Diane de Anda

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Diane-de-anda

As a young girl growing up in Los Angeles, Diane had her future planned; she would become a doctor during the day and a gypsy who danced on tables at night. Somehow, over the years, the plans changed a bit, and she became a teacher, first of children and teens, and, ultimately, a professor of social welfare at UCLA, teaching others how to work with children, teens, and their families. She has written numerous academic articles on adolescent issues, violence prevention and stress management programs for adolescents, and edited four books on multicultural social work.

Soon Diane began writing stories from the tales told to her by her great grandparents and grandmother about their experiences during the Mexican Revolution and beyond. Realizing the need for children’s books in which Latino children could see themselves and their families, she also began to write books where they were the main characters.

Many of her children’s books have won numerous awards:

The Patchwork Garden, Reading is Fundamental 2013-2014 STEAM Multicultural Book Collection; 2014 Skipping Stones Honor Award and the 2014 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People; A Day Without Sugar, Bank Street College of Education’s Best Children’s Books of the Year 2013; The Monster in the Mattress, International Latino Book Awards 2012 and the Texas Star Reading List 2012-2015; Mango Moon, 2020 Skipping Stones Honor award; 21 Cousins, 2021 Skipping Stones Honor Award, International Latino book Awards finalist.

Diane still never goes to bed before 2 a.m., writing children’s books and short stories, poems, and essays published in magazines for adults and children. She likes to laugh and has her satires frequently published in Humor Times and has a book of funny and fantasy poems for children coming out next year. She loves a noisy household and it has always been filled with animals. Halloween is Diane’s favorite holiday when she turns her house into a haunted realm filled with witches, flying bats and moving, talking ghouls, ghosts, and goblins, who greet the 200 children who visit every year.

Diane’s acclaimed picture books 21 Cousins and Celebrate the Day of the Dead are now on the bookshelves. Diane’s newest, Night Blooming Jasmine, It Feels like Family and Yum, Yum, Mexico are in publication

Website: www.deandabookshop.com

Reviews

Mango Moon

Readers learn through simple prose that Marciela’s undocumented father is being held in a detention center while he awaits deportation to an unnamed but “dangerous” country. She narrates the story with a sense of grief and honesty true to a child’s understanding of a complicated and devastating situation. Author de Anda honors the real challenge that many children face when a parent is deported and reminds them that it’s “all right…to cry.” Kirkus, 2019

Mango Moon has been awarded for the following: Selected for First Book Title Raves, 2019; winner 2020 Patterson Prize for Books for YoungPeople (Pre-K—Grade 3); Skipping Stones Honor Award, 2020;  Alma Flor Ada Award (2nd place) at the International  Latino Book Awards, 2020; MOSAIC Multicultural Book Collection 2020, Lincoln Public Schools Library Services; Top Ten Best Latino Children’s Book Authors)

21 Cousins

“De Anda and Muñoz introduce 21 first cousins, each vastly different from the next. The sibling narrators describe the family as “mestizo,” with a makeup of “the different people and cultures in Mexico: Indian, Spanish, French, and others. This is the reason people in our family look different in many ways. But we are still one family.” Readers meet fair-skinned Elena, dark-skinned Enrique, Teresa with “milk-chocolate skin,” and the rest, ranged along a wide, colorful spectrum. One has Down syndrome; another uses a wheelchair. Each cousin varies in interests, hobbies, talents, and ages as well. There is an aspiring Olympic runner, baseball players, a gymnast, a college student, a drummer, and a dancer. Readers who don’t pay attention to the title page may be surprised to discover the identities of the dual narrators, revealed to be grade schoolers Alejandro and Sofia at the end of the book. Muñoz’s clean illustrations present the cousins in settings that reflect their interests, but they do not interact until a final group portrait with Baby Cristina, the 22nd cousin. As is typical in many Latinx cultures, Spanish terms that describe cousins’ physical attributes—güera, morenachata—are used as terms of endearment, familiarity, and identification. It must be noted that those terms today are occasionally met with some resistance, as they often point back to origins in colorism and racism. Latinx readers with diverse families will appreciate seeing themselves within these pages. Kirkus Reviews, March 13, 2021 (Picture book. 3-8)

Diane is proud that Twenty-One Cousins has garnered to following acclaim: Alma Flor Ada Award (1st Place)—International Latino Book Awards 2021; Skipping Stones Honor Award, 2021; Hindi’s Libraries Kids’ Choice Award 2021; Certified Great Read—Reading with Your Kids, 2021)

Celebrate the Day of the Dead

Recently released Celebrate the Day of the Dead has received positive reviews and recommendations for purchase by Skipping Stones and has been selected by two museums: Museum of Latin American Art and Social and the Public Art Resource Center

This bright, happy book serves as a wonderful introduction to the Day of the Dead for young readers unfamiliar with the holiday and its traditions. Young Cristina takes readers through the entire day of celebrations, starting with decorating the home, then getting dressed in party clothes and making up the family’s faces in bright colors to attend the parade. Félix’s inviting illustrations of happy, cheerful family members decked out in the traditional vivid colors paired with de Anda’s simple, explanatory prose make an interesting and engaging window into Day of the Dead Celebrations.
VERDICT Recommended as a first purchase for collections where holiday books about the Day of the Dead are lacking.
School Library Journal, June 1, 2023

The Day Abuelo Got Lost
Mango Moon by Anda

HDG