Dia De Los Ninos 2013

Back in 1996, El Paso-born author Pat Mora, proposed to create a Children's Day event celebrating children, literacy and bilingualism. A year later, with the assistance of REFORMA (National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos & the Spanish-Speaking), a new holiday was created: El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Day of the children/Day of the books). El Paso, along with Austin, Sante Fe and Tucson, were the first American cities to host celebrations. Now, over 300 libraries across the nation are planning activities that promote literacy and diversity.

El Paso's 17th annual celebration of literacy and health, to be held this Saturday, is changing its venue from Washington Park to three locations. The Main Library, Esperanza Moreno Branch and Dorris Van Doren Branch will have their own Dia festivals where children can receive a free book and enjoy games, activities and live entertainment.

Each year, we hope to encourage children and parents to become more physically active and to read more. Studies show that reading is one of the most important activities in which a child can take part and is one of the primary variables in the academic and career success of young people.

Children will have the opportunity to sign up for Club Rec and library cards. All events will be free and open to the public. In addition, all bus rides for kids will be free to and from the event all day courtesy of Sun Metro. For more information visit call 543-5480.

Here's what the Dorris Van Doren Branch will have scheduled Saturday, April 27, from 12-4 pm:

• Free book distribution
• Games and crafts for kids throughout the day
• A Teen Hangout area
• Jumping balloon 
• Booths represented by various organizations featuring family history, a bubble station, face painting and more.

Entertainment:

• 12:00 pm FM Junkies Band
• 12:30 pm Western Hills Chinese Cultural Program
• 2:00 pm Combo #5 Band
• 3:00 pm Movie Matinee
• 3:00 pm Theatrical Performance – Excerpt from Midsummer Night’s Dream

...and while you're here, check out our spring and poetry month decorations!

Our intern, Lizzie painting the Poetree onto the window.

The Poetree

March CBC Recap

We held our first ever cookbook club potluck this past Saturday, and it was a deliciously fun time! The club began with everyone serving themselves a little bit of everything. After a few bites, each of us introduced ourselves and talked about the recipe that we chose to make. Here's how it went:

Lisa started the introductions since she is the librarian at Dorris Van Doren who coordinated the club. She made shortbread with lime zest, and was surprised to find that these cookies took 45 minutes to bake (she took them out of the oven 15 minutes early when they started to brown). She thought that the recipe was a little vague when the exact size of the baking pan wasn't mentioned. She decided to use a 13x9 glass Pyrex pan. Lisa liked the simplicity of the ingredients and ease of the recipe.

Luciano introduced himself next. He was the most ambitious of the bunch, taking on the Dr. Pepper Ribs. He was also the youngest. Luciano has been cooking since he was 3 years old, and this is his third time making ribs at the ripe old age of 11. Seriously though, his parents (which he brought with him) bought all of the ingredients and he cooked the ribs on his own. Luciano said the recipe took a long time to make when you combine the marinating and cooking times. He said there were a lot of spices in the recipe, two of which he didn't have on hand- mustard powder and allspice. Everyone loved the ribs!

Erika, who also works at the library made the cactus salad. She took the smart shortcut by using jarred nopales (cactus). For some participants, this was their first time trying nopales, and found that they actually liked them.

Dawn recently moved to El Paso from Ohio. She made the poblano mac & cheese, and said that it was an easy recipe that she would make again. The most time consuming part was roasting the poblanos and waiting for them to cool down. She also forgot to grease the pan, but this didn't make any difference. The recipe also recommended additional add-ins, such as chorizo, chicken, squash, or corn.

Lizzie is an intern at our library, and she made the Texas caviar. This was her first time completely following a recipe. She likes to cook without recipes or make changes to them. She also thought it was an easy recipe that she would make again. Prepping and chopping the ingredients were the only time consuming parts. She thought this might make a good base for a soup.

More discussion took place about food and cooking tips. Everyone agreed they loved pasta, and would like to see a pasta cookbook selected for an upcoming potluck. All left contently full and excited for the next Cook the Book Club potluck.

Make the recipes pictured below and more, from Lisa Fain's The Homesick Texan Cookbook. Click here to request the book @ your library.

We hope you'll join us in April for our next Cook the Book Club potluck and discussion. Save the date for Saturday, April 21! Details at the information desk.