Introduction: This presentation will introduce you to three works of multicultural literature by Pam Munoz Ryan. The books used in this presentation are: Becoming Naomi Leon, The Dreamer and Esperanza Rising. These books were chosen because of the prestigious honors the author, Pam Munoz Ryan, won for these works. These awards affirm her authentic portray of her characters.
These books were also chosen because of the diverse populations in Texas schools. "One in six Texas residents is an immigrant, while 15 percent of residents are native-born U.S. citizens with at least one immigrant parent." The top country of origin for immigrants are from Latin America (Immigrants in Texas). I share this statistic to explain the need of multicultural Latin literature in your classroom. “An identity of belonging matters whether one is two years old…Identity matter and it’s dynamically changing as social contexts provide opportunities to access participation in different situations” (Franquiz, Maria E.). In this presentation I will show you how to select culturally relevant books for your classroom. You will be given specific information about the three books selected as well as activities to incorporate these books into your classroom. I will also provide you with resources to help you create your own lessons for Becoming Naomi Leon, The Dreamer and Esperanza Rising.
Objectives:
Teachers will be able to select new culturally relevant books and incorporate them in their classroom.

Teachers will be able to apply Becoming Naomi Leon, The Dreamer, or Esperanza into their classroom curriculum.

Teachers will be able to use the classroom applications and outside resources provided in their classroom.

I will invite teachers to please email me samples of their student work after they have incorporated the selected reading in their classroom. This will provide an evaluation of what ideas they used from this presentation.

A few months after the presentation I will follow up with the teachers using a survey. I will ask teachers if they incorporated the selected book into their classroom. I will also ask if they used the book reviews, and other outside resources provided in the presentation in their classroom.

Introduction: This presentation will introduce you to three works of multicultural literature by Pam Munoz Ryan. The books used in this presentation are: Becoming Naomi Leon, The Dreamer and Esperanza Rising. These books were chosen because of the prestigious honors the author, Pam Munoz Ryan, won for these works. These awards affirm her authentic portray of her characters.
These books were also chosen because of the diverse populations in Texas schools. "One in six Texas residents is an immigrant, while 15 percent of residents are native-born U.S. citizens with at least one immigrant parent." The top country of origin for immigrants are from Latin America (Immigrants in Texas). I share this statistic to explain the need of multicultural Latin literature in your classroom. “An identity of belonging matters whether one is two years old…Identity matter and it’s dynamically changing as social contexts provide opportunities to access participation in different situations” (Franquiz, Maria E.). In this presentation I will show you how to select culturally relevant books for your classroom. You will be given specific information about the three books selected as well as activities to incorporate these books into your classroom. I will also provide you with resources to help you create your own lessons for Becoming Naomi Leon, The Dreamer and Esperanza Rising.
Objectives:
Teachers will be able to select new culturally relevant books and incorporate them in their classroom.

Teachers will be able to apply Becoming Naomi Leon, The Dreamer, or Esperanza into their classroom curriculum.

Teachers will be able to use the classroom applications and outside resources provided in their classroom.

Pam Munoz Ryan is a culturally relevant author of our time. In each story she portrays her characters with authenticity and with dignity.
“An identity of belonging matters whether one is two years old…Identity matter and it’s dynamically changing as social contexts provide opportunities to access participation in different situations” (Franquiz, Maria E.).
I also chose Pam Munoz Ryan because her books are easily available and are usually in school libraries because of her publishing company, Scholastic. There are also audio-books of the three titles that are easily downloaded from Audible for differentiated reading.

Pam Munoz Ryan won the Pura Belpre award in 2002 for Esperanza Rising and again in 2011 for The Dreamer. The Pura Belpré Award, is a prestigious annual award given to a “…Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth” (Pura Belpre). Pam Munoz Ryan has also won the 2005 Schneider Family Book Award.

The Schneider Family Book Awards honor an author or illustrator “for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences” (ala.org).

Esperanza Rising is a story loosely based on the Pam Munoz Ryan’s grandmother. The books opening paragraph includes an epigraph of a Mexican proverb, “Aquel que hoy se cae, se levantará mañana.” which translates to “He who falls today may rise tomorrow” (Ryan, Pam Munoz). This fictional story is told in first person by Esperanza. The reader is first introduced to Esperanza as a privileged 12 year old girl who lives on her father’s ranch in el Rancho de las Rosas in Aguascalientes, Mexico. While living on the ranch, Esperanza lives with her parents, her Abuelita, and the servants and field workers. In one moment Esperanza falls from her privileged life, when tragedy strikes.

