Pat Mora

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Pat Mora, an award-winning author of books for children, teens and adults, is a literacy advocate and a popular presenter. Her new children's book, My Magic Wand: Growing with the Seasons, illustrated by Amber Alvarez, is published by Lee & Low Books.  Among her other children’s books, many available in Spanish or bilingual editions, are My Singing Nana, Doña Flor: A Tall Tale about a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart and Tomás and the Library Lady. Pat’s poetry collections for young readers include Bookjoy, Wordjoy; Water Rolls, Water Rises;  Yum! ¡MmMm! ¡Qué Rico!; Confetti; and This Big Sky. Pat also wrote two collections for young adults, Dizzy in Your Eyes: Poems about Love written in the voices of teens, and My Own True Name.  Pat’s honors include honorary doctorates from North Carolina State University and SUNY Buffalo, a lifetime achievement award from the Texas Institute of Letters, and the Virginia Hamilton Literary Award. She’s a lifetime member of the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY), an honorary member of the American Library Association, and she received a Kellogg National Leadership and a Poetry Fellowship from NEA. A literacy advocate excited about sharing what she calls “bookjoy,” in 1996, she founded Children’s Day, Book Day, in Spanish, El día de los niños, El día de los libros, “Día.” Pat and her partners including the American Library Association, REFORMA, NCTE and First Book nationally promote this year-long initiative of creatively linking all children and families to books and establishing annual April Children’s Day, Book Day celebrations. Pat’s Book Fiesta captures this bookjoy spirit. April 30, 2021 is the 25th anniversary of this initiative. Born in El Paso, Texas to a loving, bilingual family, Pat lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Source

Fences

Mouths full of laughter,

the turistas come to the tall hotel

with suitcases full of dollars.

 

Every morning my brother makes

the cool beach new for them.

With a wooden board he smooths

away all footprints.

 

I peek through the cactus fence

and watch the women rub oil

sweeter than honey into their arms and legs

while their children jump waves`

or sip drinks from long straws,

coconut white, mango yellow.

 

Once my little sister

ran barefoot across the hot sand

for a taste.

 

My mother roared like the ocean,

“No. No. It’s their beach.

It’s their beach.”

Published:

1991

Length:

Regular

Literary Movements:

Chicano Poetry

Children's

Contemporary

Anthology Years:

2025

Themes:

Bilingual

Family

Nature

Racial Injustice

Literary Devices:

Dialogue

conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book, play, or movie

Hyperbole

exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally

Imagery

visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work

Repetition

a recurrence of the same word or phrase two or more times

Sensory Detail

words used to invoke the five senses (vision, hearing, taste, touch, smell)

Simile

a comparison between two unlike things using the words “like” or “as”