Mi Libro, Mi Espejo with Yuyi Morales

Mi Libro, Mi Espejo (My Book, My Mirror) is a community literacy service project by Dr. AdaVilageliu-Díaz (Ph.D. in Literature) in collaboration with the LAMB PTO Diversity & Inclusion Committee. The primary goal of this project is to provide children cultural mirrors that affirm their identity and instill pride in their diverse cultures, languages, and traditions. This program promotes literacy skills in both Spanish and English while empowering children to see themselves and tell their own stories. The project is primarily focused on Latinx children’s books, but it includes and celebrates children from all backgrounds.

Yuyi Morales was born in Xalapa, Mexico, the city of flowers and springs. After migrating to the US in 1994, she struggled with English and loneliness in a culture foreign to her but found solace in public libraries, where she read children's books with her son and discovered a renewed interest in stories and art. She is now the author and illustrator of many books for children, including the New York Times bestseller Dreamers, Nino Wrestles the World, and she is a six-time winner of the Pura Belpre Medal for an outstanding work of literature for children that best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience. Other honors include the Americas Award, the Golden Kite Medal, the Christopher Award, the Jane Adams Award, and the Tomas Rivera Award. In 2015 she received the Caldecott Honor for her book Viva Frida.

Yuyi Morales brought her hopes, her passion, her strength, and her stories with her, when she came to the United States in 1994 with her infant son. She left behind nearly everything she owned, but she didn't come empty-handed.

Dreamers is a celebration of making your home with the things you always carry: your resilience, your dreams, your hopes and history. It's the story of finding your way in a new place, of navigating an unfamiliar world and finding the best parts of it. In dark times, it's a promise that you can make better tomorrows.

This lovingly-illustrated picture book memoir looks at the myriad gifts migrantes bring with them when they leave their homes. It's a story about family. And it's a story to remind us that we are all dreamers, bringing our own strengths wherever we roam. Beautiful and powerful at any time but given particular urgency as the status of our own Dreamers becomes uncertain, this is a story that is both topical and timeless.

The lyrical text is complemented by sumptuously detailed illustrations, rich in symbolism. Also included are a brief autobiographical essay about Yuyi's own experience, a list of books that inspired her (and still do), and a description of the beautiful images, textures, and mementos she used to create this book.

A parallel Spanish-language edition, Soñadores, is also available.

Buy Dreamers  here: https://bookshop.org/books/dreamers-9780823440559/9780823440559?aid=17045&listref=latinx-children-s-literature-picture-books