The story then describes Esperanza fleeing her ranch with her family. The servants that once worked for Esperanza’s family now escape to California with Esperanza and her mother where they will have jobs at a camp for Mexican farm workers. Esperanza’s world is turned upside down. The other children that are her age in the camp call her “La Cenicenta” which is Cinderella because Esperanza does not even know how to use a broom. Esperanza rises just as her Abuelita said she would. “We are like the phoenix, “said Abuelita. “Rising again, with a new life ahead of us” (Ryan, Pam Munoz).

The Dreamer is a fictional novel based on Pablo Neruda’s childhood. In The Dreamer the young Neftali sees beauty and wonder in everyday items. He is a collector, a reader, a writer, and most of all a dreamer. The Chilean geography, climate and culture plays an important role in the story line. Along with the Chilean government and politics. The story references political issues like the poor treatment of the native Mapuche Indians are discussed and debated by the characters at Neftali’s dinner table.

Much of the story is about Neftali’s estranged relationship with his father. His father is very controlling and does not want Neftali to write poetry or spend all of his time writing. Father wants Neftali to be strong and become a doctor but Neftali is a skinny kid whose interests includes language, reading and writing. His father often verbally abuses Neftali and even destroys his poetry with fire. This act does not destroy Neftali’s spirit.

Becoming Naomi Leon by author, Pam Munoz Ryan, tells a story of a Mexican-American family. This story focuses on sister and brother, Naomi and Owen. Naomi and Owen were left at their Grams house as young children. Naomi and Owen have little to no memories of their parents. Naomi and Owen have always been curious about their mom and dad but rarely gets straight answers from Gram. Out of the blue Naomi and Owen’s mother knocks on Gram’s trailer door. This creates a lot of drama and trouble for the family. Naomi and Owen’s mother, who now calls herself Skyla, is an alcoholic. She has lived in and out of half way houses and rehabs the last seven years. She also has an alcohol induced mental illness. This book touches on so many real topics. Including, alcoholism, disability, custody battles, non-traditional families, poverty, single guardian household, and growing up half White, half Mexican in California.

The ALSC is a reliable resource to find a list of books that have won the Pura Belpre Award. Like Esperanza Rising and The Dreamer.
http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/belpremedal/belprepast

The ALA is a reliable resource to find a list of books that have won the Schneider Family Book Award. Like Becoming Naomi Leon.

Goodreads purpose is to help people find and share books for free. Users of Goodreads can post their own reviews and ratings. This site keeps track of how many reviews each user has written as well as their library. Users may chose to make their profiles public or private, to share only with their friends. As a teacher I like this resource because you can easily follow other teachers or librarians. It serves as a literature sharing platform. Review retrieved from: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/361487.Becoming_Naomi_Le_n?ac=1&from_search=true#other_reviews

"This book makes you think about all the troubles some children have to deal with on a daily basis. Naomi Soledad Leon Outlaw lives with her Grandmother because her mom is an alcoholic and her father lives in Mexico. Both parents have not had contact with Naomi or her brother Owen for years. She and her brother are happy with their Grandmother, who has always taken very good care of them. Trouble begins when their mother comes back to claim only Naomi because she needs someone to watch her boyfriends child. She wants to take Naomi with her and her boyfriend to Las Vegas ripping her away from everything she knows and cares about. Her grandmother fights back in order to help the children stay with her and the stable life they have grown accustom to.
The conflict the children felt in wishing for an ideal mom and then only to be disappointed when she would not follow through was heart-breaking. I loved the strong grandmother character and her friends who would go to any lengths to keep the children together and safe. This book reminded me of "The Tiger Rising" by Kate DiCamillo. Both stories deal with children having to overcome the loss of parents and the pain that follows. The main characters in both books have a love for carving that they both learned from a parent. This talent helps them deal with their pain and heartache. A good activity for students would be a comparison of both books and how carving and family help them deal with anger and upset at the lose of a parent." - Q_Jill Burke

The Classroom Bookshelf is a school library journal blog. There is a new blog entry every Monday about newly published children and young adult books that include a Book Review, Teaching Invitations, and Further Explorations. The goal of The Classroom Bookshelf is to select book that are useful for the K-8 classroom, covering many content areas, interests and reading abilities. I chose to share this review because the author included classroom applications at the end of her review that I enjoyed. See full review: http://www.theclassroombookshelf.com/2011/01/ala-pura-belpre-winner-the-dreamer/

