen in a while because they are scattered all over the nation. It was an awesome three days. 



Author and Daughter- Illustrator Carolyn Dee Flores



San Antonio River

(Middle) Author Pat Mora - Founder of El Dia de los ninos/
El Dia de los libros

 

Author Monica Brown and me

 

 

 

 
"I write as a participant, to see what will happen. I see that I write books about brothers and sisters, about what makes up a family, what works and what is nurturning." -- Patricia MacLachlan








Post 2014 San Antonio Book Festival

Children's Tent

Fantastic is all I can say about the 2014 second annual San Antonio Book Festival held yesterday, April 5, at the Central Library in downtown San Antonio, Texas! Hundreds of people showed up despite the chilly weather. Make that thousands. I just read in today’s Express-News that there were close to 8,000 people attending. 

 

Over 90 national and regional authors did readings, signings, panels, and autographed books for the booklovers who attended the readings and bought books. Colorful tents were everywhere including a “cooking demonstration” tent.  There were plenty of activities for the children. Music filled the air and food trucks catered to anyone with an appetite. Hundreds of people roamed the grounds and the crowds continued to grow as the day went on.  




Authors & Illustrators

 

"Take a step, breathe in the world, give it

out again, into a story, poem, song, art."

--Jane Yolen

 



 

Here are some pictures of me with some award-winning authors and illustrators, (left to right) Brian Floca, Carolyn Dee Flores, Duncan Tonatiuh, Lupe Ruiz-Flores, and Malin Alegria. 


Author With Duncan Tonatiuh
and his award-winning book.



San Antonio Book Festival, April 5, 2014

If you live in San Antonio or nearby, be sure to visit the San Antonio Book Festival downtown at the Central Library on Saturday, April 5. It is free to the public. There will be lots of local authors and authors from other states as well. The list is impressive. There will be music, presentations, food and books, books, books! Click here to view the lineup of authors. 

I will be doing a reading of Lupita’s First Dance/El Primer Baile de Lupita, under the Children’s Tent at 1:30 p.m. Come by.

A good writer is always a people watcher. – Judy Blume