Boy Zorro and the Bully – Finalist for Best Non-fiction Children’s Book

Boy Zorro and the Bully recently was selected as a finalist for Best Non-fiction Children’s Book in English from The International Latino Book Awards, an initiative supported by actor Edward James Olmos.

Every day Benny Lopez wakes up looking for a way to help people. One day he finds a mask and wears it while helping an elderly lady cross a busy street. With that act of grace, he becomes Boy Zorro—defender of good.

The reason why this is such a big news is that our bilingual books are so good that they are making their way into the English categories and winning awards, competing with large publishing companies. Recently, Boy Zorro and The Bully won the 2014 Moonbeam Awards for the Best Children’s Book, Spanish Language Category. This means that bilingual books are making their way into not only the Spanish categories, but the English categories and are more and more accepted into mainstream publishing houses for educational use.

The Latino Family Literacy Project used bilingual books as a way to help parents be involved in helping their kids and will teach parents how to establish a family reading routine at home with their children. The reason why bilingual books make sense is that Spanish-speaking parents really want to learn English and they want their kids to learn English too. Two languages in one book can help kids learn more English vocabulary with the help of their parents.

Parent Involvement varies from school to school and largely depends on the skill set of the parent body. By training parents, families can learn to love literature and develop the love of reading, even if they are from intergenerational poverty and under performing schools.

At The Latino Family Literacy Project, we know that parents really want to be involved and want good futures for their children. Becoming literate and learning to read will strengthen our society as a whole. Research about our program, demonstrates that kids expand their vocabulary when their parents attend our program.