N is for Navidad
By: Susan Middleton Elya & Merry Banks
Illustrated by Joe Cepeda
Genre/Theme
Christmas, Hispanic-Americans, Alphabet, Spanish Language, Stories in rhymes
Meet the Authors and Illustrator
Susan Middleton Elya
Susan is not a native Spanish speaker, but has enjoyed learning the language and writing books in this beautiful language for over 10 years. She lives in San Francisco with her family.
Merry Banks
Merry was inspired by her childhood in the San Antonio area to write this book. She now lives in California with her family but loves to travel back to her hometown for holiday celebrations. This is Merry's sixth book for children.
Joe Cepeda
Joe has illustrated more than 20 children's books and won many awards. He has had illustrations published in Los Angeles Times and Latina magazine. He lives in Southern California with his family.
Voice Thread of "N is for Navidad"
LIteracy Project by katybaker1990
Criteria Demonstrated in Book
Honor and celebrate diversity as well as common bonds in humanity
This book highlights specific traditions of celebrating Christmas in the Hispanic culture as well as traditions that all people share.
Demonstrate unique language or style
Spanish words are used throughout the whole book. In the back of the book, definitions are provided for the reader.
Themes are consistent with the values, beliefs, customs, traditions, and conflicts of the specific cultural group
The whole book accurately describes Christmas traditions of Hispanic-Americans.
Classroom Teaching Application
Grade Level: 2nd
Standard: 2.RL.4 -- Describe how words and phrases supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song.
Teaching Objective: Students will learn about different celebrations of holidays. Students will create their own family stories by using rhyming words.
How I will use this book in the classroom...
This would be a great book to use as an introduction to learning about family traditions! After reading this book, I would have a class discussion about their family traditions throughout the year. Some students will share traditions and some will not, which will provide a lot of fun comparisons of families! After the class discussion, I will share with my students my "Family Tradition Poem" and then instruct them to make their own. They have to include pictures! The students will need to have at least ten lines in their poem so I know they have mastered the standard.