4 Latino/Hispanic Publishing Houses You Need to Know

One of the best things since the creation of SpanglishBaby has been the amount of stuff I have discovered related to anything bilingual and bi-cultural. Although there is not a whole lot out there, I have to admit I’ve been surprised about some of the things I’ve found.

As an avid reader, I’ve always complained about the lack of bilingual/Spanish children’s books in both bookstores and public libraries, but lately I’ve discoverd things are not as bad. So I present you with a list of 4 publishing houses, most of which are only dedicated to bilingual or Spanish children’s books. You can order most of their books through La Tiendita and if you can’t find them there, you can always go directly to their websites.

1) Children’s Book Press – “Founded in 1975, CBP is the only nonprofit independent publisher solely dedicated to first voice multicultural and bilingual children’s literature, by and about people from the Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander, African American, and Native American communities. Our books embody our commitment to diversity, literacy, and community.” I love what they’re all about. I reviewed one of their books here. That same book was recently chosen as an Honorable Mention at the 2009 International Latino Book Awards, as I wrote about here.

2) Piñata Books – “Founded in 1994, Piñata Books, an imprint of Arte Público Press, is dedicated to the publication of children’s and young adult literature focussing on U.S. Hispanic culture. With its bilingual picture books for children and its entertaining novels for young adults, Piñata Books has made giant strides in filling the void that exists in American publishing and literature: books that accurately reflect themes, characters and customs unique to U.S. Hispanic culture.” I’ll be writing more about this publishing house soon. For now, I just wanted to share with you that they’ve published some of Pat Mora’s awesome books.

3) Cinco Puntos Press – “With roots on the U.S./Mexico border, Cinco Puntos publishes great books which make a difference in the way you see the world.” I don’t know much about them, but I really like what they’ve published!

4) Groundwood Books - “Many of our books tell the stories of people whose voices are not always heard in this age of global publishing by media conglomerates. Books by the First Peoples of this hemisphere have always been a special interest, as have those of others who through circumstance have been marginalized and whose contribution to our society is not always visible. Since 1998 we have been publishing works by people of Latin American origin living in the Americas both in English and in Spanish under our Libros Tigrillo imprint.” I absolutely love folktales, and it looks like the one to the left is a pretty good compilation of some.

Antes de despedirme, I wanted to share something both Ana and I are very excited about: an upcoming new monthly series related to literacy, bilingualism and even a giveaway – who doesn’t like a giveaway, right? More details to come soon, I promise…

If you know of any publishing houses and/or authors of bilingual children´s books we welcome you to leave a link in the comments.

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