My thanks to the Association of Library Service to Children (ALSC) for sending me to Tucson for Día’s 15th Anniversary. It was special to be back in the city where the Día idea arrived from above. Librarian and loyal Día supporter Donie Gignac hosted me and was kind enough to take me to the spot at the University of Arizona where the Día notion came to me in 1996. An interviewer at the campus public radio station had introduced me to the annual Mexican celebration of El día del niño, The Day of the Child. I walked outside into the wonderful Arizona spring sun and thought: Why don’t we have a special day annually for celebrating children in this country—and we can link the celebration to literacy. What fun: children and books! Here I am remembering being “zapped” by Día.

Pat returns to the spot where she was “zapped” by the Día idea at the University of Arizona, 1996.

Pat and Donie Gignac

I spent April 30th at the Valencia Library that has a wonderful mural of my book, THE DESERT IS MY MOTHER. During the enjoyable neighborhood Día celebration complete with crafts and snacks, I had the pleasure of seeing a delightful puppet show of this book with a young library associate, Thania Mayorga-Shull, as a lovely earth mother symbolizing the desert. I smiled and smiled.

Pat by mural of “The Desert is My Mother,” by Susan Gamble (1997) at the Valencia Branch of the Pima County Public Library, Tucson, AZ. Puppet show of The Desert is My Mother at Valencia Library in Tucson, AZ, April 30, 2011.