About this item
Everybody loves a birthday party, and there's a lot to enjoy at Papa Luis' fiesta! The children excitedly count the candy that will fill the pinata. The nieces bring the candles for the birthday cake that Mama Marta baked. Family and friends begin to arrive, and soon, they surprise Papa Luis with his special celebration.Told in lively verse, this cumulative tale builds from one page to the next as popular children's book author Diane Gonzales Bertrand presents a charming look at a big family gathering that celebrates the patriarch's birthday. Like her previous award-winning book, The Empanadas that Abuela Made / Las empanadas que hacÃa la abuela, Diane Gonzales Bertrand gives emerging readers another book that creates confidence and skills through repetition and sentence building.
About the Author
Diane Gonzales Bertrand has written stories and poems since childhood, but never saw books that connected to her own Mexican-American heritage. Fifteen years ago she found Arte Publico Press, a Houston publisher who welcomed her familia-friendly adult novels like Sweet Fifteen, Lessons of the Game, and Close to the Heart. Then Diane wrote the children's novel Alicia's Treasure and two award-winning novels for middle school students Trino's Choice, and Trino's Time.
Diane's published picture books Sip, Slurp, Soup, Soup/ Caldo, Caldo, Caldo, Family, Familia, The Last Doll, Uncle Chente's Picnic, and The Empanadas that Abuela Made have all earned "Best Bilingual Book" Latino Literary Awards. Her collection of bilingual short stories, Upside Down and Backwards, earned Honorable Mention in the Paterson Prize for Young Adults. Other titles include Ricardo's Race/La carerra de Ricardo, We are Cousins/Somos Primos, a bilingual novel, The Ruiz Street Kids, winner of a 2009 Skipping Stones Award and a brand new book, The Party for Papa Luis, recently listed as a finalist for the 2010 Tejas Star Book Award. A new novel for teens, The F Factor, is now published. Both Adelita and the Veggie Cousins and Sofia and the Purple Dress are listed on the Tejas Star Reading lists. A new bilingual story collection for teens, There's a Name for this Feeling was published in July 2014. Upcoming bilingual picture books include Cecilia and Miguel are Best Friends (2014) and A Bean and Cheese Taco Birthday and The Story Circle in 2015.
Her picture books with Raven Tree Press include the award winning, My Pal Victor/mi amigo Victor, and The Park Our Town Built, finalist for the Teas Star Book Award.
Diane is Writer-in-Residence at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas. She also loves to visit schools as an author and talk about her books, her family, and the importance of writing down our stories.
