Authors : Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy
3rd Grade - 5th Grade

Storytelling Books and CDs

Storytelling Books and CDs Complete Set, # 20012, $138.26, 10%-Off
4 Hardcover English Books, 2 Softcover Spanish Books, 1 Softcover English Book, 2 Spanish CDs, 1 Bilingual CD, and 1 English CD
Cuentos que contaban nuestras abuelas, Spanish, 2 CDs, Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade
Cuentos que contaban nuestras abuelas, Softcover, Spanish, Book, Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy, Felipe Davalos, Susan Guevara, and Leyla Torres, Felipe Davalos, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade, 9781416939658
Tales Our Abuelitas Told, Hardcover, English, Book, Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy, Felipe Davalos, Susan Guevara, and Leyla Torres, Felipe Davalos, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade, 9780689825835
The Malachite Palace, Jordis Star, and The Unicorn of the West, English, CD, Alma Flor Ada, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade
The Malachite Palace, Hardcover, English, Book, Alma Flor Ada, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade, 068931972X
Jordis Star, Hardcover, English, Book, Alma Flor Ada, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade, 0399228322
The Unicorn of the West, Hardcover, English, Book, Alma Flor Ada, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade, 0689317786
La moneda de oro - The Gold Coin, Bilingual, CD, Alma Flor Ada, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade
La moneda de oro, Softcover, Spanish, Book, Alma Flor Ada, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade, 8424133641
The Gold Coin, Softcover, English, Book, Alma Flor Ada, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade, 0689717938

Cuentos que contaban nuestras abuelas, Spanish, 2 CDs, Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade, # 10219, $19.95   Listen
Cuentos que contaban nuestras abuelas, Softcover, Spanish, Book, Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy, Felipe Davalos, Susan Guevara, and Leyla Torres, Felipe Davalos, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade, 9781416939658, # 10030s, $12.99
Cuentos que contaban nuestras abuelas, Hardcover, Spanish, Book, Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy, Felipe Davalos, Susan Guevara, and Leyla Torres, Felipe Davalos, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade, 9781416919056, # 10030h, $19.95
Tales Our Abuelitas Told, Hardcover, English, Book, Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy, Felipe Davalos, Susan Guevara, and Leyla Torres, Felipe Davalos, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade, 9780689825835, # 10029h, $19.95

All 12 folktales in award-winning Cuentos que contaban nuestras abuelas told by Alma Flor and Isabel in Spanish on 2 CDs.  

Authors' Note : Writing Tales Our Abuelitas Told was for me a recognition and a way of honoring my grandmother as well as and an expression of love and hope for my nine grandchildren as I express in my dedication.  I´m sure it is something very similar for Isabel, whose dedication is to her great-nephew Pablito.  We are very grateful that these beloved tales are being so well received.

Latina Style : From Yesterday to Tomorrow : Stories Our Abuelitas Told

Traditional tales open our hearts to old voices and new worlds, to wondrous adventures and ever lasting feelings. Words like Había una vez or Érase que se era, hold for the listener or reader the magic promise of enchantment.

The stories retold in our recent book Tales Our Abuelitas Told or, in the Spanish version Cuentos que contaban nuestras abuelas, reflect the diversity of our culture: some developed in Latin America from Indigenous roots, others had their origin in Africa or in various regions of Spain and go back to the Hebrew, Arabic or Basque traditions.

Their settings may be Mexico or the Southwest, Puerto Rico, Cuba or the Amazon among many others. They all keep children spell-bound. Stories like these enriched our childhood and left our imagination forever open to new discoveries, to the daring possibility of dreaming better worlds. Words like ¨happily ever after¨ got transformed into lives in search of understanding and compassion, lives devoted to promote access and equality for all, social justice, and peace.

The Malachite Palace, Jordis Star, and The Unicorn of the West, English, CD, Alma Flor Ada, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade, # 10221, $16.95   Listen
The Malachite Palace, Hardcover, English, Book, Alma Flor Ada, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade, 068931972X, # 5142h, $16.95
Jordis Star, Hardcover, English, Book, Alma Flor Ada, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade, 0399228322, # 5118h, $16.95
The Unicorn of the West, Hardcover, English, Book, Alma Flor Ada, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade, 0689317786, # 5090h, $16.95

Three of Alma Flor Ada's classic stories told by Alma Flor in English on CD.

