HOUSTON, TX—The Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP) has named the fourth book in Jorge Argueta’s acclaimed Madre Tierra / Mother Earth series, Tierra, Tierrita / Earth, Little Earth, a 2024 Américas Award Commended Title.
CLASP founded the Américas Award in 1993 to encourage and applaud authors, illustrators and publishers who produce quality children’s and young adult books that portray Latin America, the Caribbean or Latinx cultures in the United States. Up to two annual book awards are offered along with a list of commended titles, all of which are recognized for their distinctive literary quality, cultural contextualization, potential for classroom use and exceptional integration of text, illustration and design.
More than 200 books were submitted, and Tierra, Tierrita / Earth, Little Earth was noted as “remarkable” for all of these attributes. Beautifully illustrated by Felipe Ugalde Alcántara, this poetic children’s picture book depicts the interdependence of life in a celebration of Mother Earth. The entire poem appears at the end of the book in Nahuat, the language of Argueta’s Pipil-Nahua ancestors.
Named a Junior Library Guild Selection, Tierra, Tierrita / Earth, Little Earth was previously honored with the 2023 Salinas de Alba Award for Latino Children’s Literature. Kirkus Reviews praised it as “a welcome invitation to ponder the totality of nature—and our place within it.”
Jorge Argueta, the poet laureate of San Mateo County, is a Pipil Nahua Indian and prize-winning poet and author of more than twenty children’s picture books, including Una película en mi almohada / A Movie in My Pillow (Children’s Book Press, 2001) and Somos como las nubes / We Are Like the Clouds (Groundwood Books, 2016), which won the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award and was named to USBBY’s Outstanding International Book List, the ALA Notable Children’s Books and the Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices. His books in the Madre Tierra / Mother Earth series are Tierra, Tierrita / Earth, Little Earth (Piñata Books, 2023); Viento, Vientito / Wind, Little Wind (Piñata Books, 2022); Fuego, Fueguito / Fire, Little Fire (Piñata Books, 2019) and Agua, Agüita / Water, Little Water (Piñata Books, 2017), winner of the inaugural Campoy-Ada Award in Children’s Poetry given by the Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española. The California Association for Bilingual Education honored him with its Courage to Act Award. Jorge is the founder of The International Children’s Poetry Festival Manyula and The Library of Dreams, a non-profit organization that promotes literacy in his native El Salvador. Jorge divides his time between San Francisco, California, and El Salvador.
Arte Público Press is the nation’s largest and most established publisher of contemporary and recovered literature by US Hispanic authors. Its imprint for children and young adults, Piñata Books, is dedicated to the authentic portrayal of the themes, languages, characters and customs of Hispanic culture in the United States. Books published under the imprint serve as a bridge connecting home and school to support family literacy and elementary education. Based at the University of Houston, Arte Público Press, Piñata Books and the Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage project provide the most widely recognized and extensive showcase for Latino literary arts and creativity. For more information, please visit www.artepublicopress.com.
