Jose Luis Orozco

This morning I attended a presentation at OLA/WLA by the children's bilingual (Spanish-English) author and musician Jose Luis-Orozco. He is simply incredible. He displayed how to teach language and concepts like self-esteem and tolerance via fingerplays, songs and dancing. His presentation was rich and full of languages and respect for diversity. We learned how to count to ten in Polish, Spanish, Russian, German, French, English, and Dutch by the end of his presentation.
This was no passive presentation Jose-Luis had the crowd up in front dancing and getting to know one another. I cried, I laughed, and I learned--he is a master storyteller/performer. I cannot tell you how happy I am that his books are available to this generation of kids. I didn't really have this kind of cultural appreciation child teaching. It is wonderful that our libraries, schools, and parents can take advantage his work to teach kids how to have fun and to love each other and themselves.

Big props go out to WLA/OLA and REFORMA for bringing Jose-Luis to Vancouver, WA this year! If you can book Jose-Luis--do it!