Lorito Books Squack Notes!

ALA Panel on Spanish Selection Informs and Surprises   Brodart Books sponsored a panel presentation on Spanish collections at the American Library Association conference.  Presenters included Nerissa Moran, Brodart's Manager of Spanish Collections & Acquisitions, Milly Lugo, Santa Ana Public Library Senior Librarian and Pam Fochtman, Lorito Books President.  The highly informative presentation touched on Hispanic demographics, online sources for bestseller lists and Spanish collection circulation statistics.  Surprisingly, one of the circulation statistics reported was that audiobooks have the highest turnover rate of all material types. A second surprise was that among the 50 million Hispanics living in the United States approximately 2/3 self-identify as Mexican origin, making Mexicans clearly the largest Hispanic group nationwide. Unlike previous immigrant groups in the U.S., young Hispanics report that their parents are more likely to encourage them to maintain their first language and speak Spanish in their homes.  (Source: 2010 US Census & Pew Hispanic Center.)  If you'd like a copy of the Brodart presentation contact pam@loritobooks.com.

Author Spotlight: Judy Goldman         Judy Goldman, born and living in Mexico City, is proud of having been raised both bilingual and bicultural. She has written over 24 children's books in Spanish and English, many of them recreating Aztec, Mayan and Jewish myths and folktales.   Judy believes that books are magical and they were an important part of her upbringing. "My parents were and continue to be great readers and our house was always full of books....I spent many hours in the library, surrounded by books of art, science, science fiction, novels, and short stories..." Lorito Books distributes four of Judy's children's books: ¡Que delicia! Un cuento kiliwa, Los huesos sagrados: una leyenda Azteca and De astutos, tragones y mordelones.  We also distribute Muyal, un cuento Maya, which has been selected for Mexico's Plan Nacional de Lectura classroom library program.  To order these books click here.    Visit Judy's blog and join her for a chat about books for kids and young adults.