Author’s Note about The Malachite Palace : The word “malachite” fascinated me since childhood. In the beautiful poem “A Margarita” the great Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío describes a king who had “un palacio de diamantes, un kiosco de malaquita y un rebaño de elefantes” [a palace made of diamonds, a malaquite kiosk and an elephant herd]. The whole world he painted delighted me, but it was the “malachite kiosk” that intrigued me. Not knowing what malachite was, the sound of the word was in itself fascinating. Many years later I had the opportunity to visit the extraordinary museum of The Hermitage in St. Petersburg, and there, to my surprise, was a magnificent malachite kiosk. Did Darío heard about this outrageous gift to a tzar? Or was the imagination of the poet the inspiration for the kiosk? I probably will never know, but haunted by the beauty of word and stone, one day I simply began writing: “There once was a princess who lived in a malachite palace…”  As the story evolved, the values I hold true: the value of freedom and the responsibilities it demands, the richness of diversity, enriched the story. And what a pleasure to have an extraordinary artist as Leonid Gore create such delicate and inspiring illustrations that make the book itself a gem.

Author’s Note about Jordi's Star:  This book was inspired by a landscape where two different mountains, one green, one dry faced each other. In reality it is the sum of my beliefs: beauty is all around us, if only we pause to see it. And love is the strongest energy. As we love we are transformed, as we love the world can be transformed.

Author’s Note about The Unicorn of the West : This story was born out of the request of my great-nieces Virginia Marie, Lauren and Allison Roure De Miranda for a bedtime story. When I asked them what they wanted the story to be about they requested “unicorns”. So, inspired by their beauty and their trust on my storytelling abilities I began: “Each evening, as the sun set…” and the book was born. It has always been one my favorites, perhaps because of my love for the girls who inspired it, and their mother, my niece Virgilú.

La moneda de oro - The Gold Coin, Bilingual, CD, Alma Flor Ada, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade, # 10220, $16.95   Listen
La moneda de oro, Softcover, Spanish, Book, Alma Flor Ada, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade, 8424133641, # 5081s, $8.99
La moneda de oro, Hardcover, Spanish, Book, Alma Flor Ada, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade, 8424133382, # 5081h, $14.95
The Gold Coin, Softcover, English, Book, Alma Flor Ada, 3rd Grade - 5th Grade, 0689717938, # 5082s, $6.99

Alma Flor Ada's La moneda de oro and The Gold Coin told by Alma Flor in Spanish and English on CD.

Author’s Note : This was my first book published in English by a major American publisher. I owe my daughter, Rosalma Zubizarreta, the encouragement to pursue many publishers until one was willing to publish the story. Without her enthusiasm for this story, which she wanted to see in the hands of every child in the United States and her gentle support after each rejection, the book would probably had been published abroad, in Spanish, and probably never reach the wide audiences it has reached. The story was born one night, while returning home in the San Francisco Bay Area, after working with migrant farm-working parents until late in the Watsonville-Salinas area. It appeared in front of my eyes, as if it were a movie, and I saw the characters acting and speaking the whole story. When I arrived home I jotted down the whole story before falling asleep. The next morning it all seemed like a dream, but the pages were there, with the full text.

It has been an immense joy that Rosalma’s wishes materialized, as the book has been included in most major reading series and in many reading lists. The letters I have received from children and adolescents about this book are very moving and I have enjoyed visiting many classes which had read the book where we have talked about our personal richness, and students have shown their understanding of true values. Probably the most extraordinary experience in connection with this book was to attend the performance staged by Sylvia Dorta-Duque de Reyes (San Diego County Office of Education) of The Gold Coin performed by students in the main plaza of the Zapotec village of Teotitlán del Valle in Oaxaca.

Storytelling Books and CDs :

Del Sol Books : www.delsolbooks.com and 6574 Edmonton Avenue, San Diego, CA, 92122
Alma Flor Ada : www.almaflorada.com and almaflorada.blogspot.com 
F. Isabel Campoy : www.isabelcampoy.com and isabelcampoy.blogspot.com
Suni Paz : www.sunipaz.com