Críticas Magazine

Bruce Jensen

Bilingual book award goes to: ¡a half-mythical goatsucker!
April 10, 2008

The charming chica in the blog next door, Adriana, wrote a marvelous piece about her personal connection with Pulitzer Prize honoree Junot Díaz. Not to be outdone in the crossing-paths-with-literary-prizewinners department, I'm here to tell you that your humble servant has also had the good fortune to breathe some of the same air as the recipient of another of this week's prestigious publishing accolades.

The Tejas Star Book Award was announced over the weekend. You might recall that it recognizes outstanding bilingual and Spanish-language books for kids of ages around 5 to about 12, and that the selectors are Texas K-6 students who qualify to vote by reading or hearing at least three of the nominated titles. The little booklovers chose Juan and the Chupacabras/Juan y el Chupacabras by Xavier Garza with pictures by April Ward and translation by Carolina Villarroel.

(In case you slept through the 1990s, a chupacabras is a critter said to suck the blood out of goats and other livestock. The legend has Puerto Rican roots but the beast ran amok in Mexico and Texas for a long while; just ask anybody. It recently turned up in Russia. This according to Pravda which inscrutably terms it "a half mythical creature.")

Juan and the other seven Tejas Star finalists are pictured and lavishly described at the Book Talk site. Or if you prefer a one-page annotated list, with ISBNs, grade levels, and links to reviews of all eight books, that's here. 

Garza is an art teacher who nowadays illustrates his own tales. His growing oeuvre, as we said recently, will be worth watching by everyone who cares about quality children's books. Anyway, getting back to the whole point of today's entry: here in this picture from back in th' day is Xavier Garza himself, standing right next to your genial blogger clad as usual in an eerily prophetic T-shirt while the author shows off his Lucha Libre: The Man in the Silver Mask, A Bilingual Cuento. At right is South Texas College medical librarian James Phillips, who magically made it possible for me to rub elbows with a man destined to win the Tejas Star award--and, I'm willing to bet, many other honors.

Posted by Bruce Jensen on April 10, 2008 | Comments (1)