Culham, an author of books on writing and the reading-writing connection, provides a list of 120 picture and chapter books that reflect Latino culture and feature Latino characters and themes,
ranging from bilingual, to English with Spanish words, to English only texts. Meant to serve as mentor texts in the upper-elementary grades, the books are organized by their strongest writing
traits--ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions--and include bibliographic information, a brief summary of what makes them special, discussion of their
strongest traits, and ideas for using them to teach writing. Chapters also discuss what each trait is about, its key qualities, how to select mentor texts for teaching writing, and where to
find books that celebrate Latino culture, to use to teach each trait and its key qualities. Incorporated throughout are short essays by children’s authors who describe their writing process,
what motivates them to write, the importance of diverse texts, key themes, their inspiration, and other aspects. Annotation ©2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
