Alma Flor Ada, Pro­fes­sor Emerita at the Uni­ver­sity of San Fran­cisco, has devoted her life to advo­cacy for peace by pro­mot­ing a ped­a­gogy ori­ented to per­sonal real­iza­tion and social jus­tice. A for­mer Rad­cliffe Scholar at Har­vard Uni­ver­sity and Ful­bright Research Scholar she is an inter­na­tion­ally re-known speaker and the author of numer­ous children’s books of poetry, nar­ra­tive, folk­lore and non fic­tion. Her books have received pres­ti­gious awards; among many: Christo­pher Medal (The Gold Coin), Pura Bel­pré Medal (Under the Royal Palms), Once Upon a World (Gath­er­ing the Sun), Par­ents’ Choice Honor (Dear Peter Rab­bit), NCSS and CBC Notable Book (My Name is María Isabel). She is also the author of a book of mem­oirs, Vivir en dos idiomas, two nov­els for adults, En clave de sol and A pesar del amor, and sev­eral pro­fes­sional books for edu­ca­tors, includ­ing A Mag­i­cal Encounter: Latino Children’s Lit­er­a­ture in the Class­room, as well as a wealth of edu­ca­tional mate­ri­als. Her work, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with F. Isabel Cam­poy in pro­mot­ing author­ship in stu­dents, teach­ers, and par­ents is the con­tent of their book Authors in the Class­room: A Trans­for­ma­tive Edu­ca­tion Process. Alma Flor Ada has been awarded the Amer­i­can Edu­ca­tion Research Asso­ci­a­tion [AERA] His­panic Issues Award for Research in Ele­men­tary, Sec­ondary and Post­sec­ondary Edu­ca­tion and the Cal­i­for­nia Asso­ci­a­tion for Bilin­gual Edu­ca­tion [CABE] Life Long Award. She has received the Virginia Hamilton Award, for her body of work, as well as the OHTLI Recognition from the Mexican Government for her support of Mexican communities abroad.

GARY SOTO, born in 1952 and raised in Fresno, California, is the author of thirteen poetry collections for adults, most notably NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, a finalist for both the Los Angeles Times Award and the National Book Award. He has received the Discovery-The Nation Prize and the California Library Association's John and Patricia Beatty Award [twice], in addition to fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts [twice], and the Guggenheim Foundation. For ITVS, he produced the film "The Pool Party," which received the 1993 Andrew Carnegie Medal. In 1995, for his work with young people, he was selected NBC's Person of the Week. In 1999 he was honored with the Human and Civil Rights Award from the American Education Association, the Literature Award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, and the PEN Center West Book Award for his young-adult short story collection PETTY CRIMES. In all, his books have sold over four million copies. The Gary Soto Literary Museum is located at Fresno City College, where he got his start as a poet in the early 1970s.

ABOUT Latina Author ISABEL CAMPOY

I was born by the Mediterranean Sea in a town called Alicante. Alicante is an ideal vacation place in Spain for both national and international tourists, so during my childhood I was always in contact with family and friends from all over the world.

My father was a professor of English who wanted his children to become proficient in as many languages as possible. His encouragement, instilled in me a great desire to travel and experience other cultures from very early on. My favorite books as a child were always books of adventure, but perhaps my favorite of all times is The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

My curiosity for all things far and different was nurtured by my father's vast collection of National Geographic magazines. They covered one side of our hallway from floor to ceiling, with copies that went back as far as 1924. Each picture was a promise of a new adventure, and I started writing about them in a huge accounting book my brother and I shared. He wrote the names of soccer players and winning teams; I documented the products of my fertile imagination. My first published story was about a snowman. I was eleven, and I had never seen snow.

At age 16, after taking many competitive examinations, I won a scholarship as an exchange student to Trenton, Michigan. I finally convinced my mother to let me go, and that winter, I saw snow--almost daily! I feel as though I have been traveling ever since.

In my twenties, I crossed Europe and fell in love with mythology in Greece. Years later, I wrote down many legends of the Hispanic world. Morocco, Egypt, and Turkey also fascinated me and inspired my research into Arabic contributions to the histories of Spain and Latin America.In 2015 I will be adding Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand to the geography of my heart.

Whether in Asia or Micronesia, Africa or the Middle East, or from Mexico to Patagonia, I have always found reason to admire other cultures and reflect on them. Perhaps that is why I write about Hispanic art, artists, theater, poetry and folklore: In the process of looking at other cultures, I discovered the beauty and richness of my own.

F. ISABEL CAMPOY is the author of numerous children's books in the areas of poetry, theatre, stories, biographies, and art. As a researcher she has published extensively bringing to the curriculum an awareness of the richness of the Hispanic culture. She is an educator specialized in the area of literacy and home school interaction. A recognized scholar devoted to the study of language acquisition, a field in which she started publishing in l973 after obtaining her degree in English Philology from Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain; and post graduate work as a Ford Scholar in Reading University in England, and as a Fulbright Scholar in UCLA in the United States. She is a contributing member of the North American Academy of Spanish Language. Among others, she is six times recipient of Junior Guild Award, ALA Notable Book Award, International Latino Children's Book Award, San Francisco Library Award, and the Reading the World Award from the University of San Francisco. CABE (The American Association for Bilingual Education) has established in her name an endowment to provide scholarships for future teachers.