Since 2005, more than 15,000 Sacramento-area school children have benefited from Words Take Wing: Honoring Diversity in Children’s Literature. This annual celebration, held each February, gives students the opportunity to hear about the personal journeys and creative processes of acclaimed authors and illustrators of diverse children’s literature whose stories about Native American heritage, Asian culture, African American culture, and Latino identity, among many others, allow them to explore a wide range of perspectives and world views.

On Tuesday, February 21, 2023, Words Take Wing will host award-winning children’s author Aida Salazar​ in two virtual events via Zoom:

• A morning presentation from 10 – 11 a.m. for elementary and middle school classes.
• An evening presentation from 6 – 7 p.m. at the Sacramento Public Library. All are welcome to attend.

Author, arts activist, and translator Aida Salazar​ was born in Mexico and grew up in a family of seven children in Southeast Los Angeles. Her fiction and nonfiction writings for adults and children explore issues of identity and social justice. Salazar is the author of the critically acclaimed middle grade verse novels, The Moon Within (International Latino Book Award Winner) and Land of the Cranes (Américas Award, California Library Association Beatty Award, Northern CA Book Award, NCTE Charlotte Huck Honor, Jane Addams Peace Honor, International Latino Book Award Honor). Her most recent novel A Seed in the Sun releases on Oct. 25, 2022. Her other works include the picture book anthology, In the Spirit of a Dream: 13 Stories of Immigrants of Color; the forthcoming bio picture book Jovita Wore Pants: The Story of a Mexican Freedom Fighter (Spring, 2023) and the anthology Calling the Moon: Period Stories by BIPOC Authors (Spring, 2023). Aida is a founding member of LAS MUSAS – a Latinx kidlit author collective. Her story, By the Light of the Moon, was adapted into a ballet production by the Sonoma Conservatory of Dance and is the first Xicana-themed ballet in history. She lives with her family of artists in a teal house in Oakland, CA.

Words Take Wing is made possible by the support of our title sponsors

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