Whittier College News Release
Whittier College
Office of Public
Relations
13406 Philadelphia
St.
P.O. Box 634
Whittier, CA 90608-0634
April 13, 2004
Reference: 03/04: 48
Contact: Judy Browning at (562) 907-4216
Whittier College and Rio Hondo College
Collaborate on Children’s Literature Conference
Amada Irma Perez,
award-winning author of My Very Own Room and My Diary from Here to There, will
be the keynote speaker at the Whittier College Children’s Literature Conference
on campus, Saturday, April 24.
Participants will be able to choose from 20 breakout sessions on a wide range of
reading and book-related topics, the Zilpha Keatley Snyder Award will be given
to a teacher from the greater Whittier-Rio Hondo area who “excels in promoting
the use of children’s literature in the classroom.”
The conference is being made possible by Title V funding from the U.S.
Department of Education and is part of a jointly conceived project and
collaboration with Rio Hondo College. The five-year cooperative Title V grant,
Maximizing Teacher Education Through a Cooperative Seamless Path, began in
October 2003 and seeks to prepare and cultivate teachers who are bilingual and
bicultural, as well as to address the dramatic shortage of K-12 teachers at the
local, state and national levels.
Perez has been an
educator, consultant and presenter for more than 25 years. She is an advocate of
programs and workshops that encourage literacy and multicultural understanding.
She has received the 2000 Tomas Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award
and the 2004 Pura Belpre Award for Latino/Latina writers.
Snyder is the author of 40 books, including the Newbery Award-winning The Egypt
Game, The Headless Cupid and the Witches of Worm. Her latest book is The Unseen,
about a world beyond the human senses of taste, touch, smell, and hearing.
Twelve-year old Xandra Hobson feels invisible in her large family, and takes
refuge in the basement where she secretly nurses wounded animals back to health.
When an injured bird disappears, leaving a single white feather behind, she
embarks on the mysterious journey of The Unseen.
A 1948 graduate of
Whittier College, Snyder says she was first drawn to the concept for this book
during her freshman year, when a professor said, “It might be possible that we
are all constantly surrounded by entities and events of which we are completely
unaware because of the limitations of our sense organs.”
The conference is open to community members, teachers and college students. The
cost of the conference is $10, for those registered by Wednesday, April 22.
There will be onsite registration at the conference for $20. To register, or for
more information, call Millie Herrera in the Whittier College Department of
Education at (562) 907-4248.
Located 18 miles east of Los Angeles, Whittier College is an independent,
four-year college offering traditional liberal arts majors and strong
pre-professional programs taught in the context of the liberal arts. Whittier
Law School, which is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member
of the Association of American Law Schools, is located on a separate campus in
Costa Mesa. |
