REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, has announced that the Sioux Center Public Library (Sioux Center, IA) is the winner of the 2014 Estela and Raúl Mora Award for the most exemplary culminating celebration of El día de los niños, El día de los libros/Children’s Day, Book Day. The Mora award is presented annually in partnership with REFORMA.

It is the third year that with a special donation from Kay and Dan Moore, three Mora Honor Winners were named; Brownsville Independent School District (Texas), Farmington Public Library (New Mexico), and Puyallup Public Library (Washington).

The Sioux Center Public Library greeted children and their families with a traditional game of Loteria where children worked together in mixed-culture groups. Demonstrating the joy of reading in any language, families enjoyed both in English and in Spanish a reading of Wild About Books! = ¡Que locura por la lectura!. To continue the celebration before moving forward with fun-filled activities, an indoor picnic with colorful tablecloths awaited the children with snacks to munch on. A craft area was organized where the children demonstrated their creativity while creating flowers out of tissue paper and decorated flags from Mexico and countries from around the world. Children were encouraged to form a collaborative book where they illustrated a page from a popular book. To include the older grades, children in 3rd grade and higher participated in a scavenger hunt that sent them out on a quest throughout the library. An unexpected 200 people were in attendance during Sioux Center Public Library’s Día celebration.

Read the full press release:
English
Spanish

REFORMA will present the award during the Midwinter meeting of the American Library Association (ALA) next January in Chicago, IL.