Members of Grupo Indomable
The child and I visited the Puyallup Public Library on Saturday 26 April for its Día de los Niños, Día de los Libros (Day of the Child, Day of the Books) celebration. It was "a free celebration for the whole family about children, books, and language" that was sponsored by the Friends of the Library.
Each child who attended was able to choose a free book, most of which were bilingual—Spanish and English. We chose the one book that was exclusively Spanish, Mi primer libro de palabras: mil palabras que los niños deben saber (My First Book of Words: One Thousand Words That Children Should Know), in order to familiarize ourselves with Spanish words. The child and I spent time in the afternoon looking through the book's pictures and its accompanying words and phrases. The child would point to a particular picture and say what it was in English and I would read the Spanish word(s).
In addition to the free book, it was an afternoon filled with readings of children's books in Spanish and English, crafts, cookies and juice, face painting, balloon animals, helium balloons, clowns, informational booths for parents, and the music of Grupo Indomable and friends. The Pierce County Library's Bookmobile also made a visit, focusing exclusively on Spanish language books and other Spanish language resources that were available for checkout.
Most of the families that were present were Latino—with quite a few from the ESL groups that meet at the Library—as well as a smattering of families from the various storytime groups, and people who just happened to wander in. This was one of the community events of which the leaders of Puyallup should be extremely proud. It encompassed everything that I love about life in this (relatively) small town of Puyallup—diversity, community, a focus on education, and a place to have fun.
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