AAP Offers Events, Promo Materials to Mark Latino Book Month

To help booksellers, librarians, and others in the book industry create celebrations for the fourth annual "Latino Books Month" this May, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) is offering a Latino Books Month Resource Kit, featuring reading lists, posters, and other materials to encourage communities to read books by and for Latinos, in both English and Spanish. As part of the initiative, AAP member publishers will also be holding a special author event at BookExpo America (BEA).

The Latino Books Month Resource Kit, created by AAP's Task Force on Publishing Latino Voices for America, includes:

• A Latino Books Summer Reading List, with recommended books for adults and children in English and Spanish
• A Publishing Latino Voices Brochure, which includes a sampling of titles by and for Latinos published by AAP member publishing companies
• Get Caught Reading/Aj, leyendo! posters featuring celebrities including Gloria Estefan, Maya and Miguel, Jorge Ramos, Dora the Explorer, and others
• A "how-to" sheet on starting a Spanish-language reading group within a community
• Contact information for booking Latino authors for author appearances

Those interested in a Latino Books Month resource kit should e-mail AAP's Christina Rodriguez [email protected] or visit the AAP Booth (Booth #4876) at BEA.

Also at BEA, on Friday, June 1, from 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. in Room 1E06 of the Javits Center, book industry professionals will have the opportunity to hear Latina authors and editors talk about their upcoming English language works. Participants include Ana Castillo (The Guardians, Random House); Michelle Herrera Mulligan (Juicy Mangos: The Best Latina Erotica, Atria); and Julia Alvarez (Once Upon a Quinceanera: Coming of Age in the USA, Viking). The event, hosted by New York Times journalist and author Mirta Ojito (Finding Manana: A Memoir of Cuban Exodus, Vintage Espanol), will be followed by a reception at 4:00 p.m. for Latinos in Publishing. The programs are open to all BEA registrants.