I’ve been looking for a good story about Christmas to share for quite a few weeks. Most of the books I’ve received were either too religious for use in public school classrooms or didn’t seem like they’d inspire students. But then, I received a review copy of Xavier Garza’s Charro Claus and the Tejas Kid from Cinco Puntos Press. I was immediately impressed since it’s about Christmas and Santa’s Mexican cousin. Plus, it’s a bilingual text, which means it’s accessible to both English and Spanish-speaking students.
Here’s an overview of the book, which was retrieved from the Cinco Puntos‘ website:
Let’s welcome Santa’s newest helper: his cousin Pancho, a farmer living down in South Texas who is so smart he speaks Spanish and English. Back in the day, Pancho was a mariachi singer with a whole lot of style and a fancy sombrero. But as the years passed, Pancho got, well, a little older and a little wider all around. Then one night his primo Santa Claus showed up. Santa needed some help! Pancho volunteered. And then, poof, Santa transformed Pancho into the resplendent Charro Claus with his incredibly Flying Burritos. And Charro Claus, it turns out, even had his own surprise elf—his nephew Vincente!
All Christmas Eve, Vincente and Pancho deliver toys to the boys and girls on the border. Neither rain, cloudy skies, wire fences nor concrete walls keep them from covering every inch of their newly assigned territory. And they don’t forget a single town or city. How could they? The border is their home.
Charro Claus and the Tejas Kid can serve as a mentor text for students who wish to write a Christmas related story in English or in Spanish since the book contains the text written in both languages on each page. Examples follow below.
An in-depth author’s note in this book can be used at any time of year to help your students write more poignant author’s notes in the books they publish. (See below.)
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION:
- Thanks to Cinco Puntos for agreeing to sponsor a giveaway of Charro Claus and the Tejas Kid.
- To win a copy of the book please leave a comment about this post, in the comments section of this post by Wednesday, December 22nd by 11:59 p.m. EST A random drawing will take place on Thursday, December 23rd and the winner’s name will be announced in a blog post later that day.
- Please be sure to leave a valid e-mail address when you post your comment so I can contact you to obtain your mailing address and have my contact at Cinco Puntos ship the book out to you. Please note: Your e-mail address will not be published online.
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sounds great, I like books about various Christmas traditions
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Our students would really enjoy this book. Our huge bilingual population would put this at the top of their list.
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Thank you for posting about this book. It is always encouraging to read about books that reflect all of our students’ cultures. Cinco Puntos Press does a great job promoting literature from the Spanish speaking world.
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I sure hope that Vincente and his tio Charro will be coming to California this Christmas. Thank you for keeping our children in mind. Feliz Navidad!
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I have been looking for something with spanish and english. My students are enjoying learning bits and pieces of a second language.
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@Zinnia: Have you read Saltypie? If not, take a preview of it by going to https://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/describing-characters/.
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This is one of my favorites from Cinco Puntos Press, which by the way, is a great publishing house that offers bilingual/spanish/cultural books. I read it to some of our kiddos this week and some of them said they loved Pancho more than Santa in this book!
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I am currently pursuing my Bachelor of Education degree at the University of New Brunswick in Canada. I am always on the look out for resources that I can use in my classroom once I start my career, and this book looks fantastic! Thank you for sharing, and for helping to inform my education as I work towards becoming a fun and effective teacher!
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I love the illustrations from the book that you’ve featured here. We live on the South Texan/Mexican border and I’d love to own this book! Thanks for hosting the giveaway 🙂
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In my district we are always on the hunt for books that will appeal to our bilingual students. Thank you so much for sharing this with me. I am off now to share this with my teachers. They will be so excited to hear about it.
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My school has been receiving more Spanish speaking students and many of the teachers do not know how to help make their transition easier. This book would be such a validation that they are so smart to already know one language and begin learning a new one. Thank you for writing this book.
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