"Neftalí’s world is filled with the wonders of nature, sensitivity of childhood, and sheer fascination with life and language. That, however, is a different world from the one his authoritarian father insists he live in – one where the only worthy aspirations are practical ones in medicine and business, and where readers, writers, observers, and dreamers are labeled “fools,” “fanatics,” and “idiots,” believed to be worthless. At first a timid introvert, Neftalí obediently submits to his father’s demands that he abandon his love for books and nature. But the words and the world continue to beckon until Neftalí can no longer ignore their hold on his heart or the yearnings of his literary spirit, and he begins to envision and inscribe his own life as Pablo Neruda, celebrated Chilean poet, social activist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and lifelong dreamer. Masterfully merging Neruda’s passionate poetry with elements of magical realism and her own lyrical prose, Ryan weaves a compelling fictional biography of Neruda’s childhood. Sís’s engaging and ethereal drawings likewise blend genres to complement the inner and outer worlds that Neftalí experiences. All together, this exceptional novel will inspire readers to follow their own dreams as well." - -Grace Enriquez

World of Words is a growing community that reviews literature from around the word. This cite focuses on diverse literature that shows authentic representation of cultures. This organization believes that when children read culturally relevant literature it gives students a new perspective about culture. "Literature provides an opportunity for children to go beyond a tourist perspective of gaining surface-level information about another culture." The intention of the of WOW is to integrate global literature into classrooms and challenge youth to empathize with others and accept people that are different than yourself. This review is a comment from a reader. Review retrieved from: https://wowlit.org/catalog/9780439120418/

"This book is a beautifully written, inspirational story. The reader is immediately drawn into Esperanza’s world of privilege and then of hardship. The story is made all the more powerful through the incredibly strong bonds the characters have with each other. The importance of family and community in Latino culture is showcased as the characters work together to survive in the labor camps of depression-era California. The richness of figurative language and symbolic imagery in Esperanza Rising make this book excellent for a literature curriculum. Additionally, the portrayal of the socio-economic and political climate of that point in history, make this novel an excellent way to enhance a social studies curriculum."
-Rebecca Balkin

Pam Munoz Ryan is an excellent author to have in upper Elementary classrooms. Her works offer unique stories told from a child's perspective. In Teaching Latina/o Children’s Literature in Multicultural Contexts explains, “An identity of belonging matters whether one is two years old…Identity matter and it’s dynamically changing as social contexts provide opportunities to access participation in different situations” (Franquiz, Maria E.).
Pam Munoz Ryan represents her characters in a culturally relevant way. In Becoming Naomi Leon, the Mexican-American culture is represented. In Esperanza Rising,a Mexican family immigrates to the United States. In The Dreamer she tells the story of a Chilean boy growing up in the 1910s.

Have students map out a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico from where they live. Students can use a physical map, or use a map search app.

Have students research the Oaxacan wood carvings online, then they can, draw some of the figures they find.

Upper Elementary

Have students research about migrant farm workers in the 1930s. Have students explain the impact of The Great Depression on migrant farm workers. What difficult circumstances did some Mexicans face?

Have students list examples from the book about migrant hardships. Then have students back up these examples with facts from research online.

Upper Elementary

Have student's research about Noble Prize winner, Pablo Neruda. Explore his story of poetry. Neruda is known for his poetry about nature, Ryan also mimics this in The Dreamer. Take students outside and have them right their own poetry of things they observe.

Mapuche People. Neftali is aware of the mistreatment of the Mapuch people. The Mapuche people represent what has happened to many indigenous communities throughout history, when people are driven out of their land by colonialism and industry. Have students research about the Mapuche people and explore their struggle.

Botelho, M.J. & Rudman, M.K. (2009). Critical multicultural analysis of children's literature:

Mirrors, windows, and doors. New York: Routledge.

Fránquiz, M. (2011). Teaching Latina/o children's literature in multicultural contexts: Theoretical and

pedagogical possibilities. In S. Wolf, K. Coats, P. Encisco, and C. Jenkins, (Eds.). Handbook

of Research on Children's and Young Adult Literature (p. 108-120). New York, NY: Routledge.

Ryan, Pam Munoz. (2005). Becoming Naomi Leon. New York, New York. Scholastic.

Ryan, Pam Munoz. (2010). The Dreamer. New York, New York: Scholastic.

Ryan, Pam Munoz. (2000). Esperanza Rising. New York, New York: Scholastic.

Good Reads https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/361487.Becoming_Naomi_Le_n?ac=1&from_search=true#other_reviews

Enrique, Grace http://www.theclassroombookshelf.com/2011/01/ala-pura-belpre-winner-the-dreamer/

Immigrants in Texas: Retrieved from: https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/immigrants-in-texas

Images retrieved from: https://www.amazon.com