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Tomasito's Mother Comes to School
La mamá de Tomasito visita la escuela

  Tomasito
   

About the Author

Ellen Mayer is a researcher who studies the different ways in which families help their children to learn and grow. She develops resources that families and educators can use to promote family engagement in education. One such resource is the Family Involvement Storybook Project—which helps parents and teachers use storybooks with family involvement themes to generate reflection, conversation, and action to support children's academic success. Ellen holds two master's degrees in sociology and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her husband and teenage son. Tomasito's Mother Comes to School/La mamá de Tomasito visita la escuela, developed at Harvard Family Research Project, is her first research-based children's book.

About the Illustrator

Joe Cepeda is an award-winning illustrator of numerous children's books. In 2002, he received the American Library Association's (ALA) Pura Belpré Honor Book Award, given to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in a work of literature for children and youth. Joe lives in Southern California with his wife and young son. During his elementary school years in East Los Angeles, he was challenged by language differences between his Spanish-speaking home and his English-speaking school. But, like Tomasito, he benefited from having a mother who strongly supported his education and was actively involved in his school. To learn more about Joe Cepeda, visit his website.

About the Translator

Esther Sarfatti has been translating children's books for over 10 years and has worked in the publishing world since 1985. She has translated more than 100 books, including the popular Arthur series. Born in New York and brought up in a trilingual home, Esther currently lives with her husband and son in Madrid, Spain.

Storybook Funding

Tomasito's Mother Comes to School/La mamá de Tomasito visita la escuela was made possible by a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, with additional support from the Reading Is Fundamental/Coca-Cola partnership, Reading Takes You Places. Harvard Family Research Project is grateful for their support. The content of this publication is solely the responsibility of Harvard Family Research Project and does not necessarily reflect the views of funding organizations.

See a list of contributors to this storybook in the author's acknowledgements.


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